This week in pop music saw some fiery new releases. Bebe Rexha tapped Travis Barker for a revved-up tune, J Balvin dropped an unexpected track, and Conan Gray returned for a vibrant new single.
Offering another look at her upcoming album Better Mistakes , Bebe Rexha dropped the electric single “Break My Heart Myself.” Featuring Travis Barker on drums, the singer translates her mental health struggles into a shimmering and vulnerable dark-pop tune.
What better way for J Balvin to celebrate his 36th birthday than share new music. The singer shared “7 De Mayo” as a rhythmic reflection on his rise to fame. Opting for sparse instrumentation to let his lyrics shine, the rapper details growing up in his Medellín, Colombia neighborhood and how he rose to international fame through hard work and dedication.
With his second-released single following his 2020 debut album Kid Krow , Conan Gray looks to the past with nostalgia. Armed with an acoustic guitar and a soft piano, Gray’s tender ballad “Astronomy” details the pain of slowly growing apart from someone. “I find the worst heartbreaks happen slowly,” he said about the song. “No blowout fight and slamming doors and showing up on doorsteps while it's raining. Just a gradual decaying of love with nothing left to do to stop it from slipping away.”
With “Higher Power,” Coldplay are making a decisive pop pivot. Produced by Max Martin, the mind behind Britney Spears’ “Baby One More Time,” the exuberant single was actually premiered in space thanks to the band’s partnership with French astronaut Thomas Pesquet aboard the International Space Station.
Offering another preview of her upcoming debut album Troubled Paradise , Slayyyter drops “Over This.” The song features a glitchy mix of electric guitars and staticky synths and expertly teeters the line between hyperpop and pop punk.
Chloe Moriondo officially released her debut album Blood Bunny this week, featuring the charming track “Bodybag,” which playfully describes complicated feelings about having a crush. Ahead of the LP’s release, the singer spoke to Uproxx , about how she hopes her music will be remembered as “fun pop and rock music that lesbians all over the world loved.”
The High School Musical: The Musical: The Series actor and singer Joshua Bassett shared “Feel Something” as a snappy and driving tune about being young and carefree. The single glides between shimmering synths and hypnotic drums as Bassett’s delivers intimate verses about late-night mischievousness. "'Feel Something is a middle-of-the-night, windows down, running-around-the-city-with-your-friends type of song,” he said of the track. “After a year of lockdown, everyone can relate to 'doing anything we can just to feel something.'”
With her newly-released debut album Fresh Start , Bailey Brain translates her journey of self growth into song. Her song “Dark In The Morning” showcases her emotional songwriting and captivating vocal delivery as she sings about the hard lesson of leaving a relationship later than you know you should.
Lucy: The Music Industry Is Poisonous Album Review | Pitchfork
Massachusetts songwriter Cooper Handy's naive, bizarro-world pop is a portal to a dimension weirder and more vivid than this one.
Part of the joy of listening to this record is in the fun Handy clearly had making these songs—they sound effortless, one-take, fueled by a first-thought-best-thought ethos that doesn't bother to check itself. Even so, The Music Industry Is Poisonous is sometimes too goofy for its own good, so wide-eyed and unserious that it verges on twee, or worse, a comedy bit. Album closer "Lucky Stars," though, feels labored over in a way that the other songs don't. Drum machines shuffle in the background as detuned pianos recall evenings on the couch, watching old cartoons with friends. It's a proper ballad; you might even call it romantic. Best of all, Handy's lyrical hook riffs on " Maps ," the Yeah Yeah Yeahs classic. "They don't love me like I love me," he sings. You kind of don't believe him at all.
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Khaled Khaled review: DJ Khaled rounds up the best of pop music for a star-studded
DJ Khaled's new album includes collaborations with heavyweights like Jay-Z, Nas, Justin Timberlake, Cardi B, Justin Bieber, Drake, Lil Wayne, Megan Thee Stallion, and HER among others.
Given American artist and producer DJ Khaled's insane reach over the last decade or so, it would not be surprising to find out that MBA students and digital marketing executives alike have, at some point, made him the subject of their research and case studies.
It would likely start with the fact that his shout-outs on each and every track he is part of bears a calling card that is so distinct now that it has gone global – "DJ Khaled!" "We The Best Music!" and most famously, "Another One!" Khaled has pretty much been an affable, go-to producer for pop stars and hip-hop heavyweights but also that really annoying guy who relies heavily on these very same calling cards to the point that it is undoubtedly overused.
