We Are Who We Are

"Pop, however, remains stubbornly public and resistant to impressionistic thought-spilling right now, it feels like the music that’s most explicitly committed to real-world social matters. Hit club tracks are built for dancing and courtship; R&B and country singles catalogue, in precise and unflinching detail, every last swoon, sob, and smashed-up car window that results from people, narcissists or not, getting involved. Scan down the Hot 100, and the songs talk with increasing frankness about ego, beauty, money, cheating, posturing, partying, and every other element of solid gossip."

Nitsuh Abebe in New York somewhat defends current pop music from charges of narcissism.