@Ernest Losoya

Created with FreeYourMusic.com where you can transfer playlists to Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube and others

Created with FreeYourMusic.com where you can transfer playlists to Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube and others

Created with FreeYourMusic.com where you can transfer playlists to Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube and others

Created with FreeYourMusic.com where you can transfer playlists to Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube and others

Created with FreeYourMusic.com where you can transfer playlists to Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube and others

Created with FreeYourMusic.com where you can transfer playlists to Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube and others

Created with FreeYourMusic.com where you can transfer playlists to Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube and others

Created with FreeYourMusic.com where you can transfer playlists to Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube and others

Created with FreeYourMusic.com where you can transfer playlists to Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube and others

Created with FreeYourMusic.com where you can transfer playlists to Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube and others

Discover new music from artists we think you'll like. Refreshed every Friday.

As if Billie Eilish’s otherworldly voice, haunting lyrics, and darkly surreal pop weren’t striking enough, the Los Angeles auteur’s videos are nearly impossible to look away from. They’re staged like art installations but move like short films, using high contrast, woozy choreography, and body horror to blur the line between intimate confession and grand statement. The approach carries over to her live shows, too, where Eilish’s ethereal dreamscape is made real.

Miley Cyrus’ videography depicts the evolution of her career. In early clips like “Party in the U.S.A.” and “7 Things”, her mood and music are upbeat. But as she grew beyond teen idol-hood, Cyrus’ songs and videos showed off a more provocative side: she swings nude on the central metaphor of “Wrecking Ball” in that song’s stunning video; in the video for “Slide Away” she seeks peace, finding refuge from the glamorous life’s seedy side during a solo float.

A-List Pop is your weekly guide to what’s on top in pop music. Leading this week’s playlist is genre-blending singer-songwriter Jessie Murph with “1965,” the focus track for her just-released sophomore album <i>Sex Hysteria</i>. Check back often, as our editors update this playlist regularly—and if you hear something you like, add it to your library.

The singer born Adele Adkins honed her now legendary voice as a kid in her South London bedroom, listening to Etta James every night for an hour. But as soon as she made her television debut at age 19 in 2007, all potential comparisons evaporated: This girl with whopping hoop earrings and a pub landlady’s brashness had something unique. Heartbreak, indignation, and regret all found a natural home in her regal mezzo-soprano, the instrument that powered her 2008 debut album, <i>19</i> (which featured the brassy “Chasing Pavements”), and 2011’s <i>21</i> (the fiery “Rolling in the Deep,” the heart-wrenching "Someone Like You"). It took just one word to reintroduce her in 2015: “Hello,” she sang during an <i>X Factor</i> ad break, unveiling her third album, <i>25</i>, in the process. Songs like the swirling “Send My Love (To Your New Lover)” and the pensive “Water Under the Bridge” helped it become yet another global chart-topper. In 2021, Adele released <i>30</i>, which grappled with motherhood, the aftermath of her divorce, and—perhaps most surprisingly—happiness amid life’s upheavals.

In hindsight, Destiny’s Child was only the beginning of our long love affair with Beyoncé Knowles. After the top-tier girl group pushed themes of female empowerment and sisterhood with hits like 1999’s “Say My Name” and 2001’s “Survivor,” Knowles quickly became a household name when the trio finished up. Her 2003 collab with future husband JAY-Z, “Crazy in Love,” was a pop smash of the highest order, going multi-platinum in multiple countries and announcing her as a solo star. From there she has been more or less unstoppable, gifting us with earworm R&B ballads (2006’s “Irreplaceable”), sassy clapbacks (2008’s “Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)”), groovy 1970s flashbacks (2011’s “Love on Top”), and swaggering feminist anthems (2014’s “Flawless”) that continually reinforce not just her powerhouse vocals but also her uncanny versatility. Then came her 2016 concept album <i>Lemonade</i>, an era-defining work that tackled infidelity (“Hold Up”), civil rights (“Formation”), and political frustration (“Freedom”) while exploring the most adventurous music of her career. It features on Apple Music’s 100 Best Albums list and emboldened Knowles to devote herself to genres outside her usual comfort zone. She plunged into the history and culture of house music on 2022’s <i>RENAISSANCE</i>, saluting the genre’s queer and Black roots on “BREAK MY SOUL” and strutting disco forebears on “CUFF IT.” Even more surprisingly, she went full country on 2024’s <i>COWBOY CARTER</i>, topping charts around the world with lead single “TEXAS HOLD ’EM” and finally earning a long-overdue Grammy for Album of the Year. Knowles’ work positions her as a first-rate musician and cultural archivist who knows the responsibility of uplifting the past while sowing seeds for the future. It’s entertainment, yes, but also a kind of ambassadorship.