The affability has likely helped him make his latest album Khaled Khaled . It is a 14-track record which probably started years ago, and has now received something of a surprise (or at least short-notice) release. Khaled is undoubtedly gunning for the spot of one of the most glitziest, heavyweight collaborative albums of the year with this EP. The featured artists who are rapping and singing on the record range from longstanding titans like Jay-Z, Puff Daddy, Nas, Rick Ross, Justin Timberlake, and Buju Banton to reigning stars like Cardi B, Justin Bieber, Drake, Big Sean, and Lil Wayne, plus the freshest crop of heavy hitters – Post Malone, Megan Thee Stallion, 21 Savage, Migos, HER, Lil Baby, and DaBaby among others.
In a video interview with Lil Baby, Khaled is pretty much his enthusiastic, loud, and excitable self, talking about how he wants to "go harder" and take nothing for granted. "This is the part of my career, where you see the next level of talent. Me taking everything I ever did to the highest level – the music, the business side. The millions' been fun but I'm going for the billion," he tells Lil Baby.
It is one thing to put together this kind of dream team on paper, but it is entirely a heavy undertaking to execute it.
Khaled says he started with the beat and made sure each production was the best fit for each artist he invited to collaborate. Barring the two Drake tracks ' Popstar ' and ' Greece, ' which released in July 2020, every track is being consumed for the first time with the release of Khaled Khaled , most likely within the context of this being a star-studded album.
There is heart-tugging inspiration on ' Thankful ' with Lil Wayne and Jeremih, and more emboldened but somewhat cliched verses on ' Every Chance I Get ' featuring Lil Baby and Lil Durk. Khaled gets a bit old school, and keeps the beat straightforward and somewhat unpolished for Cardi B to pop off on ' Big Paper ,' while there is dancey vibes for HER and Migos on ' We Going Crazy .' Surprisingly, Khaled conjures a guitar-driven sample for ' I Did It ' with producers Joe Zarrillo, Tay Keith, and DJ 360, which is an album highlight also thanks to the crisp, quickfire vocals from Megan Thee Stallion, Post Malone, Lil Baby, and DaBaby. Where Khaled Khaled succeeds it is always keeping its finger on the pulse of radio-friendly, chart-topping music – ' Let It Go ' with Justin Bieber and 21 Savage is pretty much the best example of that, a sweet production that fits just right for the artists.
Then again, Khaled also does not want to let go of his roots, as he offers up a glimmering, classic beat for Nas and Jay-Z to run their verses on ' Sorry Not Sorry .' Counting the rap legends as two of his favorite MCs, Khaled says the track represents "culture of the highest level." He added in his interview with Lil Baby, "They (collaborators) know my heart is pure, and my soul is clean. It took me a few years to build the courage to actually ask." It even includes backing vocals and a writing credit for Beyonce, so that is how you know what kind of star power Khaled bears. As much as he gives his artists their space, Khaled's role as a producer who nudges in the right direction is best heard on ' Just Be ,' a heartfelt, understated pop track led by Timberlake. It is the kind of pop we always loved Timberlake for, and Khaled does well to bring it back.
Best new music: Mandy Rowden, Greta Gaines, and The Stan Laurels - The Morning Call
This week's reviews of new albums include a couple of female artists who have made impacts beyond their own albums, a pair of veteran guitar pop acts that continue to impress and a newer pop act that's injecting unique instrumentation and lyrical ambition into their music. Enjoy!
Gaines has all sorts of notables in her background. Her father wrote the bodybuilding tales "Pumping Iron" and "Stay Hungry" and invented the game of paintball. Her mother was a Miss Alabama contestant, while her two brothers have written music for films, ballet and theater. Greta herself was a pioneering champion woman snowboarder and is a prominent pro-cannabis activist. And yes, she has made a name for herself in music, and her sixth studio album, "Pale Star," is arguably her musical high point thus far. With thoughtful lyrics reflecting the challenges and lessons learned from the pandemic, Gaines retains her edgy Americana sound on the new album. Standout songs include the rockers "Giving Up The Ghost" and "Everafter," the ballads "Angel of Mercy" and "Apollo" and the robust mid-tempo track "Giving Up The Ghost." "Pale Star" figures to please existing fans of Gaines, while serving as a fine entry point for those wanting to acquaint themselves with her music.
Power pop as a genre has existed now for nearly 50 years, so it's a lot to expect for a band to bring anything innovative to this timeless style of music. And Allen, a veteran on the scene, isn't reinventing the power-pop form with his band Extra Arms. What he does is write songs with crisper arrangements and bigger hooks than most of his power-pop peers. On "What A Rip," Allen splits the difference between hard-rocking songs (the punk-ish "Get to The Gig" and the retro-ish pop-rocker "Look In My Eyes") and several strong ballads (the dreamy "Shannon Cake" and the Beatles-esque "Only Sun."). "What A Rip" is another solid effort from the prolific Allen, who has also just released a fun and (mostly) loud guitar-drenched six-song solo EP, "Digital Hiss." He just keeps the good stuff coming.
