Types of Pop Music

Written by Changeling Nox — December 12, 2018

A really informal and uneducated Opinion

So, from what I can tell, there are basically 4 types of pop song:

The Love Song ("They're hot and I wanna bang em")

The Drug Song ("I wanna get blitzed and party")

The Brag Song ("I'm hot shit and get all kinds of laid")

The Drag Song ("My life sucks")

Pretty much all pop songs are one of these 4, with some variations--for example "They're hot and I wanna bang em (but I can't)", "They're hot and I wanted to bang em (but now I don't)", "My life sucks (and it's your fault)", "My life sucks (but I won't let it kill me)". Some songs combine two or more of these--"My life sucks, so I wanna get blitzed and party".

I say "pop" but tbh even songs that most people don't consider pop are usually still one of these. All 4 of these song types have been overwhelmingly popular at least as far back as the middle ages (not necessarily approved of by society's gatekeepers, but popular).

Am I totally off base about this? Is there a song type I missed, or a category that could be better defined?

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Comments

PhilthePill PhilthePill

December 13, 2018 16:48

I mean, to the extent that we can reduce pop, I would say there is one core purpose to pop and that is

  1. celebrating life

In response, there's been subversions, revisions, and explorations of pop to navigate nihilism, existential crises, and - most of all - romantic heartbreak. But is it really pop if there isn't a beat or machination of the song which you can play at something like a wedding or dance club where the express purpose is for humans to be like, "I like being alive!"

But to go back to the major subgenres, I'd agree that you're on to something:

  1. "Being in love"
  2. "Breakups and Unrequited Love"
  3. I would combine the drug and brag genre into a generalized "hedonism" genre
  4. The Drag Song is hard to quantify. It definitely exists, but it always tends to veer into the "alternative" genre of music. Stuff like Twenty One Pilots is certainly pop-alternative and they delve into existential angst, so that could count.

I would add two key genres

  1. The rascal song - Think of something like "The Lazy Song" by Bruno Mars. It's where we celebrate charismatic foibles like sloth, shyness, or slight incompetence where the singer still comes across as hashtag-relatable.

  2. The overcoming song. Think of something like Rachel Platten's "Fight Song." It can dovetail with the breakup song, but it's on the other side of that and can be used to apply to any adversity in the audience's life, such as medical troubles. It can also be used in political contexts like 99 Luftballons or We Didn't Start the Fire.

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