rolling pop 2020s

thanks sean and breastcrawl :)

i w*rk in a clinical lab. the managers generally frown on both headphones + streaming (tho they are starting to budge on the second one slightly) so radio tends to be the default source of background noise

Interesting, thx - sorry 2 be nosy :)

that dyl superpost is reminding me how disconnected from MY WORLD OF YOUNG PEOPLE the plague is making me feel... no concerts and no outdoor music of any kind means that it's easy to stop panning for flecks of gold in the muddy fields of radio pop. I should really go back to listening to Singles Jukebox i guess.

This track seems to have done fairly well; it's basic, but I like it (the songwriters include my crew - Tommy Brown, Victoria Monét, Ariana Grande).

BLACKPINK - Ice Cream (feat. Selena Gomez)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vRXZj0DzXIA

Btw - I really enjoy the (streaming) Deluxe version of Selena Gomez’s Rare (as distinct from the physical “Deluxe” version of the album, which I also own but has a different tracklist). The streaming version is basically a playlist of everything she’s released in the past year, and it’s highly listenable. (“Rare” is a tremendous single, IMO—I’ve gone on about it in the Selena Gomez thread, & won’t rehash it here.)

I like this (especially the beat... and that little d'n'b drop at the end!):

Audrey Nuna - Damn Right

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4bc1xg5ctUc

i didn't expect i would like "ice cream" but it's pretty good. i like "damn right" too

is it pop, is it r&b? either way, it’s further proof of the continuing integration of afropop into the international pop fabric:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AyOhdUxScls
Aluna ft. Rema & Kaytranada • The Recipe

jointly produced by Kaytranada and Nigerian producer Altims

v v pretty

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xDDwmCn_Qm4

Emilie Nicolas • Oh Love

what is going on with madison beer? is there really no way forward that does not involve assuming every aspect of an already-established star's aesthetic?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GfsLT7W80AE

Lol, that’s hilarious

Madison Beer = watery domestic

its really funny + weird that major labels have spent 7 years trying to get a hit out of her and still haven't really succeeded. usually by this point either the label or artist gets fed up with that but instead we get this weird desperate flailing i guess

The “Controversies” section of her Wikipedia page is really humorous.

'Fools' and 'Selfish' are good songs and she has a decent enough voice, but she's the kind of artist where you could hear five of her songs in five different contexts/playlists and not even realize they were all by the same person. it's unfair to pigeonhole her as the Walmart version of Ariana or Selena or whoever when she's more like musical equivalent of the entire line of Great Value products. at this point her identity as a clueless/entitled influencer is more developed than her identity as as artist, but I guess it isn't too late for her to find herself even after all these years in the industry

I hope this song shoots to #1 in the US and stays there for at least 18 weeks. it's exactly what we deserve as a country atm:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=unZpEayPXio

she's the 9th most followed person on TikTok and the daughter of

https://i.imgur.com/NGPJcH7.jpg

Marc D'Amelio (Republican Party) ran for election to the Connecticut State Senate to represent District 25. D'Amelio lost in the general election on November 6, 2018.
In addition to running as a Republican Party candidate, D'Amelio cross-filed to also run with the Independent Party in 2018.[1]

D'Amelio was previously a Republican candidate for at-large representative on the Norwalk Public Schools Board of Education in Connecticut. D'Amelio was defeated in the at-large general election on November 7, 2017.

lol what a song. i would welcome its success over, like, "f2020," which one of the stations here is still trying to make a thing

(blackbear exuding STRONG 'how do you do fellow kids' energy in that video)

i remember back in 2015 initially thinking one of the tori kelly songs that was getting pushed to radio at the time ("should've been us" specifically) was ariana. even tho i didn't like any of the songs i heard from her it's too bad she never really found her niche in mainstream pop given her strength as a singer + performer

i've listened several more times now and have concluded i enjoy it (re: "be happy")

cannot fuck with "blackbear"

"Be Happy" just came up on a playlist for me. It's very well-recorded, I'll give it that (if only that)...

