Maybe I'm not human
2026 Mix 01: A preview of the year to come, then women save a supposedly troubled popular art form (once again), lots of old favorites, and a few speculative future hits.
New year, same me! I like to think this newsletter is pretty consistent. I am me, as a wise woman once said. In fact, I have likely quoted said wise woman to open a newsletter before. It’s a tough quote to check, and not only because I write about Ashlee Simpson, like, kind of a lot.
What can you expect aside from more of the same?
Well, I am already working on my series for this year, which I am calling All Ears: The Disney-Pop Decade. It’s an attempt to weave together three strands I haven’t systematically explored in this way yet: (1) the landscape of corporate children’s media from 1980 to present, which I studied in grad school, (2) reflections as a parent on kids’ development of preferences and taste in the context of parental gatekeeping, and (3) the approximately ten-year period of rapid growth in Disney’s pop music ambitions with Radio Disney and Hollywood Records. (The “Disney-pop decade” is c. 1999-2009.)
The series title was Radio Disney’s slogan, but I’m also directly alluding to Metal Mike Saunders’s 2000 Village Voice essay on Radio Disney, which in terms of my own critical sensibility was a bit like Bruce Banner getting hit with gamma rays. I alluded to it for the first time in a piece I wrote in college, “All Ears After All These Years,” about the state of Radio Disney during the High School Musical explosion in 2006, which I’ll get to eventually.
I’m aiming for six installments again for symmetry with the A-pop series and Taylor Swift series, but I’m discovering there are probably several books that need to be written on this general topic, even on top of the ones I’m aware of that have been written: class dimensions of parental media moderation, but from a child’s standpoint; an industrial history of the ties between Disney and evangelical culture; and the generalist history of the teen confessional rock boom that I’ve been psyching myself up to write for a few years now.
Anyway, doing all of that is future Dave’s problem. This part of the year is great—there’s so much later left!
One technical change in how I list country of origin on the mix: I will try to mark artists with dual nationality, tribal affiliation, or other heritage included in bios or promotional materials with a hyphen when possible, loosely following a [born/heritage]-[based/nationality] format. E.g. MOLIY, born in Ghana and based in the US, is categorized as “Ghana-US” and so is Amaarae, who was born in the US to Ghanaian parents and raised between the US and Ghana. I will still use slashes (e.g. “Ghana/US”) to describe two artists, or different members of a group, from different countries.
1. MOLIY: Backie
Ghana-US
MOLIY goes bouyon, world domination scheme continues apace.
2. Mello Buckzz: Cheddar
US
Chicago drill rapper could not make it through a google before I hit tragedy, but still lightens up on a new single. Not to, say, Monaleo levels, but it made me think about something I’ll post occasionally to get more engagement online, that rock music didn’t die, women just make it and we call it pop. I don’t think this is entirely accurate, but whatever the general dynamic I’m desribing is, it’s also happening in rap music right now…
3. Vayda: Coffy
US
…As a growing number of women in rap have more fun with better beats on average than the men, who often feel like they’re in a state of defensiveness and retrenchment. I had high hopes for Vayda in particular since I heard “Bingo,” and the new album finally delivers.
4. Lil M.U.: Rodeo
US
And in some ways women can take more interesting risks. Lil M.U., last seen on my mixes jumping on car hoods while horns blared, here does a line dance that is much less “country goes rap” than “rap goes country.” Wish I’d heard this soon enough to bring it to Chuck Eddy’s attention in time for his 2025 country singles list; going to call this “year of impact” 2026, but it came out in November. (That’s also a good reminder for me to listen to more Southern soul.)
5. Ice Spice, Tokischa: Thootie
US/Dominican Republic
At this point I’ve settled on Ice Spice being a quite bad rapper with no signs of improvement, and rapidly losing the charm of her early singles. But her ear or luck for the right productions is kind of astounding. I can’t think of many artists who, regardless of their other merits or lack thereof, just sound so good so frequently. On this one, go-to producer RiotUSA does his take on dembow, and it makes me think that dembow is one area of regional ferment that could probably use more cross-pollination, experimentation, and maybe even a little bastardization.
6. Lil Boo: 2026
Mexico
Or you could just go route one like Mexican rapper Lil Boo, modal moves on a trap beat with outdated aughts synths to ring in the new year without the next new thing.
7. Leys: Intro Famme (télé achat)
France
Missed Leys last year, who made it to the finals of a French Netflix competition and seems to have had one monster of a single that I found too late to offer it up for year-end consideration (La Règle du jeu as “Boss Ass Bitch”). This is the intro from a forthcoming EP. One to look out for.
8. Haifa Wehbe: Bas Bas
Lebanon
Huge Lebanese star, not that I’d have known without checking, with a new album that made it through my tin ear for Arabic pop. Perhaps I’m de-tinnifying over time, or maybe this one’s just really good.
