Yes, American pop approaching a moment of singularity also allows for a moment to assess how pop’s future can sustain itself.
Taylor Michael Miley Montana.
No, this isn’t about a new mainstream country sensation — of course, 2025 Morgan Wallen opening act Zach John King might convince you otherwise.
Instead, it’s a grand welcome to 2026, or the year of the rise of American pop’s singularity.
Yes, before you keep reading, consider this: for fifty years before machine-learning-driven music appeared, there’s strong evidence that real humans were approaching, and eventually creating, a singularity — a formulaic yet instantly approachable style of consistency that remains creatively similar.
At this moment—almost unnoticed—American pop, like Voltron, has assembled its strongest competition yet against the threat of artificial intelligence.
This creation is happening now as I write — incredible to witness.
March 24th marked the debut of a TV special celebrating 20 years since “Achy Breaky Heart” hitmaker Billy Ray Cyrus and his then-wife Tish’s daughter, and now pop megastar, Miley, first played Miley Stewart, a teenage girl leading a double life as the famous pop star Hannah Montana.
A week later, on March 31, Taylor Swift—who has sold 20 million concert tickets in 25 years and is likely to join the Country Music and Rock and Roll Halls of Fame—released the music video for “Elizabeth Taylor” from her album “The Life of a Showgirl,” paying tribute to the iconic movie star.
And finally, April 24 marks the domestic premiere of the latest film starring 29-year-old actor Jaafar Jackson, where he will portray his uncle, the “King of Pop,” Michael Jackson, on the big screen.
This all seems like perfect timing until you realize what the median abilities of this moment are, frozen in time as a pop powerhouse.
Interestingly, in the battle against a machine whose main advantage is its vast knowledge of blending centuries of music into a prompt-conjured ultra-style, Taylor Michael Miley Montana, representing modern legacy acts with future potential, might not be the best option.
Statistically, look at the median of their artistry as structured data, and among the trio, there’s a 21-year-old pop star capable of selling two million albums.
Review Billboard data from the past decade, and observe that those domestic numbers still hold weight against the rise of Korean pop acts like BTS or projects like the KPop Demon Hunters soundtrack. They also perform well compared to top AI pop artists like R&B singer Xania Monet, who currently sells about 20 times fewer album-equivalent units than BTS.
However, suppose that’s a gap that could close quickly.
The more important concept to examine is the power of legacy rock acts that are hanging in the balance.
At their creative peak, album-wise, The Beatles, Led Zeppelin, and Queen sold at least four times as many albums as a trio of pop icons would have sold as a single, median-aggregated performer.
AI vs. Taylor Michael Miley Montana, or Zeppelin bassist John Paul Jones?
Turns out, The House (of the Holy) always wins.