So much of this playlist pop is thin, twee, singsongy stuff involving positive affirmations, partying to escape depression/anxiety, etc.

I don't mind Bea Miller - she's sort of a less distinctive / more beat-forward Billie Eilish (this song is pretty, though somewhat old & being repackaged now):

Bea Miller - feel something

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ysNPk-qeesk

i feel like the last time i heard a bea miller song she wasn't singing quite like that :\

partying to escape depression/anxiety

there's a clunky but i guess sort of #relatable line in "mood" that aims right at this idea: "we play games of love to avoid the depression" etc.

i've gone back and listened to the original "be happy" and it's uneven as a song; they definitely retained all the best parts/lines for the remix, which is overall an improvement. mosey's verse is also cute and while blackbear's contribution just kind of takes up space, it's at least ignorable.

love Bea miller's chorus on k/da's 'the baddest'.

"thin" is the best descriptor for a lot of the folksy-electronic self-affirmation whining I'm finding on exploring "Billboard/NOW THAT'S what the kids are listening to" playlists. Feels like a throwback to 70's mainstream AM US pop, all buttermilk flavor.

Nice song & performance, IMO:

Charlotte Lawrence - Slow Motion (Johan Lenox Version)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OCLBQCGf9xQ

Not even sure where this new Beabadoobee album goes, here or indie pop or what, but it's good!

If only we had a category for "Not Pop"/"Not Indie". Something starting with the letter S.

She’s legit pop, in terms of streaming/TikTok success, but for my money her lyrics keep her in the “Rolling Worst Music” threads.

i like her song "care" that i guess is on the album

I think this is a nice, sophisticated track (I particularly like the little horn stabs):

Rudimental - Come Over (feat. Anne-Marie & Tion Wayne)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iN0iPfZUkUA

I don't know who this zoomer doofus is, but his stuff is pretty catchy:

Role Model - Going Out

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ufoLLZN-hZw

Role Model - Blind

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uh2b-17zhp8

No 2021 huh?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iQ7hdZZw7aE

and as long as i'm here
https://dirt.substack.com/p/dirt-does-pop-music-still-exist

dissing Gibbs and Eilish as "zero calorie" not helping make a very compelling case there (second link)

I...hadn't checked the first link yet obviously

I’ve tried to keep my ears open, but the most notable pop song I’ve heard so far this year (“Driver’s License”) already has its own thread. Would be great to get tipped to some other good ones, though.

lol yeah it's almost april and i still haven't heard any pop songs that i found particularly good or noteworthy that didn't already have their own thread ;_; 'pop' music truly is dead y'all

i'm currently fairly obsessed w/ kali uchis "telepatía" -- the tik tok kids are right sometimes! lil nas x song also pretty good but obviously that's already generating abundant discussion on his thread

but yeah anyone pls feel free to start a thread for 2021 and/or share some good stuff! or we can just keep talking here about how slim the pickings are recently lol

if I may be so bold to recommend: Eurovision 2020 (now featuring Eurovision 2021)

the yearly fix for my sweet pop tooth

kinda into this?

The Kid Laroi, Justin Bieber - "Stay"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kTJczUoc26U

desperately needs a garage remix?

charlie puth & cashmere cat co prod/wrote so it had a chance at being good. i like it ok but it left me a bit cold, idk could be more dynamic melodically or something

^ the chorus is SO puthy

i actually would kinda like it but it's too short and ends so abruptly!

Josie Dunne, a singer/songwriter I’m into (someone on here described her song Back to It as “if Meghan Trainor were good”), has been rolling a new project called Tennis — each track is released monthly as an Episode. It’s good stuff, if you’re into her sound.

^the new one she just dropped ("Episode 3: Cooped Up") is particularly nice:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dtYqiFVXC5s

New Foxes single is great

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-cqddw9iUDE

that's good but that lyric is ridiculous

really into the josie dunn, thank you! gettin CRJ energy myself

The entirety of that Josie Dunne album (Tennis) is now out – it's nice, sort of "experimental," in that some of the tracks are more sketches than fully fleshed-out songs (by design).

thanks for the bump, i really liked what i heard before!