The perfect year-in-review audio time capsule for people with only six minutes to spare, Daniel Kim has released his Pop Danthology for 2014 and it’s a pretty catchy little ditty. Much like DJ Earworm’s United States of Pop mash-up, Kim takes well-known hits from throughout the year and blends them together to create a mini-retrospective while also revealing some recurring themes that happened to spread across musical artists and genres.
The most obvious recurring theme that will always be in any year’s collection will be pop artists’ talking about their thoughts on love. But less obvious is the number of music videos that feature tracking shots of people just walking around while talking about that love. And of course there are the many, many instances of claps playing an integral part of the song, whether it’s of the hand or booty variety. Kim doesn’t dwell on any specific artists too much while also showing that with a switch of a beat, a sad song can be a great party anthem.
For added edification, Kim also made this video which breaks down his remix by highlighting the 66 songs that he pulled from for vocals and beats: