On Ed Sheeran and Popularity

*Originally submitted May 3rd, 2018 for a Popular Music course at the University of Virginia

In a telling feature on the recent phenomenon "Freaky Friday", Lil Dicky croons from Ed Sheeran's mouth, "I’m in Ed Sheeran's body, it's way less cool than being Chris Brown was." In most circles, “cool” equates to “popular”. But Ed Sheeran is not cool. So how, then, did he become the most popular artist of 2017? A year that saw new music from mega-stars such as Drake, Taylor Swift, Kendrick Lamar, Bruno Mars, and many more. Ed Sheeran is not classically cool or attractive, nor does he have mind-blowing vocals or an incredible backing band; yet he performs to sold-out hundred-thousand person arenas alone on stage with just an acoustic guitar and a loop pedal. At first glance, it does not make sense that Sheeran was the most “popular” artist of 2017. Yet, upon further investigation, maybe it does. Most pop superstars today are polarizing in some way; they get caught up in romantic scandals, they rap about race and politics, they blur gender lines. These things are necessary for the development of music and culture. But maybe what the world has needed in this turbulent time is not a superhero, but an average citizen. Through many popular music tropes, such as commercialism, sampling, fame, and more, Ed Sheeran has just managed to avoid controversy, becoming the most extraordinarily ordinary pop star this generation has seen. 

From Suffolk to Success

It sort of feels like the scruffy-faced, glasses wearing, ginger Ed Sheeran went from busking on the streets in England straight to topping the charts and winning awards with his first hits “The A Team” and “You Need Me, I Don’t Need You”. Just five years after his first single came out, he was selling out multiple nights at Wembley Stadium to crowds of 90,000 people, which he thinks is “quite cool”. But before signing with Atlantic Records and releasing his first album + (Plus) with them in 2011, he had already been recording, selling, marketing, and performing his EPs all on his own. In 2009 alone, he played over 300 shows. Sheeran did not get “popular” by luck; he wanted it and he would have done anything to get it. In a Guardian review of +, the author writes, “From the title down, [Sheeran’s] current hit “You Need Me, I Don’t Need You” presents 20-year-old singer-songwriter Ed Sheeran as a very cocksure customer indeed,” (Petridis, 2011). His lyrics go on to boast, “Don’t need another wordsmith to make my tunes sell...my shit’s cool.” From the beginning, what Sheeran has lacked in traditional “coolness”, he has made up for in confidence. Elton John, whose management company Sheeran is signed to, has said of the singer, “When you have that immense enthusiasm and that urge to succeed, nothing seems to be able to stop you...He can do exactly what he wants,” (Doyle, 2017). 

And succeed he did. + sold over 102,000 copies in its opening week, and has since sold over 2 million copies. His second album from 2014, X (Multiply), has since spent 83 weeks in the Top 10, and has been streamed over 682.8 million times (Copsey, 2017). The success of his most recent release, ÷ (Divide), prompted the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry to name Sheeran the world’s best-selling recording artist of 2017, being certified multi-platinum in 36 markets. It’s primary single “Shape of You” was also certified multi-platinum in 32 markets (Aswad, 2018). So we’ve established that Ed Sheeran’s music is, by definition, popular with the masses. But why? How does this unassuming British man have the best-selling album and single of the year? Well, there are a few reasons.

Nomad, No Problem

Perhaps Sheeran’s greatest trick is his ability to belong to no one genre or background. As a British-Irish man from the hip-hop and grime community in Britain who grew up listening to rock and folk/indie music, his “pop” music takes on a wide range of influences. In a Rolling Stone review of Divide, the writer notes, “Sheeran doubles down on the blend of hip-hop bravado and everyday-bloke songwriting that helped him break out at the turn of the decade,” (Johnston, 2017). Sheeran’s work has always been described as a blend of hip-hop, rapping on songs like “Sing”, “Eraser”, and “Take It Back”, mixed with classic singer-songwriter ballads like “Perfect”, “Thinking Out Loud”, and “Lego House”. But most recently, on Divide, he has showcased that he feels comfortable borrowing from many different backgrounds. A New York Times article explains, “This is an album, which, including bonus tracks, features rapping and singing; club music and orchestras; a tin whistle and a bodrhan, hallmarks of Irish folk; and a song partly in the Ghanaian dialect Twi,” (Caramanica, 2017). He also speaks in spanish on the aptly named “Barcelona”. While some reviews criticize Sheeran for “copying” classic Irish folk, Sheeran really is part of this culture. And on “Bibia Be Ye Ye”, the Ghanaian song, he worked with producers and writers in Ghana to make the song, and filmed the video in Ghana. 