Music writer Alan Sculley is a contributor to The Morning Call. Alan can be reached at alanlastword@gmail.com
Commissioning Editor, Popular Music TV | Jobs | Music Week
Under the leadership of Lorna Clarke, Controller of Pop, the new evolved Pop Music TV Commissioning team will solely focus on pop music commissions, increasing its impact across all platforms to deliver a portfolio approach with our radio stations and increase habit with audiences.
As well as exploring opportunities and telling stories from the world’s most popular artists from the last 70 years, and broadcasting large scale event TV, the Pop Music team will shine a light on musicians who have enjoyed chart success in more recent years and explore subjects that will appeal to younger audiences. We are also keen to broaden our range of documentaries through more investigative styles and documentaries with great access and a fantastic cast both in front and behind the camera, providing true authentic insight our expert audience cannot get elsewhere.
You will work closely with the Controller of Pop to construct and deliver the commissioning strategy for BBC Pop Music, building and maintaining a strategic relationship with the supplier base at a senior creative level that generates, develops and nurtures the best ideas. You will deliver maximum impact by developing innovative ideas and exciting content commissions using all the platform tools available, with a sophisticated analysis of target audience needs and in line with agreed budgets and regulatory requirements.
You will develop distinctive talent led music discovery with enhanced choice and control that builds relationships with fans, artists and audiences. You will harness your brilliant working relationships with the music industry and our partners to build genuine creative ambition around talent discovery, breadth of artist stories, refreshing ways of using our great archive, and ambitious music on-demand treatments. The vision for Pop Music across the content portfolio is to deliver the best music for audiences and fostering the BBC’s crucial role in developing new talent. This role will need to utilise the might of the BBC drawing on the scale of Radio 1 and Radio 2 and the specialist audiences on 6 Music, 1Xtra and Asian Network to foster some exciting collaborations across the BBC’s Pop portfolio.
Relationship management is a fundamental part of this role, acting as a key contact for suppliers during the development and production process, offering advice and guidance on our requirements, feedback on pitches and fostering collaborative working relationships. You will also manage and nurture relationships with key on screen and off screen talent and always be looking to identify new, emerging talent.
You’ll encourage risk-taking and innovation, identify key genre trends and seize opportunities to evolve the genre.
This is an outstanding opportunity for a true expert in the field of Pop Music Television. A creative figurehead with programme making expertise you will bring a track record in attracting the best programme-makers and nurturing new talent (on and off-screen). Committed to our diversity and inclusion objectives you will have a rich understanding of how to reach wider audiences with our pop music offer.
To ensure success it is vital that you have experience in leading creative teams and you will be able to demonstrate your achievements in identifying excellence and driving quality in commissions. Audiences are at the heart of everything we do so you need to have a deep understanding of changing audience consumption patterns (particularly on VOD and SVOD platforms) and show evidence of creating diverse content and developing new on-screen talent.
You will need to have a deep understanding of what audiences want from music programming and the ability to work with big name talent to deliver it. You will need a proven record of strong relationships in the music industry and demonstrable music-related commissioning experience to enable collaboration across the BBC. The ideal candidate will have an understanding of the craft of film making and delivering films out of the edit with the best possible production values.
Who is really writing K-pop songs?
Best pop songs of the last 30 years | Entertainment | missoulian.com
Stacker put together a list of the 50 best pop songs of the last 30 years based on the Billboard Pop Songs chart from its inception all the way up to Sept. 30, 2017.
While pop music has origins as far back as the 1920s , it didn't really take shape as a genre until the 1950s. In the decades that followed, the term was largely used to denote a specific type of catchy sound or style, which usually overlapped with other genres like rock, country, folk, soul, R&B, and electronic. As the trend persisted into the 1980s and 1990s, the concept itself continued to evolve to the point that "pop music" didn't overlap with peripheral genres as much as it did swallow them whole. To keep pace, the Billboard Pop Songs Chart debuted on Oct. 3, 1992.
Stacker is listing out the greatest pop songs of all time, based on weekly performance on the Billboard Pop Songs chart from its inception all the way up to Sept. 30, 2017. Artists and songs are ranked by way of an inverse point system, with weeks at #1 earning the greatest value, and weeks at the lower spots earning the least. Due to changes in chart methodology over the years, eras are weighted differently to account for chart turnover rates during various respective periods. Artists are then ranked based on a formula blending performance—as outlined above—of all their Pop Song chart entries.
