Pop Music

Secular music has been a battle that I think a lot of Christian teenagers, specifically, deal with
What is appropriate to listen too...and what is not appropriate?
Is listening to secular music sinful?
I know...there's Christian pop, but today I'm specifically talking about secular pop music.
The Christian in my opinion is free to enter the culture of this world, including the pop music, equipped with discernment. We don't need to fear the music of our culture, but we need to exercise caution what we kind of music we surround ourselves with. Being familiar with the most popular songs and singers and having background information on the songs is always a good idea.
Music influences in a significant way, and I think sometimes we don't realize how much it influences us.
If you surround yourself with music which lyrics are corrupt...either using profane language or talking about inappropriate subjects, or even things that don't exactly state the obvious sometime, but it's the message being conveyed.
Not to mention in the Bible it talks about how we should fill our minds with "whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is admirable, if anything is excellent or praiseworthy, think about such things." (Philippians 4:8)
Things that are crude and inappropriate are definitely not admirable, praiseworthy or pure.
But, I love pop music! Music is something that I LOVE and I connect with many of the words that artists come out with. But I have learned to be extremely picky and careful with what songs I listen to.
For example, think about the song "Bang Bang". This song doesn't come right out and say the things that it means, but in my person opinion, it's not a a clean or pure thing that I'm going to fill my brain with. Just because a song has a good beat, doesn't mean that it should be listened to, and of course that can be really hard to do. (Especially with some of Ed Sheeran's songs)
Now...Taylor Swift is one of my favorite artists ever. However, some of the songs on her newest album have curse words in it.
Shake It Off even has a bad word in it.
The message of the song Shake It Off isn't bad at all, and so my solution to this problem is to insert "really good hair" :)
However the majority of songs that have more than one curse word in them usually means the overall content isn't good. If you hear a curse word more than once, you might want to reconsider what you're listening to.
Here is my standard for whether or not I'm going to listen to a pop song.
1) What is the overall message of the song? Is it portraying something inappropriate or crude? Does it have crude language throughout?
2) What about the singer....or the singers intent for the song? Is their some background information on the song or a choice that the singer has made that you aren't going to support by listening to their music?

Some of my favorite pop singers (or not "Christian" singers per se) include:
1) Taylor Swift (content is not inappropriate, and usually just talks about relationships, some lessons can be learned from her songs)
2) Ben Rector (Check out; When I'm with You, I Like You, and Wildfire)
3) Colbie Caillat (Aww...such cute love songs, talking about how butterflies get in her stomach, and how she "may be fallin for you" :)
4) One Direction (Gotta love them...even if you never liked their music in the past, you gotta admit "Four" is a good quality album)

Here are a few songs by singers that I enjoy, and some other songs by these artists might also interest you, however you have to be careful with some songs:

Ariana Grande; Piano
Imagine Dragons; On Top of the World, Radioactive, It's Time
Andy Grammer; Fine by Me 
Maroon 5; It Was Always You 
Ed Sheeran; Thinking Out Loud 
Daughtery; Waiting for Superman 
Christina Perri; Human
Sara Bareilles; Brave
Sara Haze; Lovely 
Justin Timberlake; Mirrors, Not a Bad Thing 
MKTO; Classic

And if all else fails, Christian music is the way to go. There are so many quality songs that Christian's put out. However, even with these, some songs don't line up with what the Bible says.
Someone Worth Dying For by Mikeschair...I get the song. Jesus loved us so much in order to die on the cross for us...but we were never someone worth dying for. We are sinners, and in need of a Savior. It's because of what Christ did...we were never worth dying for. That's why this Christian song in particular annoys me so much. So no matter what, just listen to the lyrics of the song to see what you are putting into your brain.

What are some of your favorite pop singers that you often go to because their music is appropriate? What are some of your favorite pop songs in general (maybe I know them too, and I can add them to the list!)?
What pop singers do you despise because of their lack of appropriate music?