It's time to face the music. Conservative ideals have made their way back into mainstream pop culture. For the first time in more than 10 years, songs based on faith have been dominating the charts. This aligns with society's shift toward more "traditional values."
The past
Pop culture and music have long been a bellwether of the political climate. Summer 2024 was "defined by the ascendance of boundary-pushing female pop stars like Sabrina Carpenter, Chappell Roan and Charli XCX, whose 'brat summer' trend was embraced by Kamala Harris' presidential campaign," said Semafor. However, "rising in a parallel fashion to pop women," country music resonated with "young white people, some who might not even describe themselves as conservative but may have been searching for a watered-down, digestible form of populism," said Rolling Stone.
For some listeners, country music has served as an "art form to latch on to when progressive artists (and their politics) alienated them a little too much," said Rolling Stone. Much of this was attributed to President Donald Trump's campaign, which was "based in part on nostalgia for a formerly 'great' time period in U.S. history when white identity was unthreatened and women held traditional roles." Since Trump's victory, Christian and Christian-adjacent music, especially by men, has broken its way into mainstream culture, capturing the zeitgeist of this political era. "In a time of increased polarization around religion, Christian-coded music has finally broken containment and conquered the airwaves," said Vox.
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The present
Summer 2025 has been a "stark cultural contrast from last summer," said Semafor. This summer has been dominated by "tradpop," a term "used to describe a hybrid of traditional pop infused with spiritual and country music elements," said Artistrack. Songs under this umbrella "often include lyrics centered around family, faith, personal values and resilience." Some examples include Benson Boone's "Beautiful Things" and Alex Warren's "Ordinary," which is a "love song that easily doubles as a Christian worship song" and has become one of the biggest hits of 2025, said Vox. Christian artists like Jelly Roll and Brandon Lake have also been featured on the Billboard Hot 100.
"It used to be that Christian music felt like a lesser version of whatever was popular," said Holly Zabka, the president of Provident, a Sony subsidiary dedicated to Christian music, to NPR. In the music scene today, Christian artists "can now simply exist on the same level as all the other artists in the world."
The meaning
Tradpop has found a keen audience in young men. "What unites all of these songs across a broad sonic range is their confessional stance, as well as the performance of raw vulnerability from each male artist," said Vox. This is a "trait that modern men, especially ones steeped in a culture of conservatism, often have difficulty accessing." It also aligns with phenomena such as the male loneliness epidemic, as well as the growing ideological divide between men and women in the U.S. and globally. "So many of them struggle with depression, and what they are finding in Christian music is another way to deal with things," said Zabka. But it is "perhaps ironic that the regressive male codes of stoic masculinity that leave these male artists seeking outlets of expression are frequently heavily reinforced by the same Christian culture they're trying to find themselves within," said Vox.
The shift to tradpop "reflects the broader cultural and political narrative shift toward traditional and conservative ideals" ever since Trump "returned to power," said Semafor. The genre also "lends itself to the participatory nature of today's social media-led marketing," said NPR. "The musicians currently achieving the greatest success position themselves as co-creators with their audience, much like a pastor communing with their congregation."
