Robin Pope/ZUMA Get your news from a source that’s not owned and controlled by oligarchs. Sign up for the free _Mother Jones Daily_. Pop music can suck—like _really_ suck—sometimes. It also

can be really good—like _really_ good—sometimes. But for too long the genre was demeaned as exclusively “the taste of 13-year-olds.” Critics were long given license to tear into the genre

and its stars. In a 2014 _60 Minutes_ and _Vanity Fair_ poll, they asked “Which decade had the worst music?” and an overwhelming 42 percent of respondents said it was the current decade. Pop

music, according to one headline, has been “Literally Ruining Our Brains.” Of late, that critical consensus has shifted. While pop music has always had stars both mainstream and underground

often hailed “Pop Star of the Future” Charli XCX.) Pop music has always evolved through adaptation of the underground, pop forever consuming smaller genres to then spit them out mixed with

the mass-produced. Devine herself put it best in an interview with _Dork, _“I got into pop music, not because I listen to it more than other genres, but because pop music is the one you can

bend the most.” This attitude, that “pop music is the one you can bend the most,” is what’s flipping the age old genre stereotype that people listen to pop because it is formulaic. Artists

like Charli XCX, Bree Runway, Dorian Electra, Slayyyter, Carly Rae Jepsen, and yes, Devine, know that the only way to break the rules is to know them. They make a type of meta-pop that is

self aware. From her heartbreaking track “Daughter” to the horny anthem “Naked Alone,” Devine has defined herself as a pop artist that pushes limits. “[Pop] doesn’t really have any

boundaries,” she reiterated to _Dork._ “You can constantly reinvent what it is and what it means to you.” [embedded content] Part of what defines pop music is its inability to be defined. As

Stereogum’s Chris DeVille wrote in his annual State Of Pop Address, “the concept of pop music is slippery and subjective.” He echoed Jon Caramanica’s point that pop “can be a descriptor of

audience size, indicating something that’s popular, or it can be a genre tag, specifying a sound.” Caramanica continued to note that the “meanings of pop have been so tightly tethered” that

they are “difficult to disentangle.” Devine’s newest single, “Peachy Keen,” asks: Why should we even try? “Peachy Keen” samples one of 1981’s biggest hits, Kim Carnes’ “Bette Davis Eyes”

before launching into a mix of synthesized keys and hip hop beats. The track compresses almost 40 years of music and technological developments into a sound. All of it is _pop_. Devine’s

discography thrives on the mixing and matching of genres—an intertwined and tangled mess. She purposefully refashions the tropes. There’s the sampling of one of pop culture’s favorite

references, 1988’s _Heathers _in “Peer Pressure.” Her track “Panic” clearly takes inspiration from her origins as a singer/songwriter (and yes, punk). (Plus, she does it all while being

unapologetically queer.)  Pop music has always been about being unapologetic—about doing the most and _being _the most. (Which is maybe why so many dislike it.) It’s an essentially queer

genre of music—from yesteryear’s Bessie Smith and Billie Holiday to today’s megastars like Elton John and Lady Gaga. Devine’s blatant and casual inclusion of her queer identity further 

expands pop music’s fearless defiance. As streaming continues to redefine pop music, weirder sub-genres will emerge to chase listens. (Whisper-pop anyone?) But an algorithm is still a

formula. L Devine’s experimentation isn’t a quest to be part of the newest fad. Instead, with each new release, Devine proves that as much as we want to define pop, the magnetism of the

genre is just how much you can do with it. [embedded content]