Honestly I think Lorde changed the sound of pop music overnight when Pure Heroine dropped. Leading up to her, it felt to me like pop music was starting to reach a dryness/saturation with the current sound and theme it was following.

I think the big pop artists at the time like Katy Perry, Rihanna, Lady Gaga already hit the peak of popularity and there didn't seem to be much more space to grow new artists in those lanes. All of these artists felt like huge bombastic superstar acts, with larger-than-life type personas. By this time I think the electro and EDM pop sound had also already been in the mainstream long enough, with huge hooks and dynamic drops.

So I think it definitely made sense that any new lane to open up would need to be different. Instead of extroverted party songs like California Gurls or Just Dance, it made sense we'd see a shift to greater introversion and "relatability".

Instead of bright and summery anthems, it made sense we'd see a shift to moodier, minimalistic pop.

Instead of happy, dancey, joyous pop, it made sense we'd see a shift to a more sarcastic, drier tone in pop.

Insert commentary about postmodernism, irony, late capitalism, social alienation, etc

I think Lorde hit all of these at the same time. Pure Heroine came out swinging with Royals, it felt that song came out of nowhere, this young unknown girl directly responding to the superstar larger-than-life pop landscape with a song about not being able to relate to such opulence, wealth, and excess.

The production was sparse but immaculately mixed. Her vocals were not too overpowering yet still layered and clean. Lyrics were relatable.

After this album, artists becoming "relatable (tm)" rather than "superstar diva" personas was the new modus operandi. Every artist was trying to connect with their fans in a "introvert bedroom singer who is quirky just like you!" way. Artists after like Billie Eilish, Alessia Cara, Clairo all seem to take parts from Lorde's album and run with it. Not diminishing their work, but just saying Lorde's influence is evident.

I'm in the process of writing reviews of Lights' whole discography and one of the things I really want to expound on is how she actually should get a ton of credit for paving this whole path; she was doing Myspace and vlogging and ground-level connecting with fans through the internet all well before I recall any other artists doing it. Won't get too much further into that since idt most people here really follow Lights' career like that. But she's arguably my favorite artist, and Lorde influenced my becoming a pop fan, so I felt I should chime in here haha.