Metropopolis
Metropopolis is a Spotify-coined label for polished, catchy pop with an indie leaning, a close cousin of mainstream chart pop.
Glenn McDonald, the data analyst behind Spotify's genre system, invented the name, which blends metropolis and pop. Spotify presented it as the breakout genre of 2014 and described it as a more refined, indie-minded cousin of chart pop. McDonald has written that he made the cluster to collect the bright, glittery electronic pop acts that the wider indietronica group only half covered. The term is not used as a genre name outside Spotify.
- Family
- Alternative & Indie
- On Spotify
- No longer returned by Spotify’s API
- What it is
- A label Spotify coined
- Trackify listeners who play it
- 17%
About 14,000 of 83,000 Trackify listeners with public profiles have metropopolis among their top artists of the last four weeks. Rounded; updated 13 November 2026.
Metropopolis artists
Charli xcx
Lorde
Ellie Goulding
MARINA
Tinashe
Blood Orange
Björk
Phantogram
Grimes
Tove LoThe metropopolis artists most Trackify listeners have in their top fifty. Each opens on Spotify.
Sources
- Salon: Stop trying to make "metropopolis" happen (December 2014)
- Glenn McDonald's blog: Metropopolis (December 2014)
The definition is written for this site from open sources, and was checked against them on 13 November 2026.