From Beyoncé to Rosalía, what is the eccentric use of capital letters in pop?

If you go to your favorite music streaming platform and put on any of the two most played albums this summer —renaissanceby Beyonce, and mommy, by Rosalía—, you will notice a great little detail: the titles of all the songs are written in capital letters. But it is not only musical trends that have mutated over the years, so has the aesthetics of the charts. Perhaps not the official ones, like the Spanish or the British, which maintain their own writing and capitalization rules, but those of Spotify. Often looking at the titles of the songs that occupy the global top 50 of the Swedish platform is enough to make the eyes spin in orbit. The variety of types of writing is practically equal to the variety of people who inhabit the world. Neither titles nor names are governed by the strict stylization rules of an academy or a record company.

Historically there has been a significant difference in the typographical use of capital letters in Spanish and English. In Spanish, the first letter of song titles is capitalized, but the rest are lowercase. But, in English, the first letter of every word is capitalized, especially all nominatives, adjectives, and verbs. A practice that apparently comes from the first version of the US Constitution. That is, where the angles they write Don´t Cry For Me Argentina, in Spanish it is used Do not cry for me Argentina. In Spain the Anglo-Saxon style has sometimes been copied, as in Saints I Painted You, of the planets. However, it is visually exaggerated and artificial. The rules and conventions of writing names and titles have almost always been followed in the music industry. Whether it was in the physical versions of albums (CDs and vinyls or in its digital version.

However, in the context of platforms streaming those rules don’t work anymore. They exist, but they no longer dominate the digital title. Precedents can be found in illegal download programs, such as soulseek, where users wrote as they pleased or, even, on legal platforms like iTunes, where each person can modify the content of a disc: add and delete songs, but also title them as they please, but it is more appropriate to stop at the platforms that allow artists to upload their own music, because they have changed the way artists present their songs to the world. rappers like Travis Scott have been made known by uploading mixtapes to Soundcloud, a platform for streaming that unlike Spotify You have the option of uploading songs directly, without the need for external distributors. There the usual capitalization conventions no longer had any relevance, because they were works created at home so amateur, without the help of record companies or professionals. Francisco Nixon, musician and content editor of DeezerPlatform of streaming of French capital, associates the use of capital letters specifically “with the subculture of hip hop and the mixtapes. i mean cd’s toasted at home, with Photoshop’s cheesy typography and all that. Its current use I think means an ascription to that subculture.

That amateur character, detached from any formal convention and any expectation because often the artist himself does not know if his work is going to generate an audience, is also reflected in the writing of titles, often done in a hurry, without attention to grammar, to spelling or aesthetics because what counts is immediacy. The more spontaneous, the more authentic.

However, what was once a spontaneous practice of artists has become an industry standard, a strategy of marketing that allows musicians to expose their personality to the market. Artists like those mentioned Rosalia (or ROSALÍA on Spotify) and Beyonce either bad bunny Y Lil Nas Xpresent the titles of their songs in capital letters (SPOIL, BREAK MY SOUL), while others like Billie Eilish, Olivia Rodrigo, FKA twigs or, in Spain, Alba Reche or daniel sabater (so written) opt for lowercase. Sometimes these same artists use capital letters to title their albums but lowercase to nominate the songs contained on those albums (Billie Eilish’s debut is an example). Others choose both options at the same time, like Belén Aguilera. on your disk SUPERPOP, each track written with a high case is followed by another written with a low case. And the British rapper slowthai split your double drive TYRON in two halves, the first of which presents titles in upper case, and the second in lower case. The first represents, in his words, the “mask” that he puts on in front of others, while the second denotes his “true self”.

Some artists choose an even more experimental method. all the songs of DAMN., of Kendrick Lamar they are titled in capital letters and a period at the end, as a sentence. However, others of J Cole either Willow (daughter of Will Smith) are not only written entirely in lowercase but also with spaced letters, such as my life either transparentsoul, method that seems to convey the idea that something extremely transcendent is being told that does not fit within a song… and much less within its title (special mention deserves the use of emojis by groups such as Mexican Axolotls or even from Coldplay on his latest album).

The conclusion that this phenomenon invites us to think about is that uppercase and lowercase letters have become one more method of expression for artists, such as lyrics, melodies or graphic art. These are artists who have grown up with the internet and with the habit of sending and receiving text messages via mobile phones or computers, for whom playing with writing forms has been habitual or even natural (the Madrid singer and producer russiansky It has titles wow :3 either do not let you see that seem extracted from a WhatsApp conversation). It is also no coincidence that artists who are presumed to be more “extroverted”, striking or explosive such as Rosalía or Lil Nas X use capital letters to be noticed (the effect of titles of MOTOMAMI either HUNTSMAN is almost histrionic), while others like girl in red either I died, who create more introspective music, opt for the minuscule to create an intimate setting, a space where they listen carefully to all their secrets. All of them are sending a clear message of what they want to convey with their art, and how they want the public to perceive them. The type of writing allows them to do so. André Gianzo, graphic designer and art director, believes that “on Spotify, where most of the lyrics are written in low case, using high case can be a way to attract attention, to break with the established. Historically, the capital letter means to shout, to bother”, so the use of lower case means the exact opposite. However, Gianzo points out that the standardization of this practice in the industry means that using capital letters “is no longer going to be a factor that is taken into account to attract attention” because the “eye gets used to absolutely everything”.

There are interesting precedents for this phenomenon that go beyond rap mixtapes published on platforms like Soundcloud. In 2010, MIA released the album Maya, the title of which is actually written with slashes, // / Y /, and that can only exist thanks to a modern keyboard (interestingly, one of the tracks included on the disc is titled CAPS LOCK, the name given in English to the capital key). Long before, Japanese pop artists like Capsule or Ayumi Hamasaki They were already messing around with the uppercase and lowercase letters in the titles of the songs contained in their albums. A purely aesthetic practice that denoted a desire to play with the norm or even transgress it. Nowadays it is common for Japanese or Korean artists to alternate different alphabets in their song titles. This is the case of Utada Hikaru and her 2021 single, BADモード. Further back in time emerges the precedent of ee cummings, a poet from the 1940s who wrote in lower case (although not exclusively) for reasons of poetic expression. Exactly the same ones that can be wielded by today’s musicians who are also associated with a poetic ability like Taylor Swift, who, in her stage folk Recently, he has titled all his compositions in lower case, presumably with the intention of projecting an intimate and collected character.

Even more curious is the case of music called lower case (lowercase music), a type of extremely minimalist ambient music composed of virtually imperceptible sounds and noises that are amplified in the recording. One of its inventors, steve rodenwho released a record featuring the different ways he manipulated sheets of paper, has claimed that music lower case “it carries a certain sense of calm and humility, it does not demand attention, it must be discovered. It’s the complete opposite of capital letters, which are loud and draw attention to themselves.” A good summary of what the strategic use of upper and lower case means today in the world of pop music.

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