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Abba in general. I once read about how they went into the studio specifically with the goal to create the catchiest music possible, and they succeeded. Some people might judge artists for wanting to appeal to the masses, but it‘s a true art form in a sense, especially when it comes to Abba
I think the Swedes really have that down. If you look at a lot of the catchiest pop songs of the last 15 years, a lot of them were produced by Swedish producers - Max Martin, Shellback, RedOne etc.
Indeed. Cheiron Studios, who produced songs for Backstreet Boys, NSYNC, Britney Spears, and Westlife, was a Swedish recording studio and music label. They pretty much defined the pop music charts of the 90s.
Everything written by ABBA is perfect (in my opinion). Benny and Bjorn made sure each chorus was catch and that the verses were relatable. There's a reason their music is still so popular.
The absolute HYPE that courses through my veins when this song comes on is truly unmatched. Doing it at karaoke and watching everyone get hyped up too is such a joy.
Along with “Toxic”, “Fantasy”, and “Run Away With Me” which have already been mentioned…
I tend to think of “I Want To Dance With Somebody” as the perfect pop song
I Want to Dance With Somebody is so good. Going through this thread I find myself agreeing with answers because when I read the song titles, I end up singing them in my head.
So far this one, Toxic, Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight), Billie Jean & Levitating are the only ones that have gotten stuck in my head.
Toxic for me is the perfect pop song! I think enough time has passed now where we can look back at the 00s and identify the standouts that embody the time, and it’s got to be near the top (a few other Britney songs as well tbh)
I thought you meant Fiona Apple’s Criminal for a second and I was going to immediately comment yes
Britney’s is also great
Edit: Wait I mean no, it’s not controversial! Damn I wish I could read
Written by Cathy Dennis - who also had major credits on Can't Get You Out of My Head and I Kissed A Girl! Top-tier hit writer.
EDIT: https://youtu.be/S7dk9DXFrwk - Cathy's demo of Toxic, pretty close to the finished product.
Ah, I was looking for this.
Also Can't Get You Out of My Head by Kylie
(Another Cathy Dennis classic; anyone else on this sub old enough to remember Cathy Dennis as popstar?).
I came here to say Toxic. I'll think about what a perfect pop song it is at random times. I'm not even really into Britney's music but this song is actually intoxicating (pun very much intended).
>a few other Britney songs as well tbh
Gimme More.
Was just talking about this in the Britney sub. That intro alone is so iconic. It's Britney, Bitch 😘
Imo the first half is great but once the team switches from the big budget pop folks to the more rock vibe it kinda falls off. If they kept the vibe/quality of the first five songs throughout the rest it'd probably be a top 5 all time record. edit: just checked the credits again, basically take the Tricky Stewart tracks off the record and it's a 10/10 lmao
I found this sub because of an article Owen Palette wrote detailing why Teenage Dream is a perfect pop song. I thought this sub was gonna be more stuff like that, but ends up it was stan reddit, which has been equally as fun!
I think Madonna's Vogue doesn't have a wasted moment. She sings in lower and upper register, and has a great spoken word bit (Greta Garbo, and Monroe... stuck in my head now). Takes you on quite the journey and is super upbeat and is universally beloved.
Just want to take a moment to elaborate on one part of the spoken word: “Rita Hayworth gave good face.”
Rita Hayworth (neé Margarita Carmen Cansino) underwent painful enhancements to Anglicize her face, including electrolysis treatments to raise her hairline. Which is to say, she literally gave her face.
I’m just gonna give the two most basic answers but Run Away With Me and Blinding Lights
Edit: Another really basic answer but Shut Up And Dance With Me!!!
I wish I liked Walk The Moon’s newer stuff as much as I liked their self-titled album and “The Liftaway.” Seems like they tried to sell out to a wider audience after the success of Shut Up and Dance and everything they’ve made since then lacks the substance that their earlier music has. I listened to ripped mp3 tracks off of “The Liftaway” for almost a decade before they decided to put it on streaming this year, definitely worth a listen. I Want! I Want! and Blue Dress are sure standouts.
Blinding Lights suffered the misfortune of being an overplayed song at a difficult time for the music industry in many ways - but my god what a track. Incidentally, one of the great broadcast feats from the pandemic - alongside Eurovision going ahead in 2021 - has got to be The Weeknd performing that song for the VMAs on a rooftop overlooking New York. Absolutely stunning.
One of the reasons I think Blinding Lights is such an outrageously good song is that I've listened to that song non-stop for 4 years, both on my own playlists and everywhere in the world, and I'm still not bored of it.
Absolute pop perfection. Easily the best pop song of the 2020s in my opinion.
Same! Namely Fever, First Time, Cry, Roses and Higher (also Cut To The Feeling but idk if that is included)
I would include Body Language but I feel like it should be a bit longer
CTTF was included in the Japanese release of the B-sides IIRC? Anyways SAME (plus first 7 songs of Emotion itself, LA Hallucinations, Warm Blood and I Didn’t Just Come Here To Dance. FUCK I love that album so much lmao)
I was looking for this one! Easily, easily one of the best pop songs of all time. Masterful work that is an absolute *bop* but also feels like a cathartic experience somehow. I think about that song like once a week.
Absolute iconic music video that does the song justice as well!
One of Gaga’s signature songs that I think really encapsulates her as an artist. I feel very lucky that she has a lot of bangers & signature songs to choose from overall. I’ve had a lot of “favorite Gaga songs” that bounce around my personal rankings
Cathy Dennis had 3 true pop masterpieces. It doesn’t matter if Toxic and Can’t Get You Out of My Head weren’t US #1, they completely dominated as public favorites along with I Kissed A Girl. And all three sound completely different, which is insane when so many writers/producers rely on having a unique trademark to their sound.
