my personally curated playlists: 2026 edition:
spotifyโs annoying shuffle kinda forced me to split my playlists to smaller(<200 songs) to make it bearable
VH1 Classic:
Named after the channel, this playlist contains "absolutely none of today's hottest new music". Starting with just 70s rock and 80s soundtracks, now curates the top hits of the 20s century from the 50s with Singing In The Rain to the 90s with Ice Ice Baby.
With pop only starting to be conceived, a diverse mix of rock, disco and more makes this playlist the perfect counter to pop.
5 important songs:
I Wanna Dance With Somebody (Who Loves Me) - Whitney Houston
Bohemian Rhapsody - Queen
Vogue - Madonna
Hound Dog - Elvis Presley
I'm gonna be (500 miles) - The Proclaimers
Y2K Pop:
The top of the pop of the 90s and early 00s has the boy bands, girl groups and other main pop girlies of the millennium pop genre alongside other popular 00s subgenres such as eurodance & afrofuturism.
The only thing i am not 100% at peace with this playlist is having Take Thatโs 5 member era and 4 member era together
5 important songs:
I Want It That Way - Backstreet Boys
Barbie Girl - Aqua
Me Against The Music - Britney Spears ft. Madonna
Livinโ Da Vida Loca - Ricky Martin
Independent Woman Pt.1 - Destinyโs Child
Naughties:
Imagine two guys with spiky hair and a goatee sitting in a garage and one of them is saying โdude we should totally start a bandโ.
This is the playlist for all your garage, grunge, emo, punk, alternative and underground rock needs, with a bit of RnB mixed in as well. This is probably the least girly, least poppy and least girlypop playlist of them all. as seen by the various boybands & girlgroups refugees who try to distance themselves from main pop
5 important songs:
Welcome To The Black Parade - My Chemical Romance
Mr. Brightside - The Killers
Psychosocial - Slipknot
Since U Been Gone - Kelly Clarkson
Tubthumping - Chumbawumba
Recession pop & Recession pop 2:
Any transition between the 00s and the 10s can be traced to the 2008 recession whether itโs millennial grey interior design or reality TV growing in popularity. But the music, oh the music, are bangers after bangers after bangers.
Recession pop is the most nostalgia bait genre of the 21th century, being what millennials grew up to and what gen z grew up with.
The reason there are 2 recession pop playlists and the difference in vibe between them is because RP songs are from the millennium playlist and the usual examples in AI-run nostalgia bait social media accounts while RP2 songs are from the 10s playlist and lean more towards dance, club and party music
4 important songs from each playlist:
Telephone - Lady Gaga ft. Beyonce
You Belong With Me - Taylor Swift
Umbrella - Rihanna ft. Jay-Z
I Gotta Feeling - Black Eyed Peas
Dynamite - Taio Cruz
On The Floor - Jennifer Lopez ft. Pitbull
All I Do Is Win - DJ Khaled
Starships - Nicki Minaj
Rewind time:
2011-2013 music is a bit softer, more tumblr and early (aka good) youtube rewind. it felt more softboypop than before for example the boybands: BTR vs 1D vs The vamps. or If you wanted โedgyโ, you could listen to the second phase of justin bieber.
The playlist cover is the Mayan calendar (Remember we thought the world was going to end? yeah i too wish it had happened) and a VEVO watermark because of course.
5 important songs:
Call Me Maybe - Carly Rae Jepsen
Last Friday Night - Katy Perry
What Makes You Beautiful - One Direction
We Are Young - Fun
We Can't Stop - Miley Cyrus
Peak 10s:
This is peak pop. prime one direction, taylorโs 1989, artpop vs. prism, meghen trainor, ariana grande, little mix and even maroon 5 became pop. everything is so poppy and colorful, even the playlist cover is four colorful albums with a colorful instagram #filter
5 important songs:
Blank Space - Taylor Swift
Problem - Ariana Grande ft. Iggy Azalea
Lush Life - Zara Larsson
Night Changes - One Direction
Happy - Pharrell Williams
The Dip:
After 2016.. something shifted, people blame harambe, others blame tr*mp, some even blame Vine shutting down, but everyone agrees that things went downhill since then.
Even main pop music went down, in several ways. Some left the mainstream (lady gaga, katy perry) while trends moved to lower notes & bass(marshmellow, Ariana's thank u next), black & white album covers (reputation, LM5) and dark-pop(billie eilish, zayn). The mainstream also cleared space for a big international wave (latin, k-pop).
The playlist cover is the dip scene from who framed Roger Rabbit but instead of a toon shoe dying itโs Harambe.
5 important songs:
Stressed Out - Twenty One Pilots
IDGAF - Dua Lipa
Bad Guy - Billie Eillish
Happier - Marshmallow, Bastille
I Like It - Cardi B, Bad Bunny, J Balvin
TBDAKANFN(To Be Decided Also Known As Now, For Now):
It's incredibly difficult to decide when the present stops being the present so for now the playlist stays almost as is.
With a new decade comes a new generation with their own preferences such as TikTok, nostalgia, K-pop and a bigger LGBTQ+ identity. Those affect pop music today by making songs shorter, sample older songs, multilingual, and openly sexual (a lot of these preferences can be seen starting in the previous playlist).
How I see the transition between these playlists is not as random: summer of 2019 had Seรฑorita, summer of 2020 had WAP, the time between was covid lockdown.
Several songs from 2018-19 have their remixes in this playlist.
With only half of the decade passed this playlist still has more potential behind it.
5 important songs of โthe crown eraโ(2020-2022~):
WAP - Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion
Say So remix - Doja Cat ft. Nicki Minaj
Driver's License - Olivia Rodrigo
Physical - Dua Lipa
Kill This Love - Blackpink