1.
Sabrina Carpenter was inspired by the 1992 film Death Becomes Her for her “Taste” music video. The video costars Jenna Ortega, and you see the two women fighting over a man in a very bizarre way, much like Meryl Streep and Goldie Hawn did in the original film. (Sabrina and Jenna’s version is slightly bloodier, though.)
And Sabrina Carpenter wrote her big hit, “Juno,” after watching…well, Juno (2007). During her NPR Tiny Desk concert, she claimed it was initially a “joke song,” but it came to fruition for her album Short n’ Sweet.
2.
When Chappell Roan was starting to blow up in the music industry in early 2024, notable musicians reached out to offer their support. They know the business is notoriously hard on women, so artists like Miley Cyrus, Hayley Williams, and Phoebe Bridgers, who’ve been through it, took Roan under their wing in one way or another.
In an interview with Rolling Stone, Roan revealed Mitski texted her, “I just wanted to humbly welcome you to the shittiest exclusive club in the world, the club where strangers think you belong to them and they find and harass your family members.”
But, when the opportunity came to work with Charli XCX on “Guess” in 2024, she took it.
4.
When Christina Aguilera recorded her 2002 hit “Beautiful,” the opening line “don’t look at me” was completely ad-libbed. Linda Perry, the songwriter behind “Beautiful,” told Rolling Stone in 2019, “[Christina] stood there in my studio with the lyrics in her hands, and then said to this friend she brought along, ‘Don’t look at me’ in that little whispery voice.”
“I knew I was going to keep that on the record, and I knew she was the right person for the song,” said Perry. “I realized, ‘Oh, she’s insecure. She’s one of those beautiful people who’s got everything but is super insecure. Okay, this song is hers.'”
5.
Doechii, aka the Swamp Princess, is truly one of the best new artists right now. Though she’s been making music for years, she’s already learned a lot about the music industry since gaining widespread attention in 2024 with hits like “DENIAL IS A RIVER.”
She told Zane Lowe, “I’ve learned how to truly be codependent on me and validate myself. I think that when I first started out, I would internalize a lot of things. Like, ‘I’m being encouraged to make music like this or work with these type of producers. I’d internalize that as ‘They don’t like me.'”
6.
Janelle Monáe is notorious for hosting fun and sexually adventurous courtyard parties, which mainly inspired her 2023 album, The Age of Pleasure.
In an interview with Rolling Stone, she said, “I have a whole spreadsheet with 50 to almost 100 experiences that I’ve had [at these parties]. I wear red lipstick at these parties — I’ve had moments where if me and a girl or an energy want to engage, you’re going to see lipstick.”
7.
In Adele’s California home, she has a piece of gum chewed by legendary singer Céline Dion. When Dion did Carpool Karaoke with James Corden back in 2019, he asked her to spit her gum into a piece of paper, and sent it to Adele.
8.
Megan Thee Stallion’s song “Thot Shit” was inspired by the negative reactions she and Cardi B received from their 2020 hit “WAP.” In an interview with Stephen Colbert, Megan Thee Stallion said, “I know the Republicans have had a bad year, and they probably need to take their frustration out somewhere. But, I want to tell them ‘thank you for the streams,’ because without [them], I don’t know if we would’ve been here. I mean, them people crazy.”
So the following summer, the queen of Hot Girl Summer released “Thot Shit.” The music video dramatized Megan Thee Stallion’s take on the negative reactions from “WAP.” In the beginning of the video, she showed a senator leaving hateful comments on one of her videos. Then in the middle of the song, Stallion rapped, “Watchin’ me go through it, still tryna drag me / Actin’ like you winnin’, if you think about it, actually / Are they supportin’ you, or really just attackin’ me? I don’t give a fuck ’bout a blog tryna bash me / I’m the shit, per the Recording Academy.”
9.
In 1990, Madonna’s music video for “Justify My Love” was banned from airing on MTV because it celebrated bisexuality and voyeurism. After the video’s release, Madonna received backlash among music fans and the media, and did an interview on Nightline to set the record straight.
When questioned why she submitted the video to MTV knowing it had nudity, she responded, “When I did my ‘Vogue’ video, there’s a shot of me where I’m wearing a see-through dress, and you can clearly see my breasts. They told me that they wanted me to take that out, but I said I wouldn’t, and they played it anyway.”
Madonna went on to say she thought she could “bend the rules a little bit” with her “Justify My Love” music video, but she still received judgment from her interviewer on Nightline.
10.
Though 2024 was a veryyyyy big year for LGBTQ women in pop music, artists like Reneé Rapp admitted it was actually very grueling on a personal level. “At the nucleus, it’s lit,” she said to Rolling Stone at the end of the “iconic” year. “All the other things around it are fucking crazy.”
11.
Patti LuPone, the ultimate queen of Broadway, has been having a renaissance since starring in Marvel’s miniseries Agatha All Along (2024).
In the show, she plays Lilia Calderu, a divination witch. And because the universe is so darn good to us, Agatha All Along features an incredible song, “The Ballad of the Witches’ Road” (which Patti LuPone sings perfectly on, of course). Because she’s such a legend, AAA costar Joe Locke shared on his Instagram story that she recorded her part in just one take.
12.
Barbra Streisand has been known for having long nails ever since she came onto the scene as a singer in 1963. For her 1976 film, A Star Is Born, she set out to learn the guitar and wrote the classic “Evergreen (Love Theme from A Star Is Born),” which won the Oscar for Best Original Song in 1977. Because she had long nails, she had to cut the nails on her left hand to make learning the guitar easier, and feel more in-tune (pun intended) with the song she was composing.
They ended up cutting a scene from A Star Is Born that showed Barbra Streisand playing the guitar for costar Kris Kristofferson. She released the deleted scene in 2018 where you could see her long nails on her right hand plucking “Evergreen” on the guitar. Streisand revealed in an Instagram video that, “When I had to learn the guitar for A Star Is Born, I only had to cut [my nails] on one hand.”
13.
Aretha Franklin’s biggest hit of all time, “Respect,” is actually a cover of an Otis Redding song.
Franklin rewrote the lyrics because the song originally had a misogynistic tone. She spelled out “Respect,” singing it with gusto: “R-E-S-P-E-C-T, find out what it means to me.” Recording this song as a woman flipped the script and made the tone of the song empowering for women. Now, it’s one of the most famous female anthems of all time.
14.
In 2015, Brittany Howard (and Alabama Shakes) performed at Prince’s home, Paisley Park. They jammed together on Alabama Shakes’ song “Gimme All Your Love,” and after the night ended, Prince called Howard up. “He called me, and he had a super-deep voice,” Howard revealed. “[He said], ‘Did you have a good time tonight? Check your email — we should work together.'”
15.
And Yoko Ono co-wrote “Imagine” for John Lennon’s 1971 album Imagine, but Lennon didn’t give her songwriting credit. Ono finally received songwriting credit for “Imagine” at NMPA’s Centennial Annual Meeting in 2017 once it was learned that Lennon pulled the majority of the lyrics from her 1964 poetry book Grapefruit.
In a BBC interview from 1980, Lennon was quoted as saying, “[‘Imagine’] should be credited as a Lennon-Ono song because a lot of it came from Yoko. But in those days, I was a bit more selfish, a bit more macho, and I sort of omitted to mention her contribution. But it was right out of Grapefruit, her book.”