3 Quality Pop Songs of Summer '06

What is going on? For years now, the only pop music on the radio was either ghetto noise like Destiny's Child (who hide their mediocre singing voices under muddy production), or bleepy, sampled non-music like Black Eyed Peas or Gwen Stefani. All of the sudden, though, the market is flooded with well-written, original, and high-effort pop songs.

1. Nelly Furtado - Promiscuous. Awesome beat and music, great lyrics and singing, 80s style chorus. Plus, it's completely different than the song she's most known for.

2. Christina Aguilera - Ain't No Other Man. I don't know if that's the song title, but it's the one she performed at the Mtv Movie Awards. It's got a throwback sound, and there's nothing trendy about. It just proves the point that this type of music is timeless and will never sound dated. I've always hated her, so things are looking up. And she can really sing.

3. Justin Timberlake - SexyBack. I have the most investment in this one, since I still claim that his Justified album is the best pop album since Thriller. Justified was full of real instrumentation and had songs that didn't sound like anything that had been on popular radio for a very long time. This song sounds completely different than his other stuff, and at first I hated it. But now I see how much effort he is putting into doing something unique within the limits of radio. This is what it would sound like if Radiohead wanted to make dance music. Weird vocal effects, weird beat, weird everything. But in the end it is still a dance song.

Yeah, all these songs "suck" because they're not The Beatles or The Four Supreme Sensational Tops. I get it. But I want to know if you think these are good pop songs, not something you would buy.