What Music Is Most Used in Popping and Why

Popping is originally a street style, and mostly still is, so a true popper can adapt their moves to almost any street music.

Funk music is the most preferred because it allows poppers to express themselves and show their potential. Funk has a clear rhythm, prominent bass, and accents on beats.

Some music styles have been adapted by dancers. Through arrangement, they've remixed tracks into real hits that became even more loved than the originals.

Several such tracks were compiled into albums simply called "Music for Popping". Later, street artists recognized what style poppers needed, and started creating music in that style to attract dancers.

This created a cycle: new street music drew poppers, they started dancing, and crowds gathered around both dancers and singers. Of course, creative people didn't just sing and dance on main streets for fun—they earned money and popularity.

Today, there's a musical style actually called "popping". Beginners often start with dubstep, and their moves aren't always exactly like professional poppers'. This confuses audiences, and many now think it's a good idea to separate two directions: popping and dubstep.

It's not that it looks ugly or silly—it's just that some people want to see quality popping to original popping music, but end up with poppers dancing to dubstep. To avoid this, poppers may soon split into two camps based on the music they dance to.

The sharp contraction of muscles is called "pop", and it's executed precisely in time with the music. So the more rhythmic the music, the more original the performance. Popping also involves wave-like movements, so fast music with abrupt changes to smoother rhythms allows dancers to switch from popping to waving, which looks impressive and unexpected.

Usually, pops are performed at regular intervals, so relatively monotonous music with repetitive motifs also works.

In fact, an experienced popper can dance to absolutely any music, even slow. They just need to combine moves from other styles and adapt to the rhythm. Some professionals can improvise to any track without preparation, and their dance turns out better than a pre-choreographed one. It all depends on the popper's experience and practice.

If you learn the basic moves and master improvisation, you could even compete in a battle against a real popper.

You're probably planning to start training at a dance school, so choosing music won't be a problem. Your teachers will select music based on your strengths and tell you where to find and download good tracks.

There are also tons of popping music playlists online, especially on social media. Many YouTube dancers leave links to songs or albums in their video descriptions.

Popping is a true 21st-century art form. There's no shortage of music nowadays, so even if you don't like the original popping tracks, you can choose any music that makes you move comfortably.