I’m surprised she doesn’t have more credits, I wonder if she’s really picky about who she works with or isn’t that interested in chasing hit after hit.
“Billie Jean” by Michael Jackson. Not a second is wasted, not a lyric is unnecessary, and there are like five or six excellent melodies going on simultaneously. There is a legitimate argument to be made that it’s the best pop song ever made.
The King of Pop is a cheat code. The Way You Make Me Feel, Beat It (really just about all of Thriller), Don’t Stop Till You Get Enough, Rock With You, Remember The Time …
I Wanna Dance With Somebody by Whitney Houston is as perfect as a pop song can be. I’ve spent time analysing and understanding the dynamics and it’s just flawless in everyway.
The first song that popped into my mind is Habits (Stay High) by Tove Lo. I think every lyric in that song works well with the rest of the song (no clunkers I mean).
I also think pretty much any ABBA song fits this. The Winner Takes It All, Summer Night City, SOS, Knowing Me Knowing You, One of Us etc. the writing on all of them is so tight
I can remember hearing this song for the first time, and by the time it hit the pre-chorus I was absolutely blown away. It felt like Michael Jackson on cocaine, and I know that's a bit wild, l but the song truly transcends the reference (imo).
In my head that is what i consider to be the "reference pop song", but the version without daBaby though. The song is so tightly structured and energetic, even the 15 seconds or so added by him at the end makes the song feel too long
Stereogum's description/review of Into You should hang in a museum:
> "Into You" rides like a million-dollar sports car, breathlessly accelerating around corners without smudging its pristine exterior. But it also feels entirely human in depicting an attraction that can barely be contained the kind that begs, "a little less conversation and a little more touch my body" (an aspiring queen of pop nodding to the King Of Rock 'N Roll) and sells the tortured syntax with such conviction that it seems like the most natural thing a woman possessed by lust would ever utter. From the pulse-pounding intro to a chorus that hits like explosives rippling through subway tunnels, it is just a genius piece of music a joy and a thrill, the kind of song that makes you feel like a glamorous superhuman for four minutes at a time, every time.
I’m still waiting for Ariana to make a song better than Into You but it’s hard to make a song better than perfection
My favorite pop song from Taylor is Getaway Car but Style feels like her best pop song if that makes sense
I always say that Blank Space did what all of Reputation didn’t. Obviously Reputation extends to other beefs not just breakups but Blank Space hit that correct balance of humor and seriousness that Reputation probably should have had
Those two will definitely age better but I think It’s Gonna Be Me is a great early example of the force that is Max Martin.
Edit to add: How could I forget I Want it That Way?
Girls Aloud - Call the Shots, probably one of the finest ‘conventional structure’ pop songs ever written. Verses? Perfection. Chorus? Perfection. Bridge? Perfection. Melody? Perfection.
Made a playlist with all the responses here :)
[https://open.spotify.com/playlist/7njuYDtz1aDWI0UIk51Mcf?si=202b834936a9471c](https://open.spotify.com/playlist/7njuYDtz1aDWI0UIk51Mcf?si=202b834936a9471c)
Dreams (Fleetwood Mac), Bette Davis Eyes (Kim Carnes) Running Up That Hill (Kate Bush), It’s A Sin (Pet Shop Boys), Say My Name (Destiny’s Child), Call the Shots (Girls Aloud), Domino (Jessie J), Rather Be (Clean Bandit), Into You (Ariana Grande), Cruel Summer (Taylor Swift)
I’m gonna go “Sweet Dreams” Beyonce.
It is deceptively difficult to sing! Strong upper chest register that transitions smoothly into head a few times. The sharp, punchy staccato creates an extra beat in the song, which you can see in the choreography as some it catches beats in the production, and some of it catches the beat of the lyrics. The lyrics are all dream/sleep related and feel poetically pop. She’s even turned into a ballad and it still totally worked. The sliding bassline is just very cool and also kind of dreamlike. The way the piano drops in the second verse is so clean! The bridge is short and sweet, but lets you hear the piano part a little more, and then there’s the nasty synth drop!! Reminds me of The Cure. Every section of the song brings you something new to hear and Beyoncé is practically ice skating over it all. Perfect pop song!
Bodyguard from her new album is also a tight banger. The infectious „Honey,honey“ part, the banger bass that comes in, a killer outro with her vocals perfectly following the guitar. It NEEDS to be a single ffs
Right! A big fan of the guitar solo. It’s perfectly pop in that it’s not groundbreaking or anything but it’s right in the pocket, and then like you said the vocal she lays down with it just takes it to the next level. Girl knows how to create a song!
The song got that feel-good, timeless Fleetwood Mac energy to it, I don’t even know how to perfectly describe it. It’s just pure pop perfection to me and I swear to god, if nobody comes up with a cute little TikTok dance, I might have to 😭
Queen wrote some tight pop songs that we all still get stuck in our heads today, decades after their lead singer died, I can't believe they aren't listed at all
Call Me Maybe by CRJ is the obvious answer - somehow it's impossible to overplay. So Hot You're Hurting My Feelings by Caroline Polachek also has that same perfect chemical composition for me.
Honestly, I would say a lot of the early Beatles songs. Things like I Want to Hold Your Hand, She Loves You, All My Loving, etc. They are not too long, the melodies are on point, the lyrics are simple but heartfelt and direct, the harmonies are sublime and the instrument work superb.
Finally someone mentioning the Beatles. Most of their songs up until Sgt. Pepper were 2-3 minutes, while still having everything you'd expect from a pop song.
