A Dichotomy of Bops, Bangers, and Jams

I've been trying to explore, musically, this week. I do this thing – I don't know if you've heard of this – where I tend to only listen to things I already know, and I'm trying to be better at keeping myself abreast of the situation musically.

To this end I asked people on the internet for their favourite songs of the year so far to contribute to my New Music That is Good playlist. People were honestly pretty bad at this prompt, there were multiple songs from not this year at all. I decided to allow songs from last year – as that does at least align with my refusal to believe time is passing – but nothing earlier than that.

This project has been reasonably successful. I put all the songs on a playlist I'd started earlier and, while the six or seven songs I'd already put on it myself are still, I think, the best ones there I've frequently found myself thinking oh, this is a bop, or this is a jam, or this one isn't good actually.

All of which made me think about the differences between bops and jams and bangers and I've decided to communicate those difference to you. Largely because of my deep seated anxieties about people not knowing what words mean. I will do this using some of the songs from my New Music That is Good playlist.