Life After Yolo When Pop Songs Stay Home

"Really, I would rather be at home all by myself," Alessia Cara sings on "Here," a strident and unlikely R&B track beginning to make its way up the charts. She's not the only one.

As the Great Recession crushed the opportunities of a generation of graduating Millennials, it birthed a crop of escapist hits: Kesha's "Tik Tok," Katy Perry's "Last Friday Night," Drake's YOLO-birthing "The Motto," Taylor Swift's "22" and many more. These are songs, from Swift's midnight breakfasts to Ke$ha's Jack Daniels toothbrush, with various degrees of all-night recklessness -- with the urgency, always, to make the night last forever, lest we wake up to an unemployment line, a 9 a.m. shift or an untimely death.

But that era appears to be over, as 20-somethings increasingly realize hangovers, paying rent and turning 30 aren't getting out of the way. There's Cara, a 19-year-old with a Def Jam deal, whose tuneful acknowledgement of social anxiety is being hailed in some corners as a brave pop revelation. Kacey Musgrave's "Late to the Party" shares a similar weariness about weathering another night out, but it doesn't do so alone. "Let's promise when we get in that we'll try to get right out/Fake a couple conversations, make the necessary rounds," she sings. So many recession-era anthems were about a one-time connection: instead, Musgraves has a steadier love. "Who needs a crowd when you're happy at a party for two?"

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A number of this summer's chart climbers have taken on some form of private dancing. Demi Lovato's "Cool for the Summer" implies a homebound seduction ("Don't tell your mother") and Selena Gomez's "Good For You" finds its narrator getting glam just to "leave this dress a mess on the floor," no destination necessary. When Fetty Wap hits the strip club in "Trap Queen," it's to take care of business. He'd rather be in the kitchen, "cooking pies with my baby." But not all have given up on youthful rowdiness: Sam Hunt's "House Party" splits the difference, offering an up-for-whatever take on Musgraves' party for two: "I'll be at your door in ten minutes/Whatever you got on, girl, stay in it," he sings. "We'll wake up all the neighbors 'til the whole block hates us."

The iron fist of YOLO hasn't entirely released its grip on the charts. The Weeknd, a singer always shrouded in a cloud of chemical nihilism, still plans to be "beautiful and stay forever young" in "Can't Feel My Face," one of this summer's major hits. It's not clear that's working out for him: presumably, he can't feel his face when he's with "you" because "you," via metaphor, is a crippling drug addiction. On second thought, maybe dude should actually get out of the house.

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