It's not hard to see why Lizzo has quickly become a worldwide pop icon. Beyond her electric blend of pop, rap, and R&B, Lizzo's radiating energy and bold style statements take over any stage she's on. She first achieved mainstream success with Cuz I Love You, which peaked at No. 4 on the US Billboard 200 in 2019. Additionally, the Grammy-winning multi-hyphenate is also working on curating a stellar career in the film world. She's appeared on Hustlers and UglyDolls while also hosting Lizzo's Watch Out for the Big Grrrls series. Lizzo is hard-nosed in her beliefs and image, a strong personality curated from living through hard times. Pursuing a career in music after college, she lived out of her car for a year.
Lizzo's take on the body positivity movement isn't the copy-and-paste narrative the media makes the message out to be. While she supports body positivity, she's more interested in people accepting and embracing themselves for who they are. In her first Vogue cover, she noted, “What I don’t like is how the people that this term was created for are not benefiting from it. Girls with back fat, girls with bellies that hang, girls with thighs that aren’t separated, that overlap. Girls with stretch marks. You know, girls who are in the 18-plus club. They need to be benefiting from…the mainstream effect of body positivity now. But with everything that goes mainstream, it gets changed. It gets–you know, it gets made acceptable.”
Lizzo's Style Is Inspiring A Generation Of Female Artists
Lizzo makes it a point to be the main topic of conversation at any event she attends. However, this isn't from an egotistical viewpoint. While her flamboyant fashion statements reflect her vibrant personality, her sleeveless Versace gown is also an under-toned statement that she's here to stay. She's faced her fair share of detractors over the years, with many arguing that her steadfastness regarding body acceptance is unhealthy. Lizzo convinces a new generation of women artists that success doesn't require fitting in with Hollywood guidelines regarding body image. Her influence will likely be more apparent a decade into the future.
Pop music, and, well, mainstream music in general, has emphasized sexuality in tandem with rising artists who are women. A woman's body is often used as a means to garner higher charting numbers. While (of course) there is no issue in expressing sexuality or femininity as a creative, Lizzo is simply looking to change the perception regarding what can be marketable. She's tired of her love of her body being the topic of her relevancy rather than her music. She took to social media to vent her anger on May 31. She retweeted a hateful post, adding, “It’s really starting to make me hate the world. Then someone in the comments said I eat ‘lots of fast food’ I LITERALLY STOPPED EATING FAST FOOD YEARS AGO… I’m tired of explaining myself all the time and I just wanna get on this app w/out seeing my name in some bullsh*t."
Her Theatrical Sound Is Changing Pop
Of course, Lizzo's influence on the music industry goes beyond discussions surrounding body acceptance. Simply put, her music is smashing the charts for a good reason. Lizzo has further dissolved the gap between singing and speaking. She seamlessly bounces from one to the other, combining her childhood influences into a somehow cohesive sound. In fact, Lizzo's first love when growing up in Houston, Texas, was rap. She was writing slapping rap verses before she even discovered her vocal talent. Lizzo's style mirrors that of an epic musical theatre, featuring larger-than-life vocal falsettos and burgeoning jazz horns. Complicated and joyful in nature, she's ushering pop into a new era. Regarding Special, she told Apple Music, “I felt like this was what not only I needed to hear, but you needed to hear, and the whole world needs to hear.”
Lizzo has a unique ability to create songs that are both dense and simplistic at the same time. It's a quality that mixes well with the internet, with harmonically catchy choruses fitting into the world of TikTok or Instagram. On the other hand, her lyricism is in-depth enough for deeper listeners to enjoy her sound. That wide array of consumption has garnered her one of the largest audiences in music. She currently sits above 20 million monthly listeners on Spotify alone. In addition, she catches a wide variety of influences with her sound. Darting from Daft Punk-infused funk to meeting Cardi B's energy on the banger "Rumors," her unpredictable sonic directions mirror her willingly chaotic and outspoken life.