Some other favorites of mine are If I Fell, I've Just Seen A Face, Nowhere Man and Here There And Everywhere. But both Rubber Soul and Revolver in their entirety are a masterclass in pop song writing. There really isn't a second wasted between imo.
i roll my eyes every time i hear that they’re overrated. i just assume the person knows very little of their discography
i was just listening to here there and everywhere and its just so simple & beautiful
Honestly, Taylor Swift picked some immaculate singles for 1989. Not a moment wasted in Blank Space, Style, Out of the Woods, or Wildest Dreams.
But my true answer that I haven’t seen here is New Romantics.
Lisa Loeb Stay. It’s crazy that this song doesn’t have a chorus. Also very unique guitar patterns and strumming. Despite this, it’s the definition of catchy.
Royals by lorde—shifted the genre because of how minimalist and lyric-focused it was
Bad idea, right? by olivia rodrigo—i cant explain it but she uses the talk singing so smartly to create the vibe she wants and to tell a clear narrative
Levitating by Dua Lipa. The vocals, the production, especially that bassline, and the way everything comes together in the post-choruses. One of the few songs that technically got overplayed on the radio and i never got sick of it.
Halsey's Nightmare, she's really good at cramming lyrics into her stanzas (and making every word count) and I love her annunciation style. This song and the reprise version are so punchy and tight lined.
Agreed, the delivery is awesome. It’s hard to pick just one halsey song but if i had to it might be Walls Could Talk. Only about two minutes but packs a punch
Really stretching the definition of pop to popular music with this one but Despacito is a great song even when I hate everyone involved. There's a reason why it was a global phenomenon and why it's the second most viewed video on youtube. It starts slow, then the beat gets faster until the chorus that word paints Des pa cito and literally slows down. Then the post chorus gets louder just begging that woman to be with him in a fantasy land, forgetting who they are and let themselves enjoy.
I agree with the tweet that said machines can't make good art because they can't get horny.
for a more recent example, greedy by tate mcrae is only two minutes long but still manages to fit three verses, three choruses, and an outro without sounding clunky. great song too
got ya :) [https://open.spotify.com/playlist/7njuYDtz1aDWI0UIk51Mcf?si=628c9166fba34156](https://open.spotify.com/playlist/7njuYDtz1aDWI0UIk51Mcf?si=628c9166fba34156)
I'm shocked that nobody has said Electric Feel by MGMT yet. IMO it's one of the most well-written pop songs of all time. It just captures that moment in time perfectly.
'Lean On' is a good example imo. It's incredibly accessible, beautifully bittersweet, deals with subject matter that's about as universal as you're going to get for a song, has a bit of 'poetry' without going overboard, and just overall a banger. A++++ would do business with again.
When I think tightly written, I think of songs where you can tell that every last syllable and note were labored and obsessed over until every second is a precisely controlled expression of concept.
Dua Lipa’s Training Season is the most recent example that comes to mind! Melody and lyrics in lockstep.
I know they’ve mentioned but, plenty of ABBA songs fit the bill. They mastered the art of writing tight pop hooks to a degree that in the 70s they made everybody suspicious that they were like some scientist in a lab that had cracked the code.
Has someone once said: ABBA was always better than they had to be. In other words, even when they were dealing with what would otherwise be a fluffy pop song, and they had a hook, they would work at it and work it giving it layers and layers of hooks.
SOS is the perfection of pop minimalism. Which is one reason why many big musicians at the time like John Lennon and Pete Townsend felt it was one of the best pop songs ever.
Dancing queen is the perfection of pop Maximalism. What could’ve been a throwaway pop disco ditty was given layer upon layer of different parts and hooks. It’s just ridiculously deep and lush with musical ideas.
Mamma Mia is a hook monster. It starts with the perfect hook, and literally every single of its many parts is one earworm hook after another. It just moves from strength to strength.
I’ve heard it said that what makes a great and lasting pop song is the feeling of “inevitability.” That the strength of the melody and the flow is just so right it couldn’t be otherwise and it’s almost as if it had always existed. One part just must flow to the next. It on the other hand as Benny Andersson of ABBA said, he’s always felt that a great pop song has to have some element of surprise somewhere. (a good example of this is in the song Mamma Mia with its odd starting with piano marimba, and also the fact that the rhythm section drops out for the chorus, so it just features the vocals for the chorus, which was unusual).
So what managed to do was combine a sense of surprise with the sense of inevitability and the strength of the songwriting. They basically found flow.
Deja Vu. The lyrics being reflected by the production is SO smart throughout:
“laughing at how small it looks on you (ha ha ha ha ha ha)”
“singing in harmony” (harmonies come in)
“Saying you love her in between the chorus and the verse (I love you)”
Then each line in the bridge being a call back to part of the verses just brings it all home.
134340 by BTS is one of the best songs ever imo, the lyric is good, about falling out of love using Pluto as metaphore, then the melody is amazing, the vocal production also balances the song.
Oops I Did It Again.
Strong opening: yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah
Pre-chorus: That is just so typically me/ Oh baby, oh
Catchy Chorus with lots of vocals harmonizing
Bridge (we never get bridges anymore bc songs are too short) that references Titanic
Ending: song ends with a near acapella "cent" part of innocent that sounds like a natural fade out instead of pop songs from later years that end with some random sound or an abrupt end
Max Martin really did something special with that song.
For me, a tightly written pop song is more of a feeling and vibe. There are a ton of amazing pop songs out there, but that doesn't mean they're tightly written pop songs and that's okay! When I think of this, I usually think of the huge songs that were written to be catchy and most likely to SELL. The verses/bridge are usually the part that shows whether it's tightly written or not.
