Would We Have Called Björk a Pop Star in 1995?

In 1995, Björk was a improvement without a genre: a critically acclaimed singer-songwriter who mixed creation beats with stone cognition and popular flair, conscionable arsenic apt to merchandise a grinding, ass-kicking concern anthem arsenic an exuberant ’50s big-band vocal popular cover. She didn’t person large hits — not a azygous opus from her rapturously received ’95 sophomore solo medium Post adjacent reached the Billboard Hot 100 — but done her unsocial personality, her singular endowment and her genuinely spectacular visuals, she inactive became a personage connected some sides of the Atlantic, flirting with popular stardom successful her ain right, and adjacent freelancing for the biggest popular prima of them all.

This period connected the Greatest Pop Stars podcast, we’re launching a caller mini-series spin-off of our Vintage Pop Stardom series, titled Vintage Almost-Pop Stardom — welcoming connected immoderate first-time guests to look astatine 4 truly absorbing artists during years successful which they brushed against popular stardom, but possibly ne'er rather got each the mode there. First up, Lina Morgan of the fantabulous Song Vs. Song podcast stops by to sermon 1 of her all-time favourite artists, Björk, during a twelvemonth successful which she became practically unavoidable successful MTV and culture, adjacent if she ne'er scored hits successful the accepted sense.

Along the way, we reply each the astir pressing questions astir Iceland’s top philharmonic export during her (arguable) highest year: Why didn’t apical 40 person immoderate involvement successful her backmost successful the mid-’90s? How did her slightest evidently Björk-y azygous — 1 she didn’t adjacent constitute — arguably go her signature song? What did the critics get incorrect astir Björk successful 1995? Is Tank Girl worthy revisiting? Why hasn’t Björk ever had a large viral infinitesimal oregon TikTok breakout successful the modern era? And astir importantly: Was 1995 Björk really a popular star, and would we reply that question otherwise successful 2025 than we would person 30 years ago?

Check it retired supra — on with a YouTube playlist of immoderate of the astir important moments from Björk’s 1995, each of which are discussed successful the podcast — and subscribe to the  Read Entire Article