{"id":351983,"date":"2025-12-16T11:50:09","date_gmt":"2025-12-16T11:50:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/351983\/"},"modified":"2025-12-16T11:50:09","modified_gmt":"2025-12-16T11:50:09","slug":"dating-in-2025-according-to-olivia-dean-sabrina-carpenter-amber-mark","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/351983\/","title":{"rendered":"Dating in 2025, According to Olivia Dean, Sabrina Carpenter, Amber Mark"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tAmber Mark<\/a> wasn\u2019t dreading going on another first date \u2014 she just hadn\u2019t expected she would ever need to again. Her last one had gone so well that she ended up in a six-year relationship with someone who became her best friend. When it ended, due to distance and lifestyle changes, Mark remained on good enough terms with her ex that they could talk about what it would be like to put themselves out there again. But the idea of reentering the dating arena turned out to be more appealing than the reality. Mark left the date in tears.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIt was just so sad to me. I was immediately comparing them to that person that I was in a relationship with,\u201d the singer-songwriter tells Rolling Stone. Mark would wake up and indulge in sadness for a while, wallowing in Chet Baker\u2019s \u201cI Get Along Without You Very Well (Except Sometimes)\u201d and Randy Crawford\u2019s \u201cEverything Must Change.\u201d She also found comfort in a more modern heartbreak connoisseur, Sabrina Carpenter<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWe\u2019ve known each other for years,\u201d says Mark, who opened for Carpenter on the Short n\u2019 Sweet tour this fall alongside Olivia Dean<\/a>. \u201cHer and I have had these experiences with boys for so long, and we\u2019ve spoken about it so many times.\u201d Her consistent go-to\u2019s were \u201cOpposite,\u201d from Emails I Can\u2019t Send, and \u201cSharpest Tool,\u201d from Short n\u2019 Sweet<\/a>, songs that ache with second-guessing and distorted illusions. They mirror the experiences that Mark wrote into her latest album, Pretty Idea, about loving, losing, and trying again. The record is at once sensual, self-destructive, and lovelorn. It\u2019s an essential entry in the 2025 Pop-Girl Guide to Dating.<\/p>\n

\n\tThis year, women in pop have chronicled the chaos and confusion of dating with class, confidence, and slick humor \u2014 even when they\u2019re only laughing to keep from crying. While Mark reassessed the scene after six years, Carpenter shared dispatches from hell (where the bar for potential suitors has been set) on Man\u2019s Best Friend<\/a>; Dean taught a masterclass in love with sharp, almost anthropological observations on The Art of Loving<\/a>; and Jae Stephens<\/a> kept her standards high on Total Sellout.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\t\tEditor\u2019s picks<\/p>\n

\n\tThe characters and circumstances that inspired each album are different, but they\u2019re connected in their self-assurance and resilience in a precarious dating scene. Carpenter offers a precise summary on \u201cWhen Did You Get Hot?\u201d Ready to put herself out there again \u2014 after her simple request on \u201cPlease Please Please\u201d (\u201cI beg you, don\u2019t embarrass me, motherfucker\u201d) went ignored \u2014 she announces, \u201cNow, I\u2019m at the prospect convention.\u201d The lyric calls to mind the image of a flea market. There might be some killer, one-of-a-kind pieces hidden in there somewhere. But is it worth digging through all of the junk to find them?\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThe state of dating these days, it\u2019s not ideal,\u201d Mark says. That\u2019s putting it nicely. A recent year-end report<\/a> from Hinge found that 52 percent of daters feel \u201cashamed after being emotionally vulnerable,\u201d while 58 percent of Gen Z men are turning to AI to help start conversations on the app compared to 40 percent of women. Last November, Bumble published a report<\/a> on dating trends and forecasted that 2025 would be \u201ca transitional year, with women very clear about what they want and need, and what they are no longer willing to tolerate when it comes to dating and relationships.\u201d This particular set of pop releases puts this prediction into practice.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI give up on love too fast, so my therapist says,\u201d Stephens sings on \u201cChoosy,\u201d a synth-packed song about her one-strike-and-you\u2019re-out approach to dating. \u201cI wasn\u2019t writing that song with plans to break up with my boyfriend,\u201d she tells Rolling Stone. \u201cI think deep down I knew that I wanted to, and then a week later, it fucking happened.\u201d The mourning period was almost nonexistent \u2014 she\u2019s been told before that she \u201cwrites about men like they\u2019re disposable.\u201d Nonessential is maybe a more apt term. \u201cBoys are like buses,\u201d she says, echoing a lyric from \u201cBoyfriend Forever.\u201d \u201cGive it five minutes. Another one will roll through, and then I\u2019ll go through the vetting process again if I feel like it.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\t\tRelated Content<\/p>\n