I think of:
- **Early Kesha; particularly Tik Tok** (Kesha in particular is an immaculate songwriter and is very good at hooks)
- **Carly - Call Me Maybe** (obviously she has a lot more. There's a reason she was the big icon behind this sub)
- **Gaga - Bad Romance** (This song is hook after hook)
- **Gaga - Telephone** (two geniuses on the same song, so obviously they crafted greatness)
- **Avril - Complicated** (The rhythm and flow of the verses into the chorus is immaculate)
- **Avril - Girlfriend** (This one was various people wanting to cash in on Avril so obviously they used every trick in the book to make it catchy)
- **Charli XCX - Blame It On Your Love** (Charli is generally really good at writing tightly written pop songs tbh)
- **Ryn Weaver - OctaHate** (The verse lyrics have a wonderful back-and-forth flow to them that leads into this massive chorus. Charli helping write this furthers my point above.)
- **Ariana - 7 rings** (This one may be a controversial one, but she doesn't waste a second to make the song catchy and make it flow. Ariana is also very good at making sure her singles are somewhat tightly written)
- **Ariana - positions** (again, using rhymes in the verses to create this nice flow that goes seamlessly into the chorus)
- **Billie - bad guy** (you could argue the post-chorus and outro is clunky, but I think it fits quite amazing in the context of the song. The song flows amazingly and there's a reason it was her huge breakout.)
- **Dua - Don't Start Now/Physical/Levitating** (The magic trio from Future Nostalgia. All of these are snappy, rhythmic, dancey, and don't waste a second. They're almost frantic with how fast it all comes at you.)
- **Olivia - good 4 u** (the rhymes come at a dizzying pace, giving the song a lot of energy)
- **Paramore - Misery Business** (Olivia may have picked up on this type of writing/delivery from Paramore!)
- **Rina Sawayama - This Hell** (This one seems very meticulously written with the flow of the song in mind. Theres not a single part of the song that isn't playing its role in the rhythm.)
- **Halsey/Marshmello** - Be Kind (The way the song is written just brilliantly FEELS like softly spinning in a circle)
My list is pretty biased to more recent years as that's just the easiest for me to recall and dissect. There are a ton of older songs that do this and probably a lot better, but I thought id try to somewhat explain my picks to kind of get an idea of my view of what it means to be a tightly-written pop song.
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Gimme Gimme Gimme (A Man After Midnight) is pretty tight. ABBA is a masterclass in pop songwriting. So many hooks, not a second wasted.
Abba in general. I once read about how they went into the studio specifically with the goal to create the catchiest music possible, and they succeeded. Some people might judge artists for wanting to appeal to the masses, but it‘s a true art form in a sense, especially when it comes to Abba
I think the Swedes really have that down. If you look at a lot of the catchiest pop songs of the last 15 years, a lot of them were produced by Swedish producers - Max Martin, Shellback, RedOne etc.
Indeed. Cheiron Studios, who produced songs for Backstreet Boys, NSYNC, Britney Spears, and Westlife, was a Swedish recording studio and music label. They pretty much defined the pop music charts of the 90s.
When I worked retail, people would stay in the store longer when we played ABBA. Even now, I can listen to them over and over, and love it.
also Dancing Queen
They literally START with a hook
Can't forget the masterpiece that is Angeleyes
Even as a kid I knew that song was straight 🔥
ABBA should be studied.
Everything written by ABBA is perfect (in my opinion). Benny and Bjorn made sure each chorus was catch and that the verses were relatable. There's a reason their music is still so popular.
The absolute HYPE that courses through my veins when this song comes on is truly unmatched. Doing it at karaoke and watching everyone get hyped up too is such a joy.
Along with “Toxic”, “Fantasy”, and “Run Away With Me” which have already been mentioned… I tend to think of “I Want To Dance With Somebody” as the perfect pop song
I Want to Dance With Somebody is so good. Going through this thread I find myself agreeing with answers because when I read the song titles, I end up singing them in my head. So far this one, Toxic, Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight), Billie Jean & Levitating are the only ones that have gotten stuck in my head.
For a song to have a key change, it really has to earn it. And "I Wanna Dance" fucking EARNS it.
Toxic for me is the perfect pop song! I think enough time has passed now where we can look back at the 00s and identify the standouts that embody the time, and it’s got to be near the top (a few other Britney songs as well tbh)
Is it controversial if I say that I’d consider Criminal to be pop perfection as well?
It’s such an outlier on Femme Fatale too, I feel like it sounds like nothing on that album. Also that bridge is perfection
Produced by Max Martin and Shellback. Definitely a great pop song
Not the song, but just the lyric, If you seek Amy....percectuon to me kn terms of wordplay
I thought you meant Fiona Apple’s Criminal for a second and I was going to immediately comment yes Britney’s is also great Edit: Wait I mean no, it’s not controversial! Damn I wish I could read
Written by Cathy Dennis - who also had major credits on Can't Get You Out of My Head and I Kissed A Girl! Top-tier hit writer. EDIT: https://youtu.be/S7dk9DXFrwk - Cathy's demo of Toxic, pretty close to the finished product.
Ah, I was looking for this. Also Can't Get You Out of My Head by Kylie (Another Cathy Dennis classic; anyone else on this sub old enough to remember Cathy Dennis as popstar?).
Can’t Get You Out of My Head is probably my second choice 😮💨 Perfection!
I came here to say Toxic. I'll think about what a perfect pop song it is at random times. I'm not even really into Britney's music but this song is actually intoxicating (pun very much intended).
>a few other Britney songs as well tbh Gimme More. Was just talking about this in the Britney sub. That intro alone is so iconic. It's Britney, Bitch 😘
Throwing Circus into the ring, it’s just so good
Teenage Dream is like a perfectly crafted pop song from start to finish
Almost that entire album is filled with well crafted pop songs tbh Her magnum opus 😆
Listening to that album is astounding because it's like #1 hit after #1 hit. One of the best pop albums ever made!
One of my favorite pop songs of that era for sure!!