9. El Bogueto, Anuel AA f. Fuerza Regida, Yung Beef: Cuando No era Cantante (Remix)
Mexico/Puerto Rico/US/Spain
If anyone was concerned, music in general is still Very Good. I had half the usual number of songs to work with this week and still ended up with more than a mix’s worth of songs to show for it. But to augment this week a bit I did some light surfing through various regional “viral” charts and hit this remix of a reggaeton hit, which must be some sort of platonic ideal of easy reggaeton vibe loop.
10. Modulo Thegabwoy, He-Brew, Gasmilla: Chainsaw
Ghana
An odd one from Ghana with some impish oompah to it.
11. BabyDaiz: Allonsy
South Africa
BabyDaiz was a favorite at the end of the year and showed up on my ketchup mix last week. Makes me wonder if 2026 is the year I start getting into South African rap proper and diversify away from the South African house music monolith—amapiano, gqom, Afrohouse, 3-step. That I’ve already started a holdover list for South African house in week one with about ten songs in it suggests…probably not.
12. Naira Marley, Zinoleesky: Adugbo
Nigeria
13. DJ Lycox: Telemá
Portugal
14. DJ Ws da Igrejinha, DJ TH DO PRIMEIRO, MC Menor MT, MC Fahah: É Muito Bom
Brazil
15. Didi B: 13500 Volts
Côte D’Ivoire
Plenty of room this week for a few dependable standbys, all artists featured on previous mixes, all doing their thing ably. Those things, respectively, are: bread-and-butter Naija pop with a good Zinoleesky feature, DJ Lycox splitting the difference between batida and global pop, minimalist bass buzz from DJ Ws da Igrejinha, and some Ivorian rap from Didi B, which has more spring in its step than most trap but less spring than most Ivorian pop.
16. ZICO, Lias: Duet
South Korea/Japan
The ongoing saga of NewJeans is pretty dispiriting, but you can’t undo their impact—effortless dnb-pop is everywhere, and here it provides the foundation for a track that combines South Korean rap and J-pop literally and also in spirit, a duet between Korean rapper ZICO and YOASOBI’s Lias.
17. BADWOR7H, renie cares: Мозок Диско [Mozok Disko]
Ukraine
Dorky disco from Ukraine!
18. Lea Romea: Bobler
Denmark
Dreamy pop R&B from Denmark!
19. Adèle & Robin: Adrénaline & Amnésie
France
A bit of French quirk, a little dramatic to classify as iPod indie-pop but close enough in spirit.
20. JTalent: Fa Fa Fa 发大财
Singapore
Ah, now here’s a live one—some kind of Singaporean talent competition where they have everyone do a group song, like when American Idol did “Float On” that was also a Ford commercial or something? (Am I remembering that right? …Yes, I got it right!) And it starts out that way, amateurs singing guilelessly, little slathers of Autotune peeking through, and not even the hip hyperpop sort, to what I assumed was a cover song. But then the chorus hits—“1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7! FA FA FA…”—and all of a sudden it sounds like ground zero for a viral phenomenon. A bit of searching of lyrics and personnel suggests it’s an original. The chorus is begging to be snipped, remixed, and memed into a recursive global juggernaut. We’ll see what happens.
21. The Shanghai Restoration Project, Tebza Majaivane: Finding Bakoena in a SoJo Cloud
China-US-Brazil/South Africa
Lovely collaboration by Chinese-American DJs based in Brazil with South African vocalists. I can’t throw out my cop-out “cosmopolitan” category just yet. Some things are just too damn cosmo. The whole album is out on February 6.
22. SAY MY NAME: UFO (ATTENTION)
South Korea/Japan
A K-pop band led by Hitomi, one of the Japanese members of iz*One. The secret weapon here is not K-pop or J-pop but a secret third thing: 2003 Hilary Duff soundtrack pop.
23. Taifu Club: Dakishimatei
Japan
Brainy Japanese punk(ish) group plays a rousing game of Spot the Hook until they give up and just finish with “I Want to Hold Your Hand.” And why wouldn’t you.
24. Sister Nancy, King Jammy: Muma Dis Come [1992]
Jamaica
A Sister Nancy re-release from 1992—assumed this was part of the roll-out of her last album, but seems to be a one-off. But a January release date is a January release date, even if it’s a re-release date.
25. Marit Larsen: When Susannah Cries
Norway
Marit Larsen’s show-stopper from reality show Hver gang vi møtes, where Norwegian singers cover each other’s songs and are then filmed having warm reactions to everyone else’s covers. This is a 1997 song from Espen Lind, whose name vaguely rang a bell and what do you know, he co-wrote “Hey Soul Sister” and “Irreplaceable,” which frankly shouldn’t have been possible.
That’s it! Until next time, feel free to reminisce about all things Radio Disney with me while I put these essays together. Should be fun!
—Dave Moore (the other one)
Title from SAY MY NAME: UFO (ATTENTION)