10 Essential Pop Metal Songs

Pop metal has become far more accepted in recent years, with some pop-fused metal tracks slowly breaking through into the mainstream.

Whether it’s cheesy ’80s metal or the kawaii style from Japan, here are 10 essential pop metal songs that’ll invite a little serotonin into your wretched brain.

Arguably the first “pop-metal” song, Def Leppard made the emerging glam metal scene as commercially palatable as humanly possible with “Photograph.” The main riff is catchy as hell while still being pretty cool, but when “Photograph” hits its chorus, the song goes off like a Fleetwood Mac-level pop-rock anthem. We’re powerless against loving this cheesy cut. 

Back when Bon Jovi was still kinda metal, the phenomenally successful Slippery When Wet etched the blueprint for poppy, commercial heavy metal. Some forget that “You Give Love a Bad Name” was the first single from the album, preluding “Livin’ on a Prayer” by three whole months. The pop sensibilities behind “You Give Love a Bad Name” essentially brought hair metal to the mainstream, and its chorus is as iconic as anything from the ’80s. 

Moving into the modern era, Babymetal‘s self-titled debut both captivated and pissed off metalheads, but the kawaii girl group ultimately prevailed thanks to expert-level songwriting and the undeniable talents and work ethic of Su-metal, Moametal and Yuimetal. “Gimme Chocolate!!” is charming at the very least… and incredibly addictive. The Babymetal team sure know how to write a chorus.

Babymetal love chocolate, Hanabie love sweets. Playing out of the kawaii metal playbook, Hanabie brought a heavier tone to Japanese pop-metal, most notably through their vocals. The girls are incredibly talented instrumentalists, carrying the weight of their unstable compositions alone. “We Love Sweets” is both silly and brutal, carrying the wild energy of acts like Maximum the Hormone.

Ever see that horror movie Pearl? Poppy is sort of the metal equivalent of that. From a girl who seemed to actually live in the Internet, Poppy‘s “Concrete” was as surprising a hit as we got in the 2010s. It was genreless, futuristic and undeniably catchy with an endlessly re-watchable music video. Pure pop swapping spit with modern metalcore. 

This band of Japanese maids cover a lot of ground genre-wise, from pop rock to hard rock and metal. For a taste of their harder side, “Rinne” is a killer track filled with heavy licks and pummeling double kick drums. This is pure anime theme music, penned entirely to make you spring into life and jump through a brick wall.

If Band-Maid doesn’t rip hard enough for you, crank up some Nemophila. Only relying on a touch of the J-pop style, the all-girl band brings killer shredding, sickening harsh vocals and technical drumming to “Dissension.” This band is packed with star power.

There’s nothing HevyDevy can’t do, including making the happiest, poppiest metal song that the sonic laws of nature would allow. The verses from “Life” are unapologetically ’90s pop, like that Savage Garden / Sugar Ray vibe. The chorus is pure bliss as well, pulling absolutely zero punches while keeping a subtle nod to Townsend‘s core fans. Are there Devin Townsend fans who hate this song? Doubtful!

We’ve talked about some different pop styles in this list, but we haven’t dared touch that electro-dancehall Europop style. Amaranthe somehow bridged that near-impossible gap on “Maximize,” a deceptively gigantic song that’d bring Corpsegrinder and Britney Spears into the same nightclub. Well done, Amaranthe.

An entry that will likely become Sleep Token‘s biggest song to-date, “Caramel” landed as the band’s first Top 10 hit in the UK. Not a Top 10 rock song… Top 10 on the overall Singles Chart. That huge landmark was secured thanks to the modern pop and hip-hop sensibilities of “Caramel,” which almost sounds like Post Malone crossed with VOLA. Massive, massive song.