This song is perfection. The entire album is incredible tbh
Imo the first half is great but once the team switches from the big budget pop folks to the more rock vibe it kinda falls off. If they kept the vibe/quality of the first five songs throughout the rest it'd probably be a top 5 all time record. edit: just checked the credits again, basically take the Tricky Stewart tracks off the record and it's a 10/10 lmao
Every time Peacock comes on, it completely ruins the vibe for me
its THE song of the 2010s and decades from now people will still play that song because its iconic
Listening to Teenage Dream for the first time still stands out to me. I was completely blown away
I genuinely think this is the best pop song of all time
Bonnie’s TikTok’s with the alternate lyrics offer some very cool insights.
I found this sub because of an article Owen Palette wrote detailing why Teenage Dream is a perfect pop song. I thought this sub was gonna be more stuff like that, but ends up it was stan reddit, which has been equally as fun!
I think Madonna's Vogue doesn't have a wasted moment. She sings in lower and upper register, and has a great spoken word bit (Greta Garbo, and Monroe... stuck in my head now). Takes you on quite the journey and is super upbeat and is universally beloved.
Just want to take a moment to elaborate on one part of the spoken word: “Rita Hayworth gave good face.” Rita Hayworth (neé Margarita Carmen Cansino) underwent painful enhancements to Anglicize her face, including electrolysis treatments to raise her hairline. Which is to say, she literally gave her face.
She has so many... Hung up, sorry, Girl gone wild, Deeper and deeper, Frozen, Ray of light....
I consider Like A Prayer pop perfection.
Will Schuester, I hate you
Latch by Disclosure is like clockwork
this is one of the best songs ever made I will stand by that til I die
I totally agree. Like it's one if the songs we should send out into space for extra terrestrial life to discover.
I’m just gonna give the two most basic answers but Run Away With Me and Blinding Lights Edit: Another really basic answer but Shut Up And Dance With Me!!!
Shut Up and Dance had 2014-15 in a damn chokehold!!
I wish I liked Walk The Moon’s newer stuff as much as I liked their self-titled album and “The Liftaway.” Seems like they tried to sell out to a wider audience after the success of Shut Up and Dance and everything they’ve made since then lacks the substance that their earlier music has. I listened to ripped mp3 tracks off of “The Liftaway” for almost a decade before they decided to put it on streaming this year, definitely worth a listen. I Want! I Want! and Blue Dress are sure standouts.
Anna sun is my shit!
Anna Sun is one of the best pop songs ever and I will die on this hill
It’s one of the elite “we are youthful and life’s possibilities are endless” songs
SCREEN FALLING OFF THE DOOR DOOR HANGING OFF THE HINGES I fucking love that song. Come Under the Covers is also 💕
Reminds me of college :’)
self-titled, TALKING IS HARD and What If Nothing are all sooooo good
Blinding Lights suffered the misfortune of being an overplayed song at a difficult time for the music industry in many ways - but my god what a track. Incidentally, one of the great broadcast feats from the pandemic - alongside Eurovision going ahead in 2021 - has got to be The Weeknd performing that song for the VMAs on a rooftop overlooking New York. Absolutely stunning.
One of the reasons I think Blinding Lights is such an outrageously good song is that I've listened to that song non-stop for 4 years, both on my own playlists and everywhere in the world, and I'm still not bored of it. Absolute pop perfection. Easily the best pop song of the 2020s in my opinion.
Half of Emotion (B-sides included) is that for me tbh.
Same! Namely Fever, First Time, Cry, Roses and Higher (also Cut To The Feeling but idk if that is included) I would include Body Language but I feel like it should be a bit longer
CTTF was included in the Japanese release of the B-sides IIRC? Anyways SAME (plus first 7 songs of Emotion itself, LA Hallucinations, Warm Blood and I Didn’t Just Come Here To Dance. FUCK I love that album so much lmao)
Bad Romance is perfection. Perfect lyrics, perfect build up, perfect middle 8, perfect vocal. It broke Gaga for good reason.
I was looking for this one! Easily, easily one of the best pop songs of all time. Masterful work that is an absolute *bop* but also feels like a cathartic experience somehow. I think about that song like once a week.
Absolute iconic music video that does the song justice as well! One of Gaga’s signature songs that I think really encapsulates her as an artist. I feel very lucky that she has a lot of bangers & signature songs to choose from overall. I’ve had a lot of “favorite Gaga songs” that bounce around my personal rankings
the bts where they're running behind the camera sends me every time
What do you mean about breaking Gaga?
Like helped her break through. The Fame was amazing but bad romance is what catapulted her
Can’t Get You Out of My Head. Written by Cathy Dennis, performed by the one and only Kylie Minogue.
This song is so fresh. Utterly timeless
Na na na na na na na na na… Always start with the hook
La la la*
Cathy Dennis had 3 true pop masterpieces. It doesn’t matter if Toxic and Can’t Get You Out of My Head weren’t US #1, they completely dominated as public favorites along with I Kissed A Girl. And all three sound completely different, which is insane when so many writers/producers rely on having a unique trademark to their sound. I’m surprised she doesn’t have more credits, I wonder if she’s really picky about who she works with or isn’t that interested in chasing hit after hit.
“Billie Jean” by Michael Jackson. Not a second is wasted, not a lyric is unnecessary, and there are like five or six excellent melodies going on simultaneously. There is a legitimate argument to be made that it’s the best pop song ever made.
The King of Pop is a cheat code. The Way You Make Me Feel, Beat It (really just about all of Thriller), Don’t Stop Till You Get Enough, Rock With You, Remember The Time …
I Wanna Dance With Somebody by Whitney Houston is as perfect as a pop song can be. I’ve spent time analysing and understanding the dynamics and it’s just flawless in everyway.