Being that the list is bound by specific parameters, there's an absence of names like Michael Jackson or Madonna. Meanwhile, The Goo Goo Dolls and Bruno Mars have three songs on the chart—the most among all the artists. Nickelback, Bruno Mars, Timbaland, OneRepublic, Maroon 5, Kelly Clarkson, and 3 Doors Down all have two songs on the chart. Everyone else has one song on the chart. OK, enough with the spoilers. Here are the best pop songs of all time.
In 2012, Taylor Swift continued to stray from her country roots to forge a broader pop aesthetic. Putting that newfound sensibility on full display was this hit single from her wildly successful album, "Red." With its palpable dubstep influence, the song sees Swift experimenting in terms of sound and style, but sticking close to familiar subject matter. Specifically, the song is about a break-up, albeit one that Swift saw coming from a mile away.
Proving Taylor Swift isn't the only artist who can channel bad romance into a hit song, Lady Gaga unleashed this infectious dance single in 2009, cementing her status as pop royalty. Along with the catchy music came an eye-popping video, which in 2018 was named by Billboard as the best music video of the 21st century .
Chris Brown may be as famous today for his endless legal troubles as he is his music. In 2005, however, he was among the industry's newest and brightest stars. Giving him a formidable boost was this aggressive hip-hop song, which was co-produced by then-hitmaker Scott Storch. Rap artist Juelz Santana provided additional lyrics.
Bearing no resemblance to a 1962 hit song of the same name, Fergie's "Big Girls Don't Cry" finds the artist coping with a breakup against a backdrop of relatively sparse instrumentals. Produced by fellow The Black Eyed Peas member will.i.am, this was one of a few singles to contribute to the success of Fergie's debut solo album, "The Dutchess." In 2017, Fergie released a follow-up album, "Double Dutchess," to less fanfare .
Popstar Ellie Goulding certainly isn't the only one who prefers to sleep with the lights on , but she might be the only one to turn that habit into a chart-topping single. In somewhat fitting style, the song proved to be a sleeper hit, taking its sweet time before landing on the Hot 100 chart, where it stayed for more than a year.
The trendy use of pop music in TV dramas is becoming tiresome
Here's a dilemma. You're a TV commissioner, and you want a costume drama that will bring prestige to your channel and do well in the overseas market. But wait! Aren't costume dramas "problematic" nowadays? Dickens was a misogynist. Hardy's copybook wasn't exactly unblotted. And Nancy Mitford – posh, snobbish Nancy Mitford – how on earth can we make her relatable?
This epidemic reached its height with the Regency-set Bridgerton , which does things slightly differently, in that the music of Ariana Grande or Taylor Swift is put through the strainer of a string quartet, thus adding another layer of knowingness to an already tricksy series.
I don't mind these things per se, but what once felt like a novelty, something fresh and innovative, is now beginning to wear thin. It's an idea that should belong to one auteur, rather than being a mandatory artistic decision for all directors worth their salt. I also think pop music can be a lazy shorthand way of getting people to relate to the work – relatability, of course, being the obsession of execs who fear their offerings might be too recherché for hoi polloi.
In fact, TV is late to this party. With The Pursuit of Love, Mortimer is showing her debt to Sofia Coppola's Marie Antoinette (and not just with the soundtrack: the aesthetics feel similar, too). But cinema has been using anachronistic music for half a century. Funnily enough, it was the Western that broke barriers here. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid was enlivened by the decidedly unmacho Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head. At around the same time, we had Robert Altman's McCabe & Mrs Miller, framed by the sepulchral tones of Leonard Cohen.
It became a particular cinematic vogue in the 1990s. Annie Lennox's Love Song for a Vampire comes like a bolt from the blue in Francis Ford Coppola's anachronistic Dracula; while Jake Scott (son of Ridley) used some of the chutzpah he learned as a director of commercials and music videos to spice up Plunkett & Macleane, a largely forgotten highwayman drama starring Robert Carlyle and Jonny Lee Miller which used Craig Armstrong, Brian Eno and David Byrne.
Shortly afterwards, there came a point when two costume dramas were talked about as much for their modish soundtracks as their period settings. Baz Luhrmann's Moulin Rouge used pop music (most memorably Elton John's Your Song) to enhance spectacle, while in A Knight's Tale, a knowing sort of medievalism was enhanced by Sly and the Family Stone, AC/DC and, I kid you not, Bachman-Turner Overdrive.
'Everything's dialled up to 11': meet Australia's rising stars of hyperpop | Australian music |
It's hyperpop: a booming, blossoming microgenre that's fast establishing itself as the nucleus of 2020s pop in Australia and beyond.