\n\tIt\u2019s a needed reminder at a time when women often question their self-worth based on app algorithms that have given men a false illusion of access, or turn their most disastrous dates into story-time content on TikTok. In both directions, dating has been overhauled in a way that increasingly discards compassion and empathy. Dean was thinking about this while making The Art of Loving, a record she hopes makes listeners \u201cthink about love, where it exists in your life, and how you treat other people,\u201d she told Elle<\/a>. It\u2019s also about how you treat yourself. Dean already knows the answer when she asks \u201cIs it thinking too high of myself to not wanna be sad?\u201d on \u201cSomething Inbetween.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tDating should be well-intentioned and softhearted, the record emphasizes, and it should never come as a threat to your guiding principles. Listening to Mark, 31, Stephens, 27, Dean, 26, and Carpenter, 25, it\u2019s obvious that they\u2019re true lover girls at heart \u2014 they just don\u2019t believe every fairy tale they\u2019ve been sold about love. They\u2019ve encountered their fair share of mixed signals, commitment issues, and relationships that crumble without the foundation of friendship, or at the very least, care. They\u2019ve advised their friends about the same romantic problems, and the women in their audience have found comfort in their shared experiences.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tSettling for less is out of the question. Dean emphasizes this with undeniable charm on \u201cSo Easy (To Fall in Love),\u201d a record that acknowledges how lucky anyone would be to love and be loved by her. Carpenter takes second-chance romance off the table on \u201cGoodbye,\u201d but only after circling back on \u201cWe Almost Broke Up Again Last Night.\u201d Stephens keeps her options open on \u201cSMH,\u201d while Mark encourages her date to make a move before he misses his chance on \u201cOOO.\u201d Their self-assurance and personal growth builds a strong case for leaving situationships in 2025.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cLove and heartbreak, it\u2019s been sung about many, many, many times,\u201d Mark says, \u201cand it\u2019s always beautiful to see how we can take something that is so core to who we are as human beings and make it our own.\u201d At the end of Pretty Idea, she asks a guiding question: \u201cWere you just a lesson in love and rejection?\u201d Mark still isn\u2019t sure, but it helped to share her stories on the same stage as Dean and Carpenter, something she says she\u2019ll always hold close to her heart. \u201cSabrina, she really is very blunt about how hellish it can be to date, and I definitely feel her on that,\u201d she says. \u201cOlivia has very calm energy to me, and so she always has this very beautifully calm approach to expressing that same feeling.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tOn \u201cMy Man on Willpower,\u201d Carpenter deploys her signature satire to describe the \u201cfucked-up romantic dark comedy\u201d she\u2019s living in across Man\u2019s Best Friend. It gets so bad, she reveals on \u201cTears,\u201d that competence in a man starts to seem like an aphrodisiac. \u201cWomen have to reshape their dialogue and overall intentions in order to make sure they\u2019re not coming off a certain way,\u201d Carpenter told Rolling Stone earlier this year about leaning on sarcasm to communicate hard, often intensely self-aware truths. \u201cWhen in reality, I\u2019ve started to realize it doesn\u2019t make you a bad person to be assertive, or know what you want.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tWhen Dean sings \u201cI don\u2019t want a boyfriend\u201d on \u201cNice to Each Other,\u201d it\u2019s not delivered with any kind of callousness, just a sense of certainty. Even after taking the chance for a relationship off the table, she still leads with lighthearted flirtation. \u201cI think people have found a lot of liberation in that,\u201d Dean said. \u201cIt\u2019s almost kind of rebellious. I think as women, we are really conditioned to think that\u2019s something you should start looking for, planning towards, and investing a lot of time and energy into.\u201d On the album, she shares the heartening sentiment that \u201clove is never wasted when it\u2019s shared,\u201d but overall, there are some definite diminishing returns.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\n\tIn November, British Vogue published an essay titled Is Having a Boyfriend Embarrassing Now?<\/a> The article interrogated the idea that some women have become reluctant to publicly showcase their partners online for fear of coming across as a boyfriend-obsessed loser. At the same time, it continues, single women are reveling in the freedom of not being bound to traditional dating expectations. The author, Chant\u00e9 Joseph, unintentionally set a discourse fire that raged for days. It was fueled, at least partially, by reactionary takes from people who hadn\u2019t read beyond the headline. On the other side was an authentic assessment of the state of dating that is becoming hard to ignore.