THE PATRIARCHY DOMINATES THE FLOP

BY:SSEGAWA HUZAIRU IBRAHIM / Saturday, 15th August, 2026

A male pop-star intervention nobody asked for, but apparently we desperately needed.

There was a time when male pop stars ruled the charts like they had personally signed a lifetime contract with the Billboard Hot 100. They gave us heartbreak, choreography, questionable haircuts, suspiciously tight trousers and enough romantic ballads to make us believe love was real.

Now?

The patriarchy dominates the flop.

And before the men come for me, let me clarify: this is not a declaration that male pop stars are untalented. It is a declaration that some of them have become frighteningly comfortable with releasing music that arrives, makes absolutely no noise, and disappears before we even have time to learn the chorus.

Let us begin with Ed Sheeran.

Ed, respectfully, when was the last time you gave us you?

The man who once turned an entire generation into professional wedding singers with “Perfect” seems to have misplaced the formula somewhere between +, ×, ÷ and =. Those albums gave us songs like “Thinking Out Loud,” “Photograph,” “Shape of You,” “Castle on the Hill” and “Perfect.” You couldn’t attend a wedding, birthday party, school dance or random family gathering without hearing Ed Sheeran somewhere in the background.And now?

Ed releases music and we politely nod.

The man went from owning the soundtrack to everyone’s relationship to sounding like he is personally trying to find the soundtrack himself.

Then there is Charlie Puth.Charlie, my brother in musical mathematics, what happened?We know you can make a hook. We know you can produce. We know you can sit behind a piano and make something sound unnecessarily emotional. “Light Switch” was fun. “Left and Right” with Jung Kook was everywhere. But the last time Charlie Puth truly felt like a pop-culture event was when Taylor Swift mentioned him in “The Tortured Poets Department.”And honestly, Charlie, you must have lied when you said you’d be “One Call Away.”Because we called.

You didn’t answer.We haven’t heard from you since.

Then we arrive at Shawn Mendes.

Shawn, we definitely don’t know what you’re doing this summer.Or last summer.

Or the summer before that.And we need answers.

We need the Shawn who gave us “Stitches.” We need “Señorita.” We need “Wonder.” We need the man who could stand in front of a microphone, look emotionally devastated and somehow convince millions of people that they, too, had personally experienced whatever heartbreak he was singing about.Yes, “Why Why Why” deserved more attention. I’ll give him that.But if I have to sit here and list every song from that era that failed to become a cultural earthquake, we’re going to be here until Shawn announces another tour.

And then there is Justin Bieber.Oh, Justin.

I know I am about to receive enough backlash to power an entire power grid, but what we have now is not the Justin Bieber music we grew up with.It feels like Justin has thrown pop, rap, punk and several unidentified musical ingredients into a blender and pressed “whatever happens, happens.”And unfortunately, whatever happened was SWAG.Then came SWAG II.

I am sorry, but those albums are among the weakest moments in a catalogue that once gave us an entirely different Justin Bieber. This wasn’t evolving.This was dissolving into thin air.

And before the Beliebers start assembling outside my house: I wish Justin the absolute best on his fatherhood journey. Truly.

But Justin, you need to father your old music back.Bring that child home.

The honorable mentions, however, must go to Jack Harlow ,Chris brown andZayn Malik, because disappearing and reappearing every once in a while apparently counts as a career strategy now.

And Harry Styles?

Congratulations.You came back from the musical afterlife and remembered that people like to dance.We appreciate it.

But now you may be asking: “Where are Sombr, Conan Gray and Troye Sivan?”

Oh, don’t worry.

I haven’t forgotten them.

They are being saved for another argument.

Because if I start explaining Sombr, Conan Gray and Troye Sivan right now, this article will become a full-length dissertation, and I still have other stories you need to read.

All I will say is this:

Pop music is not dead. And those boys are the ones to save. Controversial, yes… but who else do we have?

And apparently, the men who once dominated the genre have decided to sit this particular rescue mission out.So, to Ed, Charlie, Shawn, Justin and the rest of the boys:

We don’t hate you.We remember you.

That’s the problem.

We remember what you sounded like when you were good.And perhaps that is why every new release gets compared to the old one. Because somewhere beneath the forgotten hits, abandoned eras and questionable musical experiments, we know there is still a great pop star hiding in there.So bring him back.Bring back the hooks.Bring back the drama.Bring back the ridiculous music videos.Bring back the songs that made us stop whatever we were doing and scream the chorus like our lives depended on it.

Because right now, the patriarchy isn’t dominating pop.

It’s dominating the flop.

And honestly?

The girls are getting tired of carrying the charts.