Modern pop music is prospering but growing in two markedly different directions. On one side of the coin, we have the Charlis and the Chappells of the world, the girls who offer as much attention and creativity to album roll-outs and aesthetics as they do to songwriting sessions. They're pop stars in the purest form, sparkling and out of reach. On the other side, there are the artists who prefer an acoustic guitar to a club classic, who pour their rawest emotions into a song with little accompaniment, hoping that it will win over the hearts of young listeners who feel the same.

These two modern forms of pop pull from very different influences. Charli XCX looks to the sleazy, self-indulgent scene of the 2000s for her sound, while Chappell Roan takes inspiration from drag queens. Meanwhile, quieter pop icons like Boygenius and Lorde look to the work of their poetic predecessors, to the writings of Leonard Cohen and Bruce Springsteen and, perhaps most notably, Joni Mitchell.

Spawning out of the folk scene of the 1960s, Mitchell's artistry was founded on honesty and vulnerability. This was something she realised and reaffirmed with her fourth studio record, Blue, which hit record store shelves in the summer of 1971. The record was completely steeped in her own emotions, charting her experiences with love, addiction, and adoption.

"I wanted everything to be transparent," Mitchell told Mojo of her approach during the writing of Blue, "I wanted to present myself as I was. To continue [as a songwriter], I had to show what I was going through." This ethos would continue to guide her lyricism for decades to come, but Blue was the record that stuck with listeners most, opening them up to a new world of vulnerable lyrics delivered over soft strums.

Over half a century has passed since the release of Blue, and Mitchell's emotionally open approach to songwriting has only increased in popularity, both with audiences and artists. Art pop icon Lorde has cited her as an influence, as she once told The Guardian, "I want to be Paul Simon. I want to be Leonard Cohen. I want to be Joni. Fucking. Mitchell." It's a statement of intent that has been reflected in her own work, which only seems to have increased in vulnerability since the success of 'Royals'.

After finding her start with moody tales of teenage Australiana, Lorde delivered her Blue equivalent in 2017 with Melodrama. Though the record didn't sit in the folk or jazz realms that Mitchell worked within, it was Lorde absolutely giving into her emotions, feeling them in their entirety from the recording booth. From Lana Del Rey to Boygenius, the influence of Blue can be felt across modern pop stars who focus on the emotion and poetry of their songwriting first.

Perhaps the most obvious and successful Mitchell disciple in modern pop is Taylor Swift. Blue has undoubtedly influenced Swift's writing - it has even been suggested that her 2012 record Red was inspired by Mitchell's magnum opus, which sees her delving into her own emotions around love with abandon. Swift's music certainly sits within the realm of guitar-wielding, emotional pop stars, though she is much more happy to work within the commercial realm of music than Mitchell ever was.

Mitchell's songwriting on Blue has undoubtedly influenced this subsection of modern popstars, but it's a little more challenging to find her stylings in more electronic-leaning, image-focused artists. Stars like Charli XCX and Chappell Roan work directly against Mitchell's beliefs about the music industry. The folk star once openly shared her dislike for Madonna, describing her as manufactured, and often penned songs about the rampant commercialism in the industry.

"Remember the days when you used to sit and make up tunes for love," Mitchell sang on 'For The Roses', just a year after the release of Blue, "And pour your simple sorrow to the soundhole and your knee, and now you're seen on giant screens and at parties for the press." Mitchell was committed to maintaining the authenticity of music rather than giving into marketing campaigns or money-making schemes, something that today's pop artists are more than happy to do.

Against Mitchell's beliefs about music's primary use as a vehicle to share emotions, many modern artists have entirely leaned into the curation of their image. The age of the internet has forced this upon many artists, but it has also provided a tool for stars to expand their artistry beyond recordings and into fashion, video, and performance.

Charli XCX is also no stranger to a giant screen or a press party - the Brat wall became an essential part of her album roll-out this year, and she has promoted the record with a number of club nights and Boiler Room appearances. Meanwhile, pop stars like Sabrina Carpenter and Olivia Rodrigo have focused on creating images for themselves around specific albums or tours.

As pop music veers back towards electronica and leans into commerciality, the influence of Mitchell and of Blue can be a little more difficult to find. The folk songwriter certainly wouldn't have been choreographing dances for 'California' if Tiktok had been around at the time of release. But just because artists like Carpenter and Charli focus on the commerciality of their work as well as the music doesn't mean that their songwriting isn't emotional or real.

Brat is littered with admissions about Charli's struggles with the party girl persona, her hopes to one day become a mother and her grief following the loss of Sophie. Chappell Roan's summer hit 'Good Luck Babe' is a truly vulnerable tale of the queer experience of dating girls who keep her hidden. Their lyrical styles are a little more straightforward than Mitchell's offerings, but they contain the same honesty and vulnerability.

These more glamorous pop stars aren't calling back to Blue sonically - there's barely a guitar in sight on Brat - but without Mitchell's formative work, they might never have poured out their emotions into synth-heavy soundscapes.

We can't necessarily crown Blue as the most influential record on today's pop music, but its impact can certainly be felt across the board, infusing modern music with a vulnerable songwriting style that still wins audiences over.