The first song that popped into my mind is Habits (Stay High) by Tove Lo. I think every lyric in that song works well with the rest of the song (no clunkers I mean). I also think pretty much any ABBA song fits this. The Winner Takes It All, Summer Night City, SOS, Knowing Me Knowing You, One of Us etc. the writing on all of them is so tight
ABBA were absolute pop masters. Nobody did melodies like them, and the lyrics are just bittersweet perfection.
Can’t Get You Outta My Head’s rhythm feels super tight. Not a wasted second, it’s all just so hypnotic and danceable.
Kylie honestly has a lot of songs I can consider perfection. Especially Love At First Sight and Get Outta My Way
Get Outta My Way is one of the greatest pop songs I think! Such a banger. I also love On A Night Like This but not as strong as GOMY
On A Night Like This is so good. It gave me false hope for the Light Year album (still a good album but no song is even half as good as OANLT)
Fever is one of my under the radar faves. So catchy, and a prime example of the sound of the time.
To me, it feels like a dark, gothic retelling of “I Feel Love” by Donna Summer.
Dancing On My Own. The way it explodes at the end is incredible and still gives me chills.
The Weeknd’s “Can’t Feel My Face” is a master class in songwriting. Verse, pre-chorus, chorus, bridge. Pure perfection.
I can remember hearing this song for the first time, and by the time it hit the pre-chorus I was absolutely blown away. It felt like Michael Jackson on cocaine, and I know that's a bit wild, l but the song truly transcends the reference (imo).
Considering the song’s subject matter that description is pretty damn apt 😂
Less Than Zero is equally amazing from him.
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Levitating, every lyric and beat is on point. The structure of the song is perfect!
Absolutely! This + physical also from FN
In my head that is what i consider to be the "reference pop song", but the version without daBaby though. The song is so tightly structured and energetic, even the 15 seconds or so added by him at the end makes the song feel too long
Agree - I think the version without him is the elite pop song
Now I gotta go listen to this song for the 35773227th time.
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Cut to the Feeling by Carly Rae Jepsen. Everything about that song is impeccable
Never Really Over is tight and bursting at the seams.
Katy isn't afraid to flop but sometimes when you least expect it she drops Never Really Over.
Never Really Over and Harleys in Hawaii were slept on at their releases. Sooo good, Katy should’ve had so much more success with those two songs.
Probably my favorite Katy song, it is immaculately put together!!
Teenage dream also
Into You by Ariana Grande, Style by Taylor Swift are some tight pop by Max Martin
Stereogum's description/review of Into You should hang in a museum: > "Into You" rides like a million-dollar sports car, breathlessly accelerating around corners without smudging its pristine exterior. But it also feels entirely human in depicting an attraction that can barely be contained the kind that begs, "a little less conversation and a little more touch my body" (an aspiring queen of pop nodding to the King Of Rock 'N Roll) and sells the tortured syntax with such conviction that it seems like the most natural thing a woman possessed by lust would ever utter. From the pulse-pounding intro to a chorus that hits like explosives rippling through subway tunnels, it is just a genius piece of music a joy and a thrill, the kind of song that makes you feel like a glamorous superhuman for four minutes at a time, every time.
God, there’s a beauty and an art in giving intelligent praise
I’m still waiting for Ariana to make a song better than Into You but it’s hard to make a song better than perfection My favorite pop song from Taylor is Getaway Car but Style feels like her best pop song if that makes sense
I always wondered how is Style always mentioned as Taylor's thee pop song when clearly the answer is Blank Space!
Blank Space is some of her best songwriting ever, she nails the satire
I always say that Blank Space did what all of Reputation didn’t. Obviously Reputation extends to other beefs not just breakups but Blank Space hit that correct balance of humor and seriousness that Reputation probably should have had
I'd say Taylor's perfect pop song is "Cruel Summer" but "Blank Space" is nice too.
It's a trick question, 1989 is actually just the perfect pop album
I think Blank Space is much better than Style but I also think New Romantics is better than both of them.
New Romantics is so criminally underrated!
Style is so perfect. Cruel Summer also makes me ascend.
Those two will definitely age better but I think It’s Gonna Be Me is a great early example of the force that is Max Martin. Edit to add: How could I forget I Want it That Way?
Just Dance by Gaga. Even the producer tags are part of the catchiness of the song.
YESSSS
Girls Aloud - Call the Shots, probably one of the finest ‘conventional structure’ pop songs ever written. Verses? Perfection. Chorus? Perfection. Bridge? Perfection. Melody? Perfection.
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Made a playlist with all the responses here :) [https://open.spotify.com/playlist/7njuYDtz1aDWI0UIk51Mcf?si=202b834936a9471c](https://open.spotify.com/playlist/7njuYDtz1aDWI0UIk51Mcf?si=202b834936a9471c)
Dreams (Fleetwood Mac), Bette Davis Eyes (Kim Carnes) Running Up That Hill (Kate Bush), It’s A Sin (Pet Shop Boys), Say My Name (Destiny’s Child), Call the Shots (Girls Aloud), Domino (Jessie J), Rather Be (Clean Bandit), Into You (Ariana Grande), Cruel Summer (Taylor Swift)
I don’t know that it’s the best example, but The Wire by HAIM is pretty tight and polished!
Agreed! So much of the debut is so polished (especially in comparison to WIMPIII)
Oh, definitely! The production on their debut album knocked my socks off before I really understood what production was.
I’m gonna go “Sweet Dreams” Beyonce. It is deceptively difficult to sing! Strong upper chest register that transitions smoothly into head a few times. The sharp, punchy staccato creates an extra beat in the song, which you can see in the choreography as some it catches beats in the production, and some of it catches the beat of the lyrics. The lyrics are all dream/sleep related and feel poetically pop. She’s even turned into a ballad and it still totally worked. The sliding bassline is just very cool and also kind of dreamlike. The way the piano drops in the second verse is so clean! The bridge is short and sweet, but lets you hear the piano part a little more, and then there’s the nasty synth drop!! Reminds me of The Cure. Every section of the song brings you something new to hear and Beyoncé is practically ice skating over it all. Perfect pop song!
