Solána Imani Rowe, known professionally as SZA, is an American singer-songwriter and actress. She first gained recognition through her self-released EPs even before making music,which helped her become the first female artist to sign with Top Dawg Entertainment! She recently released her new album, Lana, on December 20, 2024. People were very eager about this album based on her previous albums, SOS, released on December 9, 2022, and CNTRL, released on June 9, 2017. With all of those albums spiraling up in her career, SZA was on top.
SZAs’s new album Lana also has a new theme as well, so it can portray to how her music sounds in her album. A different type of branding for SZA has emerged, as Lana’s album cover portrays her as an alien with a wilderness-type vibe.
For this new album, people were expecting a lot considering SOS was really emotional and connected with her listeners, however after hearing her new album people believe SZA might be declining. The Barron Perspective then asked students about their thoughts on SZA’s new album. Is it better or worse than her previous ones?
Tatiana Camilo, a Senior at WHS states “ I feel like it’s not as good just because I feel like there is more hits on the other one and there is only, like 1 or 2 songs that hit right now.”
Following that, a Junior at WHS Emma Aponte states “I really like it, she’s good at making music and she gained more popularity.”
Based on those 2 opinions from students, we can conclude that SZAs new album is different than what people are used to, and SZA is trying to gain a new approach to her music, to gain more audience from other people.
How has SZAs Music Evolved?
Since the beginning, SZA has been known as an R&B artist, now whether she planned to go into pop eventually or not, it surely has helped her advance in her career.
“ She went from more R&B to more pop so she definitely knows what she doing”. Said Emma.
Some pop artists such as Rihanna, Bruno Mars, Beyonce, and so much more, originally all started off writing R&B music. However, since people evolved so has everyones music taste. Pop is now being more and more reconized worldwide, and while R&B will always be a classic to rock out to on any day, pop is more modern-day music to vibe to.
So Why Her?
SZA is not only such a great singer, but it goes deeper than just singing. SZA makes her audience feel the emotion like how she does in her songs, and it really speaks to people. She is even going up so much that she is going on tour with Kendrick Lamar across 20 different locations! Students of whs, are itching there way to get tickets and find good seats, however it will be hard considering her tickets have gon up to almost $700!!
So what do you think? Do you think SZA will continue to go up in the music industry, or is she falling out?
