New Music Mondays: Pop Music

Trying to stay ahead of the trend in pop music? If you're a music-download junkie like I am, you are always looking for new music to use in class or to keep those finicky teens engaged. This article will hopefully give you some new resources.

• Billboard.com - I like to check the Charts section for Top Digital Songs or Hot 100. The Hot 100 are chart-climbers so you can spot the next hottest song before anyone else!

• Top 40 - Find pop hits from around the world. The USA chart will be very similar to the Billboard site, but check out top hits from other countries for some unique music from your class. My favorites are France, World Latin, and World Dance/Trance.

• Radio Disney - Check the Top 30 Countdown for all the hits that your tweens are listening to. Bonus: You can rest assured that all of these songs are age-appropriate.

Disclaimer: Of course you will still have to do the usual bad-words check before playing any song in class--which may also require translation for the world songs, which leads to my next resource:

• YouTube - It's probably not your first thought for new music, but you can find remixes, mash-ups and radio versions of popular songs that are often available to download from the user who created them. Type in a song and you will find remixed versions, mash-ups and edited radio versions.
  

Next week's New Music Monday will have another new music resource for remixes and mash-ups!

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