Epitomised in the music of artists such as Oh Boy, Ninajirachi, Donatachi, Cookii, Perto, Daine, Muki, and Banoffee (you will find a lot of "ie" sounds in hyperpop), Australia's take on the genre is variegated and contested. At the same time, it's producing some of the most vibrant and delightfully strange pop in the country.
Nina Wilson, a Central Coast-born producer who records as Ninajirachi, was one of Australia's first notable hyperpop artists. A Triple J Unearthed High finalist in 2017, Wilson's music is glassy and exhilarating, drawing in club influences alongside the bright, exaggerated sound. Her latest release, a collaborative record with Kota Banks titled True North, is a neat, distinctive document of the genre's local form.
Wilson was in year 10 doing work experience at Sydney community station FBI Radio when she first heard Sophie. She'd just begun to try her hand at songwriting and production; it was a formative moment.
Around the same time, collectives like Sidechains – a Sydney club night and FBI show – and Nina Las Vegas' NLV Records were bringing the sound into clubs and radio mixes. "I had just turned 17 when [Sidechains] ran the Sophie show at Hudson Ballroom and I was so gutted [that I was underage]," Wilson says. "From what I've heard from friends, like Oh Boy and Donatachi, their parties were the best thing at the time."
Through collaborations with higher-profile artists such as Brisbane-born star Mallrat and American hyperpop upstart Slayyyter, Donatachi has become one of Australia's better-known hyperpop producers. "We were listening to a lot of [AG Cook's label] PC Music, and it kind of all stemmed from there," they tell me. "It was really born from a similar idea to what PC Music had: all the kind of obnoxious elements of Top 40 pop, but dialled up to 11."
Donatachi hears a certain levity and playfulness that is specific to hyperpop in Australia. "Hyperpop is taken less seriously here, so the artists making it [do too]," they explain. "I'm a bit self-deprecating as it is, so I don't want to make the music I'm making sound super serious – I guess almost as a way of protecting myself from a letdown if people don't like it."
Two of the genre's younger artists are poised to take it more mainstream. Sydney producer Perto and Melbourne singer-songwriter Daine have both signed to Warner Music Australia, the genre's major label of choice due to its associations with Charli XCX and 100 Gecs; and each artist puts their own spin on the sound, with Perto's music touching on EDM and Daine's taking cues from emo rap progenitors like Lil Peep and Wicca Phase Springs Eternal.
Upon the release of her latest single Boys Wanna Txt, produced by 100 Gecs' Dylan Brady, Daine became one of the first Australians to grace the cover of Spotify's hyperpop playlist – a coup for any emerging artist. Still, she's not so sure her music aligns with the scene itself.
All 31 songs from Season 1 of 'Girls5eva,' ranked - Los Angeles Times
But if the songs were designed to advance "Girls5eva's" fictional story — and to satirize the dubious mores of the "TRL" era — more than a few of them approach bop status in the real world. Last week, a nine-track "Girls5eva" album came out on streaming platforms; here's a complete list of all 31 of the show's songs, including those heard for only a line or two, ranked from just a little funny to funnier than the bed-shaped car — "It's Sealy Posturepedic for Alfa Romeo" — seen in a fake episode of "MTV Cribs." (You really need to watch this show.)
30. "Paris" (Episode 1)
As the group's "hot one," Phillips' character, Summer, says her specialty in Girls5eva is ending songs "with a sultry femi-nasty phrase."
28. "Invisible Woman" (Episode 3)
Alf Musik's second try is similarly dreary in an un-Martin-like way, though that's precisely the point of what he calls an "authentic anthem" for past-their-prime pop singers who freshen their armpits with Listerine breath strips.
26. "Sweetheart Sweats" (Episode 4)
The pumped-up theme song from a workout video starring Summer and her still-floppy-haired boy-band star of a husband, Kev, played by Andrew Rannells.
24. "Solano's Crematorium" (Episode 2)
A very catchy jingle that Bareilles' character, Dawn, recalls writing for her brother's first business.
22. "Blue Eyes" (Episode 3)
A dreamy ballad heard in flashback as the women recall how problematic their old songs were.
21. "Incredible" (Episode 3)
Key lyric: "We may be incredible, but that don't mean we're credible / Sometimes girls lie."
20. "God's Flashlight" (Episode 4)
Key lyric: "It illuminates secrets / Powered by truth and batteries."
19. "Stronger Than the Best" (Episode 5)
A sweeping if not quite logical power ballad meant to "motivate bitches on SoulCycle bikes or play on the news after a devastating hurricane," as Goldsberry's character, Wickie, puts it.
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