What genre is Katy Perry’s song Dark Horse?

Dark Horse is a song by American singer Katy Perry. It came out in 2013 as a single from her album Prism. The song has Juicy J, a rapper, on it too.

Most people say Dark Horse is a pop song. Pop is a kind of music lots of people listen to. It has catchy words and beats that get stuck in your head. Pop songs play on the radio all the time. But some think Dark Horse has parts that sound like other kinds of music. Let’s dive into the song and figure out what genre Dark Horse belongs to.

The verses have a hip-hop vibe.

When the song starts, it’s just Katy singing over a simple, dark beat. This part feels more chill. Then Juicy J comes in and raps a verse. Having a rapper featured makes it seem a little like hip-hop music.

Hip-hop started in the 1970s in New York City. DJs would loop parts of funk and disco songs, and MCs would rap over them. Hip-hop songs often have rapped verses and sung choruses, as Dark Horse does with Juicy J and Katy trading off.

But the chorus is super poppy.

When Katy belts out the chorus, Dark Horse sounds the most like a pop song. It’s got a massive beat that makes you want to dance. The words are about Katy warning a guy that if he wants to hook up with her, he better be ready because she’ll put a spell on him. It’s cheeky and a little sexy – a very pop star of hers.

The chorus also has a part where Katy does a “rap-singing” thing. It’s kind of like Kesha or Fergie from The Black Eyed Peas. Pop likes to borrow from-hopp sometimes to be remarkable. In the 2000s and 2010s, pop stars added little rap bits to their songs.

Some say Dark Horse has an urban sound.

There’s another genre people connect Dark Horse to urban music, but Urban” is tricky to define. It’s a term the music industry made up for music that started in cities and is popular with young people. Usually, it means Black artists make music like R&B, rap, and hip-hop. But some people think using “urban” is racist because it lumps all Black music together.

The trap beat gives Dark Horse street cred.

Trap is a hip-hop beat with skittering hi-hats, kick drums, and ominous synths. It started in the South in the 1990s. “Trap” means a place where people sell drugs. The lyrics are often about street life and hustling.

The beat in Dark Horse has a trappy vibe. The producer, Dr. Luke, was trying to do something different for Katy Perry, who usually makes bright, poppy music. The darker sound was an attempt to be edgy and urban. Some think using rap to be cool without respecting the culture it comes from is appropriation.

But is it R&B or hip-hop?

Even though Dark Horse has urban elements, it’s a stretch to call it a hip-hop or R&B song truly. Those genres have deep histories rooted in Black communities, but Dark Horse only borrows the sound on a surface level.

At its core, it’s still a pop song, made to be a mainstream hit. Katy Perry is a pop star, not an urban artist. There’s nothing wrong with blending genres—lots of musicians do it. But it’s important to give props to the original cultures and not just use them as trendy costumes.

Expanding the boundaries of pop

So if Dark Horse isn’t pure hip hop or R&B but also has urban elements mixed with pop, what do we call that? A mashup? Fusion? Pop-rap? Maybe we need new words for the theorists who are blurring the lines between genres.

Pop doesn’t have to mean just one thing.

Back in the day, pop was pretty easy to spot. It meant popular, catchy music for the masses—think of the early Beatles or Michael Jackson. But these days, pop is more challenging to pin down. Is it just whatever tops the charts? Is Billie Eilish pop in the same way Taylor Swift is? Both are popular, but their music sounds very different.

Maybe we need to expand our ideas of what pop means. It doesn’t have to be just one sound. There can be different flavors—indie pop, electro-pop, country pop, and yes, even pop with hip-hop swag, like Dark Horse.

Great songs can genre-bend

The best songs are the ones that make you feel something, no matter what genre they are. And part of what makes music exciting is when artists take risks and smash different sounds together. That’s how we get new styles, like when rock and rap gave us metal or when country and hip hop made “Old Town Road” by Lil Nas X a smash.

Dark Horse is a bop because it doesn’t fit in a box. It’s spooky and sexy, poppy and edgy all at once. The ominous trap beat, the earworm chorus, and Juicy J’s swaggering verse make the song a hit.