WHY IS HARRY STYLES NOT POPULAR ANYMORE?
Could it be his new haircut, new girlfriend, or Taylor's new album?
With his signature charisma, welcoming stage presence, and amazing artistry, Harry Styles has rapidly become one of music’s most adored megastars. However, the pop phenom’s Spotify streams have taken a dip this year, which is rare for an artist normally on an upward trajectory. In the months leading up to this decrease, he was on his international tour, but since he has stopped he has gone public with his new girlfriend, Taylor Russell, shared his new haircut, and his ex-girlfriend, Taylor Swift, has released a new album, all of these factors could be contributing to why this drastic decrease has happened. Though he remains a household name and his fan base remains massive, some subtle shifts have happened to ever so slightly dim his limelight.
The visualisation above, includes data from songstats (2023), which shows the rapid decrease in Harry Styles’ monthly Spotify listeners, from July 2023 to November 2023 he has lost just shy of ten million monthly listeners.
Harry Styles’ brand Pleasing unveiled its new and first fragrances at a pop up at Selfridge’s iconic corner shop in London, followed by pop-ups in New York and Los Angeles. Pleasing has been quiet since it was launched as a beauty and lifestyle brand in 2021, and its pop up last December in carnaby street was very popular, so you would assume that this pop up and release would stir up some conversations about Mr Styles.
Around the same time Harry Lambert , Styles’ stylist, released a collaboration with Zara, which according to fans was very ‘Harry Styles coded’, for example the rainbow striped jumper that was released which could be seen as a nod to the JW anderson patchwork knit cardy, that when Styles wore created such a frenzy that Anderson released the pattern and a tutorial for users on how to knit their own version.
So you would assume this would create some publicity around his music right?
… wrong!
Could this downfall be due to Harry Styles’ hamartia? Has he flown too high to the top, and wanted too much? True Harries will know this isn't true, he is someone who is known for his humbleness, and his motto is ‘Treat people with kindness’. Here are some of the possibilities that could have caused this.
His new relationship with Taylor Russell
In November 2022 Harry and his longtime girlfriend Olivia Wilde broke up, whilst this happened Taylor is on her press tour for Bones and All. Move forward to June 2023, they are spotted for the first time together, holding hands on a troll in London. But they could just be friends?
In July, she was spotted at his last show, but so are a lot of celebrities, so once again could just be friends. The day after they were seen walking around holding hands together, which leads to increased speculation that they were dating.
Nearly a month later they are seen cozying up to each other at the opening night gala for the revival of play The Effect at the national theatre in London.Throughout the next few months they are seen to be going out and holding hands, although it's still only speculation that they are dating…
Although, it seems strange that this would affect his music streams. Some fans are crazy and have unhealthy obsessions. Fandoms can turn into an online hate mob in seconds, and some fans believe they truly are going to marry him, and that any current girlfriend is ruining the chance of this. His previous girlfriend Olivia, received a lot of personal attacks on twitter, so why wouldn't the cards repeat themselves?
His new haircut
Clips of Harry with Taylor at a U2 concert circulated the media, this could be because it’s of the speculated couple, but mainly its due to the fact Harry is hairless. Fans wanted to believe that this was some sort of edit made by a fan, but hopes were crushed when Pleasing posted a picture of Harry Styles confirming he is now sporting a buzzcut. This is not the first time he has changed his hair in his career, but he has always had brown curly hair, and it’s what he became famous for. Fans were quick to comment some brutal things. One said “please delete! People are crying and fainting”, whilst others said; “is this a threat”, ``whatever happened to no shave November” and “brave posting this with the comments on ''. The majority of the fans commenting on the post, you can gather are not fans of this change. However, some took to the comments saying this isn't very ‘treat people with kindness of you’, and it got so bad that his mother Anne Twist had to take to instagram saying;
“When you consider that H has a legacy of kindness and inclusion, has always made every effort to make everyone feel seen and appreciated for exactly who they are … There's an irony in the negativity he's been shown for having a haircut. Sorry but I don't get it.”
This negativity makes me wonder whether this haircut has been detrimental to his career, as some fans said it has ruined their lives.
In other words, maybe the harries were right and he was wearing a wig the whole time?
Taylor Swift’s new album
Harry and Taylor dated over 10 years ago, but she has released a new album with the song “Is it over now?” which is rumoured to be about harry. It is the most savage and blunt track on the album. Within the song there are obvious references to their relationship; the paper aeroplane necklace he gave her, his apparent wandering eye, and the blue dress she was photographed on his boat. This will obviously paint Harry in a negative light, and would change the way his fans think about him, as it's not the person he displays to the world to be. This could seriously affect his music career. Georgia Rice said ‘it could be beefy between the two fan bases’ but Max Prince seems to think that ‘if that's supposed to be about him, which I assume it is, it would only make people listen to his music more or anticipate his new release of music more.”
So, the reason for his decrease in music is still unclear, there's just some guesses as to why it could be. But this is not something we haven't seen before. Former band mate, Zayn Malik, shaved his head when he left the band. This is because he wanted to rebrand from a family friendly bodyband star, to the kind of pop star that sings songs for fifty shades of grey. Similarly to Harry, fans took to social media to express their feelings; “we’ll never forget your hair”, ‘please tell me @zaynmalik didn't really cut his beautiful hair and it was just a really good photo edit’. So, perhaps Harry is having a rebrand, and this could mean new music is coming …