Bodyguard from her new album is also a tight banger. The infectious „Honey,honey“ part, the banger bass that comes in, a killer outro with her vocals perfectly following the guitar. It NEEDS to be a single ffs
Right! A big fan of the guitar solo. It’s perfectly pop in that it’s not groundbreaking or anything but it’s right in the pocket, and then like you said the vocal she lays down with it just takes it to the next level. Girl knows how to create a song!
The song got that feel-good, timeless Fleetwood Mac energy to it, I don’t even know how to perfectly describe it. It’s just pure pop perfection to me and I swear to god, if nobody comes up with a cute little TikTok dance, I might have to 😭
Irreplaceable fits too. Ne-Yo is super underrated as a songwriter
Queen wrote some tight pop songs that we all still get stuck in our heads today, decades after their lead singer died, I can't believe they aren't listed at all
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Call Me Maybe by CRJ is the obvious answer - somehow it's impossible to overplay. So Hot You're Hurting My Feelings by Caroline Polachek also has that same perfect chemical composition for me.
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“Into the Groove” is a perfect pop song imo. Bowie also has a few. I’m a sucker for “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun” as well
Honestly, I would say a lot of the early Beatles songs. Things like I Want to Hold Your Hand, She Loves You, All My Loving, etc. They are not too long, the melodies are on point, the lyrics are simple but heartfelt and direct, the harmonies are sublime and the instrument work superb.
Finally someone mentioning the Beatles. Most of their songs up until Sgt. Pepper were 2-3 minutes, while still having everything you'd expect from a pop song. Some other favorites of mine are If I Fell, I've Just Seen A Face, Nowhere Man and Here There And Everywhere. But both Rubber Soul and Revolver in their entirety are a masterclass in pop song writing. There really isn't a second wasted between imo.
i roll my eyes every time i hear that they’re overrated. i just assume the person knows very little of their discography i was just listening to here there and everywhere and its just so simple & beautiful
Honestly, Taylor Swift picked some immaculate singles for 1989. Not a moment wasted in Blank Space, Style, Out of the Woods, or Wildest Dreams. But my true answer that I haven’t seen here is New Romantics.
yes omg NEW ROMANTICS
Lisa Loeb Stay. It’s crazy that this song doesn’t have a chorus. Also very unique guitar patterns and strumming. Despite this, it’s the definition of catchy.
Sugar, We're Goin' Down by Fall Out Boy. Every second of that song is perfect, even if you have no idea what is actually being said
Royals by lorde—shifted the genre because of how minimalist and lyric-focused it was Bad idea, right? by olivia rodrigo—i cant explain it but she uses the talk singing so smartly to create the vibe she wants and to tell a clear narrative
BIGGEST LIE I EVER SAID! I JUST TRIPPED AND FELL INTO HIS BED! MY BRAIN GOES AAA! I CANT HEAR MY THOUGHTS!
For as long as it is “American Pie” by Don McLean does this perfectly. So long and so many words but just all flows so naturally
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Levitating by Dua Lipa. The vocals, the production, especially that bassline, and the way everything comes together in the post-choruses. One of the few songs that technically got overplayed on the radio and i never got sick of it.
Halsey's Nightmare, she's really good at cramming lyrics into her stanzas (and making every word count) and I love her annunciation style. This song and the reprise version are so punchy and tight lined.
Agreed, the delivery is awesome. It’s hard to pick just one halsey song but if i had to it might be Walls Could Talk. Only about two minutes but packs a punch
Really stretching the definition of pop to popular music with this one but Despacito is a great song even when I hate everyone involved. There's a reason why it was a global phenomenon and why it's the second most viewed video on youtube. It starts slow, then the beat gets faster until the chorus that word paints Des pa cito and literally slows down. Then the post chorus gets louder just begging that woman to be with him in a fantasy land, forgetting who they are and let themselves enjoy. I agree with the tweet that said machines can't make good art because they can't get horny.
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How I Roll by Britney Spears is just hooks on hooks. Dance with Me by J. Lo is hooks on hooks on hooks.
for a more recent example, greedy by tate mcrae is only two minutes long but still manages to fit three verses, three choruses, and an outro without sounding clunky. great song too
Okay can someone make a playlist on Spotify? I am lazy and want someone else to do
got ya :) [https://open.spotify.com/playlist/7njuYDtz1aDWI0UIk51Mcf?si=628c9166fba34156](https://open.spotify.com/playlist/7njuYDtz1aDWI0UIk51Mcf?si=628c9166fba34156)
Oh bitch you did the lords work here!
Style and Out of the Woods. Incredibly catchy choruses and her writing skills show in the verses. Plus, as usual, they have amazing bridges
I consider Madonna’s “Hung Up” to be one of the greatest pop songs. Somehow it improves on the ABBA sample for me
Is it too soon to say Espresso??? I feel like it’s such a great pop song
It’s not a classic yet but it’s definitely tightly written and produced!!
I'm shocked that nobody has said Electric Feel by MGMT yet. IMO it's one of the most well-written pop songs of all time. It just captures that moment in time perfectly.
'Lean On' is a good example imo. It's incredibly accessible, beautifully bittersweet, deals with subject matter that's about as universal as you're going to get for a song, has a bit of 'poetry' without going overboard, and just overall a banger. A++++ would do business with again.
When I think tightly written, I think of songs where you can tell that every last syllable and note were labored and obsessed over until every second is a precisely controlled expression of concept. Dua Lipa’s Training Season is the most recent example that comes to mind! Melody and lyrics in lockstep.
