Fridays can be overwhelming for pop fans. Every week you're bombarded with a glut of new music, which can lead to ear candy falling through the cracks. I'm hoping to avoid that tragic scenario with The Drop — a cheat sheet of sorts to get you through New Music Friday. By now, you have probably heard Mariah Carey and Ty Dolla $ign's sublime "The Distance" and possibly checked out Dua Lipa and BLACKPINK's...

The Queen of Vegas will reclaim her throne in 2019. Today (October 18), Britney Spears traveled to Las Vegas to finally make the announcement she teased on The Ellen Show. “I have a huge announcement to make," she gushed in a segment last Friday. "My announcement is that I have an announcement. I can’t announce it until October 18." Well, the time has come. Brit's finally broken the ice. Less than...

It looks like Dua Lipa has landed on her next mega-hit. The breakout star has spent the better part of the last year near the upper reaches of the charts in the UK. She hit the number 3 spot with her infectious "IDGAF" and conquered the globe with her Calvin Harris-assisted "One Kiss." More recently, her Silk City collaboration, "Electricity," sparked its way into the Top 5. And the 23-year-old could...

Mariah Carey isn't fucking around this era! From the initial buzz track going viral ("GTFO" got all the girls talking) to that stunning performance of "With You" at the American Music Awards, everything has gone according to plan. The flawless rollout continued yesterday with Mimi casually revealing the title — Caution is suitably fierce and mysterious — while descending a staircase in an evening...

The Caution era just gets better and better. A couple of days after revealing the stunning, breathtaking and (basically) life-changing cover of her 15th album, Mariah Carey applies a bit more pressure to our necks by dropping another perfect buzz track. In fact, "The Distance" is so good that it really should have been the lead single. Don't get me wrong, "With You" is still that girl, but this Ty...

And she's back! Zara Larsson returns to the pop scene with a new single and it sounds like a hit. A reverse breakup anthem, "Ruin My Life" finds the Swedish pop star deep in her feelings. The 20-year-old is struggling with a breakup and decides that she would be happier in a chaotic relationship than alone. Which might not be the most empowering message, but it sure is honest and relatable. "You set...

After three years of non-stop touring and promotion, Astrid S took a well-earned break at the end of last year to reevaluate her art and tinker away on a track called "Emotion." The Norwegian pop star recorded the demo in early 2017 with producer Ali Payami and instantly knew it was a special song that conveyed thoughts and feelings she had been wanting to express for a very long time. 18 months and...

While increasingly common, the transition from social media sensation to pop star is never easy. For every Troye Sivan or Shawn Mendes, there are dozens that didn't quite make it. Loren Gray is destined to be one of the chosen few that do. At 16, she has 14 million Instagram followers, a major label record deal and her head firmly on her shoulders. Instead of rushing out an album, the LA-based phenom...

Rise up, Fighters! Christina Aguilera's highly-anticipated Liberation arrives today (June 15). With a discography jam-packed with hits, the 37-year-old's early releases rank as some of the most iconic of the last 20 years. However, her two most albums haven't resonated to the same extent. 2010's electro-kissed Bionic was ahead of its time but wildly uneven, while Lotus offered some fun pop anthems...

Iggy Azalea's comeback is in full swing. The rapper, who many wrote off after the atomic fallout that followed the success of The New Classic, recently returned to the Billboard Hot 100 with "Kream" and just dropped one of the better EPs of 2018. Not only that, but the Aussie hitmaker's new sound — a return to the aggressive, defiantly sexual anti-pop of her mixtapes, has struck a chord well outside...

Five years have passed since the arrival of Cher's underrated Closer To The Truth, but her hold on pop culture is stronger than ever thanks to the most iconic Twitter account of all time and a scene-stealing role in Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again. The latter inspired the seemingly immortal diva to get back in the studio and record an album of ABBA covers. At first, I feared Dancing Queen might be more...

Tori Kelly's Unbreakable Smile is that rare kind of debut album that stands out as an impressive achievement in its own right, but also hints at something greater. It had radio hits, quieter moments and soulful grooves, but there was always the sneaking suspicion that the 25-year-old's voice could soar even higher, that she could open her heart even wider. That promise finally comes to fruition on...