The realities of being a pop star

Summary

Being a pop star has its pros and cons like most jobs in this world but before I state some of them I want to clarify that firstly I don’t view what I do as a ‘job’ and I secondly don’t really view myself as purely a pop star, I’m just using that terminology specifically for this piece of writing. I’ve always been delving into different creative zones adjacent to music. Building out an entire album roll out obviously constitutes immersing yourself in many different mediums but now more than ever I feel a pull away from music and into other realms. Unfortunately this probably means I’d describe myself more as a ‘creative’ (gross) or plain and simply put: an artist. However, for the purposes of this piece I’m focusing purely on the the realities of being a pop star because it was my original dream, because it’s the role in my life I have the most experience navigating and because it’s also the most ridiculous one.One of the main realities of being a pop star is that at a certain level, it’s really fucking fun. You get to go to great parties in a black SUV and you can smoke cigarettes in the car and scream out of the sunroof and all that cliche shit. At these parties you sometimes get to meet interesting people and those interesting people often actually want to meet you. You get to wear fabulous clothes and shoes and jewelry that sometimes comes with its own security guard who trails you around the party making sure you don’t loose the extortionate earrings sitting on your lobes or let some random person you’ve just met in the bathroom try on the necklace around your neck that is equivalent to the heart of the ocean. You get good free shit like phones and laptops and vinyl and trips and shroom gummies and headphones and clothes and sometimes even an electric bike that will sit in your garage untouched for the best part of 5 years. You get to enter restaurants through the back entrance and give a half smile to the head chef (who probably hates you) and the waiters (who...