Trap Pop

Trap pop is mainstream pop music built on trap production: 808 bass, skittering hi-hat rolls, half-time drums and minor-key synth loops set under conventional verse-chorus songwriting and sung, melodic hooks. It crystallised in the mid-2010s as pop's centre of gravity shifted toward Atlanta rap, and it defines the sound of *Ariana Grande*'s "thank u, next", *Taylor Swift*'s "Reputation" and *Billie Eilish*'s debut album. Where pop rap keeps a rapping frontperson at the centre, trap pop assigns the beat's grammar to singers, pairing trap's rhythmic codes with radio choruses, confessional writing and maximal streaming-era hooks.