Alternative pop is a curiously contradictory genre born out of necessity to cater to an outsider teenage audience while still keeping its head above the streaming waters. It is more of an aesthetic than it is a sonic construct. Pop music delivered with the visual signifiers of green hair, baggy clothes, and tattoos, coupled with an atmosphere of despond and anger laced with non-traditional pop themes: drugs, sex, suicide, abuse, boredom. Admittedly, mainstream pop does its fair share of that too, these days (and alt-pop acts can’t realistically drop any more F-bombs since it still needs to be on the radio) – but all breakfast show eyes are on where this intriguing genre goes next.
As the most alt-pop day of Reading weekend, Sunday acts as a showcase of sorts. Rina Sawayama, for example, goes the performance art route. Cavorting around Main Stage East with a cohort of dancers in The Last Dinner Party’s dresses (see Friday’s review), she hollers her way through the operatic pop drama of “Hold the Girl” on her knees, as if tormented by the sound of her own backing track. And she’s only just started her half-hour of non-stop metamorphosis.
