Many might know Selena Gomez from her debut on the Disney channel. She is an American singer, actress, and producer. Born and raised in Texas, alongside her television career, Gomez has starred in few films and also voices many characters in Disney films. Selena Gomez released a total of seven albums, three studio albums, one compilation album, and three promotional singles.
Selena Gomez’s first album which was released in 2009 “Kiss & Tell”. The album held freshness and a twist. Kiss & Tell is a work of near-genius modern pop that shows off Gomez’s light but soulful vocals in a near-perfect setting. Plenty of songs in this album has her talking about her boyfriends, tracks joyously detail newfound love affairs, and a good many generally rock out. The variety of styles and sounds on the record is pretty impressive. There are snappy bursts of punky pop bump up against Latin-influenced dance jams, midtempo, new wave rockers, techno-ish dancefloor, and hopeful love songs. Her vocals sound young and fresh and her singing is full of energy. The album was a great start to Selena Gomez’s musical career.
The second album was released in 2010 “A Year Without Rain”, wasn’t as successful as the first one but the album’s mix of frothy teen pop with super-catchy choruses, excellent production, and Selena’s sweet yet powerful vocals proved popular with both critics and the public, and it was a long-running one. There are no new wave or emo-pop influences, only a couple of songs that aren’t about serious longing and heartbreak, and an overall feel of the sorrow of heaviness. The album overall held great vocals but was not as successful.
“When the Sun goes Down”, released in 2011 being the third album in three years. The songs are sassier, lighter, and more fun. Her vocals are more spirited, the arrangements less reliant on heavy synths, and overall, there’s a more playful feeling to the record that’s more in keeping with her first album. She bubbles her way through dancefloor-friendly tracks like “Bang Bang Bang” and “That’s More Like It”. The rest is really solid and fun modern pop with sharp hooks and a couple of surprises. It adds some welcome taste and creates a straightforward record, and shows how easily and successfully she can slip into different personas and styles.
“Stars Dance” 2013, takes a slightly more eclectic approach. Gomez and her writers and producers don’t drift far from the dancefloor and party jams, and these are the strongest songs on the album. It’s hard to resist the jumping beats, shiny synths, and Gomez’s cherry vocals on tracks like “Slow Down,” “Undercover,” and the disco-y “Save the Day.” Stars Dance is another quality entry in her catalog and just another example of why Selena Gomez is one of the best pop stars making music in 2013.
Release of “Revival” in 2015 the artist went through few changes such as the label change and her public relationship. The album sticks pretty close to a club hits-and-ballads mix with a couple of R&B-inspired jams thrown in. Gomez sounds most at home on the uptempo dance tracks like “Kill ‘Em with Kindness” or “Me & the Rhythm,” where the smoothness of her voice fits in with the surrender of the beat. She aims for several kinds of maturity, and the production holds professionalism.
2020–present: “Rare” and “Revelación”, are the newest album. Her break after her last album has changed her as an individual and the artist herself had gone through a huge health journey that allowed her to change her perspective in music. The introverted and emotionally raw song “Lose You to Love Me” surrounded Gomez’s aching vocals with sparse piano, swirling strings, and lush background vocals, and connected instantly with her fans and anyone who ever had to ditch someone in order to save themselves. That song, and the record it appears on, mark something of a turning point in her career. Where in the past she focused mostly on breezy sentiments, playful frothy pop, and more recently sexy come-ons, now she’s digging deeper and mining her own life and loves for subject matter in more obvious and revealing ways. Revelación is Gomez’s first release to be prominently in the Spanish language, combining reggaeton, electropop, Latin pop, and R&B with urban elements.
The musical journey of Selena Gomez included many changes in the artist herself, her vocals, and her style. Her music included both her struggles and her rebirth into the music industry. Each song is meant to represent a stage in her life and what she is going through. Overall, her genre of electronic dance music, pop, and R&B-inspired songs has been a journey that included a lot of experiments, and today she is known for her well-established career, accomplishments, and her trials with music.
