I recently wrote about the joys of listening to country music while cruising down rural roads. And while I am ‘a little bit country,’ I’m really a lot more pop.

I usually associate driving with pop music. Undoubtably the result of my local radio stations that typically live in their happy place of top 10 hits, occasionally wading further into top 40 waters.

As much as I complain, however, I still secretly love rocking out to the latest and greatest pop drops and flops behind the wheel. Actually ‘secretly’ is probably a stretch, I’m quite sure there have been many a-driver who has caught me performing to my dashboard in their rear-view mirrors…. but I digress. Point is: car + pop music = fun.

The term ‘pop’ doesn’t necessarily mean mainstream. I know, I know- that’s where the word came from- ‘popular music’ but over decades of use, the term now implies a genre of its own; an umbrella term for anything with catchy qualities and mass appeal. Think of all the subgenres: teen pop, power pop, Christian pop, synthpop, electropop, europop, operatic pop, bubblegum pop, pop punk, urban pop, and even paradoxically, indie pop. Now try saying those ten times fast.

Last weekend, a friend requested I make a playlist for our road-trip up into the Ontario northland. She had one request: Marina & the Diamonds.  Perfect!! This indie-pop artist was an excellent soundtrack for our car-dancing escapades. Warning: hazards of car-dancing include wild turkeys and wrong turns (“right, right?…two rights?… forget the rights?”)

I snapped this pic of the beautiful Isabelle in Barcelona. Mediterranean life really suited us. I think it goes well with the first tune… although I in no way want to imply that Isy is a “primadonna.”

These two songs were repeated countless times along Hwy 400.

“Primadonna” by Marina & the Diamonds

“How to be a Heartbreaker” by Marina & the Diamonds