These 3 Iconic Floor Fillers Prove That Pop Songs Can Have Brains, Too

These pop songs are both rhythmically enticing and mentally stimulating. No matter how you listen to this track, you’re in for a treat. You can dance along with nothing on your mind, or you can dig into the lyrics.

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“Dancing On My Own” — Robyn

It’s hard not to get caught up in the beat of Robyn’s “Dancing On My Own”. It’s a floor filler to be sure, but underneath it all, it’s a somber track about heartbreak. Put to different instrumentation, people would be commending this pop artist’s lyricism rather than her ability to get people moving.

“So far away, but still so near / (The lights go on, the music dies) / But you don’t see me standing here / I just came to say goodbye,” the lyrics to this pop song read. This track would work just as well with stripped-down instrumentation as it did with all the production wizardry the final product uses now.

“Blank Space” — Taylor Swift

Taylor Swift does a pretty cutting commentary on herself in “Blank Space”. Though, on the surface, this track feels like just one of her many hits, it has a cleverness that sometimes doesn’t come through in the melody.

“Find out what you want / Be that girl for a month / Wait, the worst is yet to come, oh, no / Screaming, crying, perfect storms / I can make all the tables turn / Rose garden filled with thorns,” the lyrics read as Swift shines a light on her rough edges. Whether she actually believes these things about herself, or if it’s just rehashing the public backlash over her love life at the time, this song has more to it than a surface-level listen earns you.

“Paparazzi” — Lady Gaga

Plenty of artists have spoken about the struggle between authentic love and the ills of fame, but few make that balance sound as fun as Lady Gaga did on “Paparazzi”. Upon first listen, this iconic pop song is nothing more than an early Gaga synth-heavy staple. Underneath all the floor-filling musicality, it is a poignant look at what fame costs.

“Shadow is burnt, yellow, dance and we turn / My lashes are dry / Purple teardrops I cry,” she sings in this beloved song. The music tells us to do one thing while the lyrics give us an entirely different outlook.

(Photo by Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty Images for iHeartRadio)