Many white artists are criticized for “sampling” or taking from other cultures in their music, but Sheeran borrows from too many places to count; and he involves native artists in these songs to boost their “authenticity”, whatever that may mean. His smash hit “Shape of You” was widely accused of sampling a Sia song, but Sheeran simply says, “I listened to the Sia song, it’s completely different chords, completely different concept, completely different melody, but there’s a marimba...And Kygo was the first one to do this tropical house stuff, and people have just taken that and picked it apart,” (Beats 1 Interview). In doing this, Sheeran doesn’t commit himself to one time, place, or genre; he belongs to everyone. On Divide specifically, Sheeran borrows from so many cultures and styles that he is truly appealing to a global audience. As Starr and Waterman note, “The frequency and intensity of references to past decades do seem to have intensified in the 2000s,” (p. 542). And fitting with this perfectly, the Times says of Divide, “Sheeran’s musical history lesson is both well-timed and rip-roaringly fun, another example of his still-evolving craft,” (Johnston, 2017). 

Sharing the Wealth

There is a tendency for journalists and fans alike to attribute all of Sheeran’s success to Taylor Swift after he opened for her on tour in 2013. I’m not sure how much truth this holds, considering he had already had a debut album and five singles in the Top 10 years before this tour. Nevertheless, as Swift helped Sheeran, he has gone on to share his talents with an astounding number of artists. As one Billboard article wrote, “Since Ed Sheeran has established himself as Taylor Swift’s opening-act-slash-bestie, the British singer-songwriter hasn’t just become a star-he’s helped make over pop’s sound,” (Johnson, 2017). And he hasn’t just achieved this “makeover” through his own music; by writing hit songs for a plethora of other successful artists, he has successfully filled the charts with his work and malleable style. Here is a short list of just some of the hits penned by Ed Sheeran to date: Rita Ora’s “Your Song”, Justin Bieber’s “Love Yourself”, “Cold Water” by Major Lazer ft. Justin Bieber, One Direction’s hit “Little Things” and Liam Payne’s breakout solo single “Strip That Down”, and many more for The Weeknd, Jessie Ware, Anne-Marie, DJ Snake, N.E.R.D, Zara Larsson, James Blunt, Taylor Swift, Rudimental, Rixton, the list goes on and on and on. This says two things about Sheeran: one, that he is universally talented as a songwriter, with the ability to pen hit songs for artists of many different styles and genres. And secondly, that with these constant chart-toppers, he is raking in royalties. 

          As Shuker proclaimed in his book, “At the heart of the majority of various forms of popular music is a fundamental tension between the essential creativity of the act of ‘making music’ and the commercial nature of the bulk of its production and dissemination,” (p. 205). As a business strategy, it’s genius. And while it’s unfortunate that music has become increasingly more commodified, why shouldn’t Sheeran sell his skills? As he told the New York Times, “I watch the charts every single day, and it would be a lot more interesting if I have more of my own [songs on them],” (Caramanica, 2014). While it is extraordinarily impressive that Sheeran is capable of applying his sound to these wildly different artists, it also speaks to his lack of identity as an artist. It is almost as if he is less of a person with unique sounds and experiences and more of an automated hit-making machine. He has this intrinsic ability to take his skills and churn out a dance song, or a slow ballad, or a rap song. The average listener wouldn’t listen to a Keith Urban song and be able to tell that it was written by Ed Sheeran. Because his sound as an artist is both everything and nothing all at once, he is easily able to write for anyone. As one article bluntly put it, “You can’t sell out if you don’t have a value system or aesthetic credo to protect,” (Caramanica, 2017). 

Almost Famous

In the most basic sense of the word, yes, Ed Sheeran is famous. He makes millions and sells out worldwide stadium tours year after year. But as Starr and Waterman note, “The production of celebrity may be as central to the workings of the American music industry as the production of music itself,” (p. 475). I would argue that Ed Sheeran’s identity as an artist, once again, straddles the line between fame and celebrity. When you think celebrity, you think glitz and glamour, flashy cars and jewelry, and celebrity power couples. When Sheeran steps out on stage in front of 100,000 people, there’s a good chance he’s wearing jeans, sneakers, and a hoodie or t-shirt. Ed Sheeran wants to be famous; he does not want to be a celebrity. He wants to be the biggest musician in the world, while still living a normal life. He’s built a house in his hometown of Suffolk (albeit much bigger than his childhood home and with its own pub in the backyard), he is engaged to Cherry Seaborn, a lawyer he went to primary school with, and got rid of his cellphone two years ago to get away from people constantly asking him for favors just because of his success. As Sheeran puts it in an interview with Zane Lowe, “I think there’s me, normal me, who goes to the pub with his mates, and then there’s juggernaut who makes an album, puts three years of work into it, and the whole world has to hear it and it has to be the biggest record in the world.” Yet another example of how Ed Sheeran is ever the middle man. 

This tension between fame and celebrity also comes through in his music, especially on Divide. On “Eraser”, the powerful album opener, Sheeran raps, “I used to think that nothing could be better than touring the world with my songs/I chased the picture perfect life, I think they painted it wrong/I think that money is the root of all evil and fame is hell.../Ain’t nobody wanna see you down in the dumps/Because you’re living your dream and this shit should be fun.” Sheeran recognizes that he now has all the fame, money and success he could have ever wanted, but he also recognizes how toxic that lifestyle is and how it does not equate to happiness. He also blurs the line between squeaky-clean image and fallen star. Sheeran, like many others in the industry, is not immune to the temptations and vices that come with fame. After the success of Multiply, Sheeran found himself going down a dark path of drinking and drugs, prompting him to get rid of his cellphone, and spending roughly a year traveling the world with his girlfriend. He talks about this struggle on “Save Myself” from Divide, “Life can get you down so I just numb the way it feels/I drown it with a drink and out of date prescription pills/And all the ones that love me they just left me on the shelf.../So before I save someone else, I’ve got to save myself.” But of course, in typical Ed Sheeran fashion, he managed to pull himself out of his dark hole and come back better than ever. He could have been the perfect popstar with no vices, or he could have been the classic celebrity that falls off the horse right at the top of their career. But he did neither of these. He felt temptation, he took time off, and he came back, proving time and again that he is “relatable” in every sense of the word. 

And the Grammy Goes To…

2017 was truly Ed Sheeran’s year, winning accolade after accolade and breaking every streaming and chart record possible. But there is one area in which he fell short and shocked many fans: the 2017 Grammy Awards. After dominating the music landscape in 2017 with Divide, industry members and fans alike assumed that Sheeran would at least be nominated in the big all-genre categories, if not taking home a few awards at the end of the night. But when the official nominations came out, everyone was shocked; it was the first time in six years that Ed Sheeran was not nominated in one of the top categories. His only nominations were in the Best Pop Solo Performance and Best Pop Vocal Album categories. It made no sense. How could the biggest artist of the year, with the biggest album and song of the year, not receive a nomination for Album, Record, or Song of the Year? This is where we reach some long-awaited controversy in Sheeran’s career.

Somewhat unexpectedly, all three major awards were taken home by the same artist: Bruno Mars. The other nominees in these categories primarily included Kendrick Lamar, Childish Gambino, Jay Z, and Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee. Similar to Ed, Bruno’s albums, while seen as predominantly R&B-pop, offer a little bit of everything. But Bruno offers two things to the Grammys that Ed Sheeran does not: a diverse racial identity, and immense showmanship. As one committee member told Variety, “It’s interesting that all the white people are not going to have any white people to vote for.” The interviewer goes on to say, “This Grammy insider figures that the committee members who wanted a classic pop performer in the mix probably just congregated around Bruno Mars instead of Sheeran,” (Willman, 2017). While this year’s nominees were certainly more diverse than Grammys past, Bruno was the most pop-oriented while still having that R&B edge, and is not as racially-focused as Kendrick and Childish Gambino, but is not as glaringly white as the British-Irish Ed Sheeran. Additionally, and perhaps more importantly, the Grammys have become somewhat of a glorified concert more so than an awards show, only presenting nine awards live on air this year. And if there is one thing Bruno Mars delivers, it’s a show. A show that cannot be compared to Ed Sheeran alone on stage in jeans, with an acoustic guitar and loop pedal. In every way, Bruno Mars was the obvious choice for the ever-political Grammys. So while Ed Sheeran dominated the scene last year in terms of sales and streams, his everyman image was not the most desirable for the global stage of the Grammys. 

Swimming Upstream

Ed Sheeran is one of the first megastars whose career has existed completely in the streaming era. In both 2014 and 2017, he was the most streamed act on the planet. But Sheeran, as do most artists, has a complicated relationship with streaming. However, he doesn’t attribute his initial success to streaming, “Illegal file sharing was what made me. It was students in England going to university, sharing my songs with each other,” (CBS News, 2018). This system is all well and good to get your name out there and begin to build an audience, but it is not the most sustainable for a career. Even so, streaming complicates earnings, leaving artists to rely on touring, “If my album is streamed by 2 billion people, which it was, you have maybe a billion that might check it out more online, and like 300,000 people that might buy a ticket. If 300,000 people buy a ticket in one country at 80 dollars a pop, that’s more money than you would ever make off any album or streaming or anything,” (Ringen et al., 2015). “Shape of You” has been streamed over 1.7 billion times on Spotify alone, and it’s music video on YouTube is currently at 3.4 billion views, a record for the service. But Sheeran, the most-streamed artist of the last year, doesn’t even use streaming services himself. He says that he “[doesn’t] even really get it” and that he “buys everything off iTunes or physically.” 

Perhaps this is the perfect summation of Ed Sheeran, as both a person and as an artist. The most-streamed artist does not use such services. The most famous artist does not want to be a celebrity. The small-town British boy who somehow belongs not only to England, but to Ireland, Spain, Ghana, hip-hop culture and more. Exemplary of his versatility and mass appeal, he has three versions of his single “Perfect” from Divide: the album original, a duet version with Beyoncé, and an orchestral version with famed opera singer Andrea Boccelli. He is covered head to toe in ultra-colorful tattoos chronicling his experiences-he is quite literally made of his accomplishments. Whether you like Ed Sheeran or not, he has undoubtedly proved himself as the voice of the decade. If you don’t like his own music, chances are pretty good that you like a song he has written or produced for someone else without knowing it. As seen through his identity, career, and music, specifically on Divide, Ed Sheeran is for everyone; and Ed Sheeran is for no one but himself. 

YouTube Playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLp7AyMZmeL5hlyEpWDeLJRUgly-5gRERq

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