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Sabrina Carpenter’s songs are some of the best pop music in recent memory. During an interview, the “Espresso” singer explained the first thing she does when she writes a song. She also revealed that she has mixed feelings about the expectations pop stars face.

Sabrina Carpenter begins writing songs with 1 thing

In a 2024 Interview Magazine article, Carpenter was asked how she came up with her song titles. “Ooh, good question,” she replied. “I choose the names of my songs by things I feel would jump out at me on a piece of paper, and usually my songs start with titles.” The “Nonsense” singer gave an interesting answer, as sometimes songwriters will only come up with song titles after the rest of their composition is complete.

Carpenter isn’t a big fan of the idea that pop songs have to be catchy and lyrically simple. The Work It star said that’s because she grew up listening to tunes by Stevie Nicks, Carole King, Dolly Parton, and Pasty Cline. In her opinion, none of those singers released music that was truly pop. It’s hard to argue that Nicks, King, Parton, and Cline didn’t delve into pop music, but Carpenter is allowed to define the genre however she wants. Regardless, Carpenter has repeatedly proven that she knows how to write great, catchy hooks.

Sabrina Carpenter comes up with album titles at the last minute

The former Disney star also explained how she picked out which of her songs appeared on her records. “I spend a lot of time with them, and the ones I still want to listen to after six months to a year, that feel like they’re still brand new, resonate with me the most,” she said. “But sometimes that question is a bit unanswerable because it’s a feeling.”

So far, Carpenter has released five albums, all of which have striking titles: Eyes Wide Open, Evolution, Singular: Act I, Singular: Act II, and Emails I Can’t Send. She explained how she cooked up her album titles. “The name of my album comes through a miracle somewhere in the universe, and it usually comes the day before I have to turn in the whole thing, but I like to think I’ll get better at that as time goes on,” Carpenter explained. Considering how good she is at coining album titles, it’s remarkable that she names all her albums at the last possible minute!

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The singer has only 4 charting songs so far

So far, Carpenter has released four charting singles: “Skin,” “Nonsense,” “Feather,” and “Espresso.” Only “Espresso” managed to reach the top 20, peaking at No. 4 on the Billboard Hot 100, while “Nonsense” merely made it to No. 21.

Of her five albums, four charted. Eyes Wide Open reached No. 43 on the Billboard 200, Singular: Act I reached No. 103, Singular: Act II reached No. 138, and Emails I Can’t Send reached No. 23. Some singers find success right out of the gate, but Carpenter produced a fairly large body of work before she really broke into the mainstream with “Nonsense” and “Espresso.” While her career at Disney undoubtedly helped her,  Carpenter seems to have finally become a star because of her songs.

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