Cassadee Pope is open about her decision to leave the country music genre and return to rock.
Vote the winner, 34, spoke candidly with Rolling stone in an interview published Thursday about why she decided to leave Nashville in favor of pursuing the alt-rock music she started making. She attributed the decision in part to the sexism she experienced in the country and the lack of widespread progressive politics in the genre.
“I understand that every genre has problematic people. I’m not saying there isn’t a frontman in a band who hasn’t been accused of something in rock music. But I guess rock is more in my bones. You are not completely ostracized and shamed for speaking out,” said the singer, who went to the country after the victory. Vote 2012 on Blake Shelton’s team.
Cassadee Pope.
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The lead singer of the pop-punk band Hey Monday told the outlet that she’s frustrated with the mechanisms of the country industry as she’s become more educated about topics like intersectional feminism and racism.
She also explained that being told she had to “make a nice deal” with country radio programmers or risk going off the air, as well as the backlash to her viral response to Jason Aldean’s wife Brittany’s transphobic post, led to her leaving the country behind.
“I felt so proud at that moment,” Pope said when she responded social media 2022 to an Instagram post written by Aldean thanking her “parents for not changing [her] gender” in the midst of her “childhood phase” as a child. “I had no feeling of regret. I just kept my head down and carried on.”
The “Wasting All These Tears” singer continued, “It wasn’t until the last few months that I gave in to therapy and said, ‘Wait, I haven’t really been well.’ But I think it kind of comes with the territory of incorporating activism into your life. Not everyone will like you.”
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Cassadee Pope.
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Looking ahead to the spring release of her upcoming all-rock studio album, the musician said Rolling stone that it was liberating not only to feel like she was in the “right place at the right time” in a genre that suited her better, but also to be able to sing about empowerment and topics like sexual pleasure.
“Leaving a genre where you don’t really hear women singing about things like that, or, God forbid, wearing something scandalous, was really fresh and exciting,” Pope added.
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According to Rolling stone, Pope became an independent artist until 2020, as her former country label Big Machine dropped her and canceled one of her projects. She recently released a full-length LP, Progressin 2021.
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Since then, the singer-songwriter has offered fans a tease of her new rock sound to follow by dropping several singles.
In late 2022, she teamed up with Nashville artist Levi Hummon to release the genre-defying track “RSVP,” which features elements of country and rock.
At the time, the “Say It First” singer told PEOPLE that she saw the song as marking her departure from the country. “I’m moving away from the country space and turning more towards pop rock, which is where I originally came from,” she said.
“I’m glad about that [‘RSVP’] it kind of crosses those lines. It’s a great bridge for me between what I’ve done before and where I’m going with my next solo project.”
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Pope also shared the risqué pop-punk-inspired track “Almost There” last July.
While she told PEOPLE after its release that it was heavily inspired by her longtime boyfriend, actor Sam Palladi, she also revealed that she felt ready to write something a little edgier.
Pope said: “‘Almost There’ was written because I’m in a loving, respectful relationship. We’ve been together for about five and a half years and I wanted to write a love song, but I also wanted it to be a bit mean and a bit edgy. So I came up with the idea of giving a dark edge to a love song and I’m really proud that I managed to find that balance.”
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Source: HIS Education