Allie X on the Sexist Double Standard of Pop and Getting in Touch With Her Feminine Side
Allie X has very little patience for the anti-pop faction — the derisive, elitist contingent of people who continue, in 2019, to question the efficacy and importance of Top 40. Especially in a cultural climate where many pop practitioners get personal and challenge the status quo, Allie doesn’t understand the double standard attached to the genre she’s dedicated her life to, and she’s ready to take it to task.
Allie says she’s always felt like the odd-one-out and that she makes “music for the outsiders,” an approach that has garnered her a devoted fan base enamored by her off-kilter style and transgressive approach to traditional pop songwriting. In particular, Allie’s work has been embraced wholeheartedly by the queer community, which is not surprising since she’s a concept-driven artist who’s heavily inspired by and openly grateful to drag.
But Allie's love of the radical and her thought-provoking have generated some negativity, too, from those who wonder why she actively subverts stereotypical femininity, especially as someone so active in the pop sphere with both her solo career and work as a songwriter for stars such as Troye Sivan and Lea Michele. Her answer? “I’ve always liked being more unique and special than pretty,” she says over a sparkling water at a chi-chi Beverly Hills bistro — and anyone who’s followed her steady rise to the top knows that. In anticipation of what we’re anticipating will be her breakout year in the mainstream, Teen Vogue chatted with Allie about her recent release, Super Sunset, the stigma still attached to pop, and why she thinks pop can be more powerful than politics.
Teen Vogue: How did you fall in love with drag?
Allie X: I have a really distinct memory of it. I was on a family vacation in Cape Cod and we stopped in Provincetown, where I saw my first drag queens. They were walking past me and I was probably 11, and I was just staring at them. I was entranced, and they were like, “Hey, hon!” My dad kind of looked at me weird like, “Wow, you’re bold.” As someone of an older generation, I’m sure he felt kind of intimidated by drag queens, but I always felt in my element. They made me feel really good right from my earliest memories. [Drag as a] form of expression is innately accepting. It’s like, whatever you do, just make it big and weird and we’re gonna like it.
TV: I feel like the essence of drag — a little glam, a little DIY — is something you try and incorporate into a lot of your work.
AX: At the end of the day, I always go through my message requests, and some fan wrote when I had more of a normal, glam look, like, “You look so pretty, but why do you always make yourself so ugly? Is it for shock value? I’m a fan, just asking and not trying to be rude!” So I addressed it and… you know, I’ve never felt pretty. Like, I’m starting, at this adult age, to get in touch with my feminine side. I’ve never felt feminine, though. I’ve never liked having boobs. I’ve never felt flirtatious. I’ve always been way more comfortable doing radical looks or being androgynous. I’ve always liked being more unique and special than pretty.
TV: Definitely. That said, since so many of your looks are inspired by drag culture, have you been getting any feedback in regard to being potentially appropriative?
AX: Not so far. But I’m not super famous, and I feel like if I become really well known, that may be an issue. I remember when Gaga had her rise — there was “Gays Against Gaga.” That always happens, but I’m just going to try and be very clear with my messaging. I’m a fan. I’m not a drag queen. Obviously, I’m just a huge fan.
TV: Why do you think the queer community has gravitated to your work in such an overt way?
AX: I think the easiest answer is that those have always been my people. I’ve never set out to write specifically for them, but it makes sense I did because that’s what’s always resonated with me, personally. Just trying to figure out your identity probably resonates with queer people… It’s always been who my friends are; who I have the most laughs with, who I have the best nights out with, and so it makes sense that they’d be the ones who would support me.
TV: Let’s talk a little bit about your writing process. How do you choose what topics to address? How did powerful anthems like “B*tch” come to be?
AX: There’s no one answer. When I have a body of work, I work very conceptually, like with Super Sunset and the new album I’m working on. They’re very conceptual, and setting has a lot to do with it. When I’m working on a song, I’ll just pull from [this list of concepts I have] sometimes.
For “B*tch,” specifically, I just moved to L.A. and was living in a house with all these other producers. I was new to the house though, and they were being really territorial. They didn’t want to write with me, and it was strange. So I sort of went by myself in this room, which only had one piece of gear, and I just spent the afternoon in there feeling like a total outcast. By the end of the day, “B*tch” was written. Some people are like, “It’s a feminist anthem,” but it was sort of one of those things I barfed out… It could subconsciously have been a feminist anthem, but it felt like something was just coming through me.
TV: Obviously, there’s still this big stigma of pop being a very feminine medium of expression. What can we do to combat this stereotype, and move past the idea that all pop is brain-dead bubblegum?
AX: Yeah! But I think the bigger question is, “Why does being ‘brain-dead bubblegum’ mean it’s feminine?” That’s the part that really bothers me. When we look at pop, all that means is it’s “popular music,” and it’s likable to the masses. And I don’t think that should ever be a dirty thing… I don’t know, I think there’s a lot of power in pop music, and I think changing the stigma around it has kind of been happening naturally. Like, there’s this interesting subgenre happening right now between indie and pop, and I think that has something to do with streaming and the fact that young audiences get to determine what they like. They’re not just being told. I mean, they are to an extent, but I think as radio and major labels start dying down, there’s going to be a natural uprising of cool pop.
TV: Not only that, but it’s always felt super strange to me that the whole anti-pop rhetoric tends to come from this very rock-purist school of thought, which I think contains an aspect of elitism and snobbery.
AX: I do, too. I just don’t get it. I love pretty much every type of music. Like, every genre there’s something so beautiful about it. The only one I don’t really feel comfortable listening to is metal, but even then, I’m not like anti-metal. I just don’t listen to it. So when someone is like, “Pop music isn’t music,” I’m like, “What? No, pop music speaks to the most people.”
TV: That’s also something very valuable — the fact that you can connect to such a wide audience. Doesn’t that also inherently make it important?
AX: I think so! I’ve been quoted as saying pop is more powerful than politics in a lot of ways, because you can have a song that’s known in every country, even if they don’t speak the language. They know the words to that pop song... I think there’s a lot of power in that. And if there’s an important message being spread, that’s even cooler.
TV: Speaking of which, it seems there's been a pretty big shift in terms of pop embracing larger socio-political and cultural issues. What do you think has encouraged this?
AX: It’s such a positive thing that I don’t want to say it in a demeaning way, but I think it’s become trendy. Within the millennial generation, it’s so accepted to be open about your sexuality, your struggles, your depression, your anxiety, body positivity — these are all wonderful things. But I think you kind of know that you’re gonna be accepted with open arms when you do these things these days. I think it’s easier to be open for the younger generation. The millennial generation is intelligent and informed and way more open about having these conversations than any other generation prior, and it’s made a much safer space.
[If I was releasing what I was making] 10 years ago, it wouldn’t be on the radio. I mean, it still isn’t, but it has an audience now that I don’t think it would’ve had before. It’s funny, before Allie X, I thought, No one is gonna understand what I’m saying, but they may like the sounds. But when I put out “Catch,” my first song, I was really surprised at how deep they looked at the song. It was like they were analyzing poetry, trying to fully understand. And it’s been that way with every song I’ve put out. Sometimes they see things I don’t see. I feel so listened to and understood. It’s gratifying.
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