Pop is music that becomes part of the vernacular; lovable and well-crafted songs that have achieved considerable commercial success.
Jazz, the blues, R’n’B, gospel and folk are among pop’s roots, while electronica, dance, rock, metal and hip-hop are just some of its branches. Of course, it is worth remembering that to be good encourages popularity, but to be popular is not always to be good. An understanding of contemporaneous societal pressures (and the ability to relieve these) is a positive aspect of pop music. We certainly agree with Johnny Rotten when he said, “Pop music I have always loved best.”
But what of the nagging notion that pop music is lesser, diluted, lacking in substance and ultimately, manufactured?
Peter Tork argued that, “Pop music is aspirin and the blues are vitamins.” Prince once uttered, “What’s missing from pop music is danger,” and Bono’s thoughts on the matter include: “Pop music often tells you everything is OK, where rock music tells you it’s not OK, but you can change it.”
Perhaps our favourite quote comes from Nina Persson, lead singer of The Cardigans, who said, “Pop music is a difficult term to define. Good music is good music whatever genre it comes from.”
And now that the classification debate is all sorted (is it ever sorted?), which songs from pop’s extensive and varied oeuvre should you be playing to test your stereo speakers? Thought you’d never ask… We have picked out 25 of the best we can think of and here we explain why they are a match for even the most gifted drivers. Our selection spans a whopping 50 years of the genre, too, so there’s no danger of 1980s synth-and-jangle overkill.
Billie Eilish Bad Guy (2019))
If Jack White of the White Stripes and Lorde were to collaborate, their first single might sound something like Billie Eilish’s Bad Guy.
The first three-quarters of the track clips along at 135 beats per minute and then, in the last quarter, there’s a glorious deconstructed meltdown to just 60bpm. Call it what you will – electropop, dance-pop, pop-trap or nu-goth pop have all been suggested as its genres – Bad Guy is just one of the highlights from Eilish’s debut album, When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?
The track’s minimalist production, employing synth bass, kick drum, amplified finger snaps,
