The Best Pop Songs of 2018 Will Help You Escape Existential Dread

imageYouTubeWhat even is pop music anymore? Considering rap has overtaken every other genre as the dominate popular music in the country, you could technically argue that it is pop music. And often enough it is! Drake? Pop music. Cardi B? Pop music! And you can pretty much attribute popular music to anything on a major label that's dominating the charts.

Me? I consider pop music anything that'll put me in a good mood. When I want to escape the existential dread of our current reality, I go for some Charli XCX, some Troye Sivan—anything that will trigger the pleasure centers of my brain rather than crippling anxiety. Especially in 2018, it takes some pretty incredible musical talent to make anyone happy. So, practice some escapism with the best pop songs of 2018.

1
BEYONCÉ / JAY-Z – "APESHIT"

The Carters are pop music. On “Apeshit,” Beyoncé and Jay-Z analyze cultural institutions that fail to include black artists. The video places black dancers and the Carters in front of white artwork in the Louvre in Paris. They call out the Grammys, which invite black artists for ratings at the ceremony but don’t reward these musicians with actual trophies. As a combined force, the Carters are an establishment of their own, one that’s capable of challenging the likes of the NFL and the Recording Academy
2
DRAKE – "GOD'S PLAN"

Whether he means to or not, with every new release Drake is able to out-Drake himself. With "God's Plan," he played up his nice guy schtick with a truly touching philanthropic music video. And since this is Drake, fans took it and packaged the idea into the pervasive God's Plan Starts Playing meme. And plus, this might be the most Drake line of all time: "I only love my bed and my momma, I'm sorry." It's impossible not to love Drake, I'm sorry.
3
SOPHIE – "IMMATERIAL"

With a bouncing, buoyant beat, Sophie champions the freedom of gender identification with a scrambled reference to Madonna. "I could be anything I want / Immaterial boys, immaterial girls / Anyhow, anywhere, any place, anyone that I want / Im-ma-ma-material, immaterial," she sings on the song. It's the perfect example of a modern pop song in 2018—thematically and musically.