Armed with a mesmerizing soprano, Ariana Grande began her career as a child star on Broadway and Nickelodeon before evolving into a pop and R&B powerhouse. Across albums and hit singles—starting with 2013’s R&B jam “The Way” (featuring Mac Miller) and expanding into EDM with Zedd’s “Break Free,” retro-soul on “Dangerous Woman,” and diva trap-pop like “7 Rings”—she has consistently commanded the spotlight while using her stardom for activism. Grande’s pop journey has grown inward, using music as a therapeutic tool for spiritual growth. The Max Martin-produced “no tears left to cry,” which followed a deadly attack at one of her 2017 concerts, offered hope and healing. And after the loss of her ex-boyfriend Mac Miller in 2018, <i>thank u, next</i> transformed heartbreak into catharsis with tracks like the graceful title hit. On 2020’s <i>Positions</i>, she blends sensuality (“34+35”) with self-assurance. And on 2024's <i>eternal sunshine</i>, she gives a quick wave to critics over the pulsing house groove of “yes, and?”

The country world feigned surprise when, after three albums of Music Row-indebted songcraft, Taylor Swift formally embraced pop on 2012’s <i>Red</i>. But no one should have been shocked: Any 14-year-old capable of persuading her parents to move from suburban Pennsylvania to Nashville for her career clearly has ambition to burn. And the thrill of following Swift’s rise has been watching her execute it flawlessly, largely because her melodic intelligence is equal to that ambition. Her early, youthful love songs heralded 2010's newly self-possessed <i>Speak Now</i>—which showed off her scathing wit—and evolved into knowing, ironclad pop fare that held its own against boisterous Max Martin production on <i>1989</i>, her fifth album, titled after her birth year. Throughout, her songwriting has blurred the lines between the public and private, burying enough real-life clues (about, say, scarves and Starbucks) to make clear that only Swift can own her narrative, thank you very much, while still retaining a lyrical elegance. Though 2017’s <i>reputation</i> might have been perceived as a gorgeously constructed piece of dramatic theater—its attendant heroes and villains all real-life characters from Swift's public feuds—all that spectacle proved an attention-grabbing cover for her most romantic album yet. She turned up the romance even more on 2019’s <i>Lover</i>, but it was 2020’s <i>folklore</i> and its companion, <i>evermore</i>—ruminative, relatively lo-fi albums written and recorded during the COVID-19 pandemic—that earned her the Apple Music Award for Songwriter of the Year. She followed those up in 2022 with <i>Midnights</i>, which she wrote and produced with Jack Antonoff, and described as "the stories of 13 sleepless nights scattered throughout my life." In 2023, Swift undertook one of the most ambitious road shows of all time: the multi-year Eras Tour, which saw her presenting new and classic material across more than 100 locales worldwide. It was just one of many reasons she was named Apple Music's Artist of the Year for 2023. Swift returned to the soft, comfortable, bed-like sonics of <i>Midnights</i> for her 11th album, 2024’s <I>THE TORTURED POETS DEPARTMENT</I>. A study in extremes and heightened emotions, the record—which features guest turns from Post Malone and Florence + the Machine—is her most specific, candid, and unsparing work to date.

Britney Spears' career began with a jolt. Dressed as a provocative school girl in pigtails and a plaid skirt, she became a mainstream obsession with 1999's ...Baby One More Time album and its chart-topping hits. The following year's Oops!... I Did It Again continued to reap the rewards of a bubblegum pop formula, before she hooked up with the futuristic sounds of The Neptunes production unit to take 2001's Britney in a fresh direction. Her status as a pop culture icon was confirmed when she teamed up with Madonna for a 2003 collaboration.