Pop, The Art of the Undeniable

Pop gets dismissed as the easy option, which badly misreads how hard it is to make. A song that lodges in millions of heads on the first listen is a feat of craft, and the current wave of African pop is pulling it off on a global scale.

The hook is everything

Great pop is ruthless about the melody. Every element, the drums, the bass, the ad-libs, exists to set up a chorus you cannot shake. When afrobeats, amapiano and R&B feed into that machine, the results travel everywhere.

A moving target

Pop is whatever is winning right now, which means it is constantly absorbing the sounds bubbling up from the underground. Watching what pop borrows is a good way to see where music is heading.

The freshest crossover and pop drops collect here as they break.