Two of my favorite songs right now are "Pray to God," by Calvin Harris (featuring HAIM), which is maybe the catchiest and least EDM thing Harris has done; and "Cheyenne," by Jason Derulo, which has a very 80s sound, and has a staccato synth line similar to Taylor Swift's "Style" (which I also absolutely love). I've listened to Derulo's track probably nine times and counting since I downloaded it last night.
I also downloaded a couple tracks from Bonnie McKee's new EP a few days ago; and I've heard good things about Carly Rae Jepsen's upcoming album, which is already out in Japan, but I'm too paranoid to illegally download it from some shady website. And Little Machines, by Lights, is probably the album I've listened to the most this year (well, not counting Taylor Swift's 1989, which I still play pretty regularly).
There's a messageboard on which I've been lurking for a couple months now-- popjustice.com-- where I read an interesting statement recently. I think it was in a thread about how older artists like Madonna and Janet Jackson still fit into the pop landscape. The comment that resonated with me was: "Pop music these days is basically just for teen girls and gays." I don't fall into either of those categories (I'm a 34 year old single straight guy), I have to wonder-- am I the oldest straight guy ever to totally love pop music? (The short answer is no, as long as Rob Sheffield is alive.)
But thinking about that reminded me of a story I want to share. Five years ago, our high school class got together for our ten year reunion. Since I work in radio, I was put in charge of compiling a couple CDs of music from "our era" to play at the party. I'm glad they did, because that kind of thing is a lot of fun for me. If I could get paid to curate mixtapes for people, I'd be pretty happy. Anyway, I found some good old stuff-- Silverchair, Kid Rock, Marcy Playground, The Offspring, Cherry Poppin Daddies, No Doubt, etc.
I also decided to make a CD of "current" hits, in case we wanted something different to listen to. When we played that CD, I got a lot of "what the hell is this?" reactions. And it wasn't even weird stuff. It was mostly pop radio hits from 2009 and 2010, plus a couple of left-field choices, like "Portions For Foxes," by Rilo Kiley, "The 59 Sound," by Gaslight Anthem, and "Don't Trust Me," by 3OH!3. I admit that last song was pretty far out there, but I thought surely a couple people would get it. I guess I didn't consider my audience. We're talking about a bunch of (at that time) late twenty-something parents, many of whom probably listen primarily to country music.
So, either I was already too old for my favorite music *five years ago,* or I'm just cooler than all of my old high school friends. All through college, I found myself hanging out with people younger than me, so maybe I'm just young at heart. I'm totally OK with that. I don't ever want to be one of those old curmudgeons who hates all the current music.