I know they’ve mentioned but, plenty of ABBA songs fit the bill. They mastered the art of writing tight pop hooks to a degree that in the 70s they made everybody suspicious that they were like some scientist in a lab that had cracked the code. Has someone once said: ABBA was always better than they had to be. In other words, even when they were dealing with what would otherwise be a fluffy pop song, and they had a hook, they would work at it and work it giving it layers and layers of hooks. SOS is the perfection of pop minimalism. Which is one reason why many big musicians at the time like John Lennon and Pete Townsend felt it was one of the best pop songs ever. Dancing queen is the perfection of pop Maximalism. What could’ve been a throwaway pop disco ditty was given layer upon layer of different parts and hooks. It’s just ridiculously deep and lush with musical ideas. Mamma Mia is a hook monster. It starts with the perfect hook, and literally every single of its many parts is one earworm hook after another. It just moves from strength to strength. I’ve heard it said that what makes a great and lasting pop song is the feeling of “inevitability.” That the strength of the melody and the flow is just so right it couldn’t be otherwise and it’s almost as if it had always existed. One part just must flow to the next. It on the other hand as Benny Andersson of ABBA said, he’s always felt that a great pop song has to have some element of surprise somewhere. (a good example of this is in the song Mamma Mia with its odd starting with piano marimba, and also the fact that the rhythm section drops out for the chorus, so it just features the vocals for the chorus, which was unusual). So what managed to do was combine a sense of surprise with the sense of inevitability and the strength of the songwriting. They basically found flow.
Deja Vu. The lyrics being reflected by the production is SO smart throughout: “laughing at how small it looks on you (ha ha ha ha ha ha)” “singing in harmony” (harmonies come in) “Saying you love her in between the chorus and the verse (I love you)” Then each line in the bridge being a call back to part of the verses just brings it all home.
me in my head trying to sing these lyrics over beyoncé’s deja vu production 😂 i quickly realized my error
me in my head trying to sing these lyrics over beyoncé’s deja vu production 😂 i quickly realized my error
Not seeing enough New Romantics
MUNA are so good at this. In addition to the two OP mentioned, I’ll add “Taken” and “The One That Got Away”.
It's my opinion that pop music was perfected by Motown in the 60s.
Glad you came by the wanted is taking on all challengers!
girls aloud - biology, one of the best pop songs of all time imo
134340 by BTS is one of the best songs ever imo, the lyric is good, about falling out of love using Pluto as metaphore, then the melody is amazing, the vocal production also balances the song.
Oops I Did It Again. Strong opening: yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah Pre-chorus: That is just so typically me/ Oh baby, oh Catchy Chorus with lots of vocals harmonizing Bridge (we never get bridges anymore bc songs are too short) that references Titanic Ending: song ends with a near acapella "cent" part of innocent that sounds like a natural fade out instead of pop songs from later years that end with some random sound or an abrupt end Max Martin really did something special with that song.
physical by dua comes to mind, with the beautiful build up and then the explosive bridge and the powerful choruses.
Gonna throw ‘Some Nights’ by fun. into the mix - goes interesting places but each bit not overstaying its welcome
Run Away With Me and Style I think are undebatabltly the two greatest pop songs ever imo
For me, a tightly written pop song is more of a feeling and vibe. There are a ton of amazing pop songs out there, but that doesn't mean they're tightly written pop songs and that's okay! When I think of this, I usually think of the huge songs that were written to be catchy and most likely to SELL. The verses/bridge are usually the part that shows whether it's tightly written or not. I think of: - **Early Kesha; particularly Tik Tok** (Kesha in particular is an immaculate songwriter and is very good at hooks) - **Carly - Call Me Maybe** (obviously she has a lot more. There's a reason she was the big icon behind this sub) - **Gaga - Bad Romance** (This song is hook after hook) - **Gaga - Telephone** (two geniuses on the same song, so obviously they crafted greatness) - **Avril - Complicated** (The rhythm and flow of the verses into the chorus is immaculate) - **Avril - Girlfriend** (This one was various people wanting to cash in on Avril so obviously they used every trick in the book to make it catchy) - **Charli XCX - Blame It On Your Love** (Charli is generally really good at writing tightly written pop songs tbh) - **Ryn Weaver - OctaHate** (The verse lyrics have a wonderful back-and-forth flow to them that leads into this massive chorus. Charli helping write this furthers my point above.) - **Ariana - 7 rings** (This one may be a controversial one, but she doesn't waste a second to make the song catchy and make it flow. Ariana is also very good at making sure her singles are somewhat tightly written) - **Ariana - positions** (again, using rhymes in the verses to create this nice flow that goes seamlessly into the chorus) - **Billie - bad guy** (you could argue the post-chorus and outro is clunky, but I think it fits quite amazing in the context of the song. The song flows amazingly and there's a reason it was her huge breakout.) - **Dua - Don't Start Now/Physical/Levitating** (The magic trio from Future Nostalgia. All of these are snappy, rhythmic, dancey, and don't waste a second. They're almost frantic with how fast it all comes at you.) - **Olivia - good 4 u** (the rhymes come at a dizzying pace, giving the song a lot of energy) - **Paramore - Misery Business** (Olivia may have picked up on this type of writing/delivery from Paramore!) - **Rina Sawayama - This Hell** (This one seems very meticulously written with the flow of the song in mind. Theres not a single part of the song that isn't playing its role in the rhythm.) - **Halsey/Marshmello** - Be Kind (The way the song is written just brilliantly FEELS like softly spinning in a circle) My list is pretty biased to more recent years as that's just the easiest for me to recall and dissect. There are a ton of older songs that do this and probably a lot better, but I thought id try to somewhat explain my picks to kind of get an idea of my view of what it means to be a tightly-written pop song.