A-List Pop 2023

A-List Pop 2023

Maybe you were there, bathed in song, friendship bracelets jangling on your wrists. Maybe you couldn’t be, so you waited to see every set list as it came online, pored over every guest reveal and secret track, caught the movie in theatres. Whatever the case, there have been few pop-cultural happenings in recent memory quite like the initial US leg of Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour, a 53-date stadium jag that wasn’t just the centrepiece of Swift’s year, but the sun around which most conversations seemed to orbit in 2023. This is what it looks like when one of pop’s most ambitious and prolific artists—Apple Music’s Artist of the Year in 2023—feels like she needs to make up for lost time. After the global pandemic prevented her from supporting 2019’s Lover, Swift ended up staying off the road for five years—a near eternity for an artist of her profile and productivity. But she definitely didn’t slow down, instead releasing five successive No. 1 albums and the highest-grossing concert film ever. You could feel that impact across Apple Music, where more people listened to Taylor Swift in 2023 than to any other artist in the world, setting a new all-time record for a single year on Apple Music. In fact, Swift’s streams on Apple Music have more than doubled since last year, growing at a rate that is a new record not only for Swift, but for any star of her stature. She is currently the No. 1 most-streamed female-identifying artist in Apple Music history. And yet it’s never once seemed strange that an artist who’s still so young would be taking a kind of victory lap or looking back—especially given that, at her current peak, Swift’s influence among rising artists has never felt so palpable. Maybe this is another inflection point, the start of something new. Maybe it’s simpler than that. You know what she’d probably say: “A diamond’s gotta shine.” A-List Pop is home to the latest and greatest pop music. Check back often, as our editors update this playlist regularly—and if you hear something you like, add it to your library.

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