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cPeople were tagging me, like, \u2018Did you write this?\u2019\u201d Stephens says. \u201cI was like, \u2018What? I would never!\u2019 Then I read it, and I was like, \u2018Is this fucking play about me?\u2019\u201d She adds, \u201cWho you\u2019re dating should be the least interesting thing about you.\u201d Stephens has dated men who were insecure about never appearing on her social media, which she reserves for promoting her music and capturing her personality. They didn\u2019t last long. \u201c[Dating] is supposed to be truthful to you,\u201d she says. \u201cRealistically, my truth was not accepted by this person. That\u2019s OK. They\u2019re not wrong for that. They just probably shouldn\u2019t date a pop star.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tIn a follow-up essay,<\/a> Joseph reported receiving \u201chateful abuse,\u201d mostly from men, in response to her viral article. \u201cThey likely saw the article as a threat to a system that has historically favored them,\u201d she wrote. \u201cIf having a man used to be the ultimate prize, and now some women are questioning whether it is anymore, well \u2026 that\u2019s bound to be destabilizing.\u201d Stephens hasn\u2019t dated any men she believes are bad people, per se \u2014 they were just kind of annoying. \u201cI appreciate delivering that with a wink and a smile,\u201d she says. \u201cI\u2019m always going to choose me and my needs over somebody who doesn\u2019t appear to care about my needs at all.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tThey\u2019ve gotten pretty good at redirecting negative emotions before they can internalize them too deeply. \u201cWhatever is meant for me is meant for me, and I\u2019m happy to put that out there,\u201d Stephens says. \u201cBecause I do think that it will inform the listener and give them a different perspective.\u201d Words of affirmation as a love language shouldn\u2019t only be reserved for relationships. They can inspire self-certainty, too. \u201cEach night, I found my light in the mirror\/Stars shine in my eyes,\u201d Mark sings on \u201cDoin\u2019 Me.\u201d It pairs well with Dean\u2019s persistent reassurance on \u201cBaby Steps,\u201d where she notes \u201cI\u2019ll be my own pair of safe hands\u201d and \u201cThere\u2019ll be roses on the shelf, \u2019cause this house gon\u2019 love itself.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\n\tAs 2025 comes to an end, Stephens is saying goodbye to uncertainty and second-guessing. \u201cLeave the overthinking behind and bring the intuition and the gut [feeling] back,\u201d she says. Mark is over it, too, and will be ditching having anxiety around dating in the new year. Between these four records, there\u2019s no shortage of reminders that exploring new sparks should be fun and flirty \u2014 from Carpenter\u2019s \u201cHouse Tour\u201d and Dean\u2019s \u201cMan I Need\u201d to Mark\u2019s \u201cLet Me Love You\u201d and Stephens\u2019 \u201cAfterbody.\u201d When butterflies become indistinguishable from a panic attack, it\u2019s time to go.<\/p>\n

\t\tTrending Stories<\/p>\n

\n\tThese records cover some hefty emotional ground as it contends with relationships and experiences that can impact self-perception so deeply. But they also make a strong case for self-preservation and confidence without complete cynicism. Love is all around. There\u2019s no need to settle for something that only slightly resembles it.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI think we inherently just love magic, and that goes hand in hand with the idea of falling in love, and the actual feeling of falling in love,\u201d Mark says. \u201cYou can find that in anything and anyone. I imagine it is something very sparkly, illuminating, and bioluminescent in our souls. That\u2019s what keeps us going and keeps the hope there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Photographs in Illustration:<\/p>\n

Anthony Nava; Lexie Moreland\/WWD\/Getty Images; Taylor Hill\/WireImage; Sean Zanni\/WireImage<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Amber Mark wasn\u2019t dreading going on another first date \u2014 she just hadn\u2019t expected she would ever need…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":351984,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[53],"tags":[175199,88,175200,216,43169,8248],"class_list":{"0":"post-351983","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-amber-mark","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-jae-stephens","11":"tag-music","12":"tag-olivia-dean","13":"tag-sabrina-carpenter"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/351983","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=351983"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/351983\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/351984"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=351983"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=351983"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=351983"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}