From energetic anime theme songs to emotional ballads and experimental electronic music, J-Pop has become one of Japan’s most recognisable cultural exports. Artists such as YOASOBI, Ado, Kenshi Yonezu and Fujii Kaze are introducing Japanese…
Tag: pop
“The Dead Dance” is about feeling emotionally dead after a breakup, then rediscovering enough joy to dance again. Lady Gaga has explained the song unusually clearly. A relationship ends. For a while, you stop believing…
“Bass Persuades” is essentially Miley making an argument for getting out of your head and back into your body. Stop looking at the phone. Stop analysing everything. Move. Dance. Let the music convince you. That’s…
Ella Eyre’s take on “We Don’t Have to Take Our Clothes Off” already offered a striking reinvention of the Jermaine Stewart classic, replacing much of the original song’s pop exuberance with vulnerability and restraint. Eyre’s…
Cyndi Lauper made “Girls Just Want to Have Fun” famous. But she didn’t write it. A male musician called Robert Hazard did. Even stranger: Hazard originally wrote it from a man’s perspective. Lauper took the…
“Linger” came from Dolores O’Riordan’s first serious kiss. Unfortunately for her, what happened afterwards was considerably less romantic. The future The Cranberries singer was 17. She liked a boy. They kissed. She became completely infatuated.…
‘FAST’ is a new dance-pop single from Shesha, a Korean solo artist on her own imprint. Seo Eun Jin and Saint wrote it, Saint produced it, and the hook repeats ‘Come to me fast’ until…
It sounds like one of the happiest records of the 1980s. The subject is considerably darker. “Everybody Wants to Rule the World” is about power. Who wants it. What people do to obtain it. And…
Beyoncé’s new “IRREEMPLAZABLE (COMO LA FLOR)” brings together Beyoncé and the late Tejano superstar Selena Quintanilla. The track arrived as part of the 20th-anniversary edition of Beyoncé’s B’Day in September 2026. It combines Beyoncé’s Spanish-language…
Zara Larsson’s “Midnight Sun” is essentially a love letter to Swedish summer. More specifically, it’s about the strange freedom of summer nights when the sun barely disappears. Larsson has explained that she wanted the song…
