One of the best things about being in the club is recognising the next tune coming in and sharing a knowing glance with someone next to you. In 2023, we felt those moments happening more frequently. And not just in knowing glances, but in waves of whoops, cheers and whistles from thousands-strong crowds on dance floors all over the world. For example, at Horst Arts & Music, which is known for its on-point programming, we heard club-friendly takes on Mariah Carey, Nelly Furtado, Geri Halliwell, Lil Uzi Vert and Aqua. The Brussels festival, we wrote, "was proof that we're still in the era of the pop edit."

For better or worse, 2023 will go down as (another) year of the pop edit. Regardless of your loyalties to festivals, clubs, genres or DJs, you probably heard your share of reinventions this year. And, of course, where trends bloom so do The Tweets; Skee Mask's post on August 11th referencing "commercial bullshit mashup/edit[s]" at an "underground music festival" has racked up almost 400,000 views. In time-honoured social media tradition, you were either for or against the trend, with edits representing at best a modern and meaningful way to refashion a well-known song, and at worst the laziness of a culture short on invention.

To document the edit and its many cousins—remix, rework, refix, bootleg, mash-up and even taking it right back to sampling—is to run a thread through the canon of dance music itself, and the way creativity pollinates within its communities. The trend has long extended far beyond club culture, too—remember when almost every pop single arrived with one or more 12-inch reworks? Take Richie Hawtin remixing The Shamen, Flip & Fill transforming several Girls Aloud singles and Todd Terry's hugely popular remix of Everything But The Girl's "Missing." From anthemic dub mixes of iconic disco records through to hip house, UK hardcore, Miami bass, ghettotech, UKG, tech house and bassline—the list is endless. Sampling, reframing and reimagining aspects of popular culture and music are foundational to most established dance music genres, and they aren't going anywhere.

But is every pop edit good? No. Is there such a thing as too many edits? Yes. Do we always love an edit when it hits just right? Absolutely. Bored Lord nailed it when she said pop is "a way to deter the pretentious dance music people real fast."

In the spirit of reflecting the essence of the dance floors we've been on this year, here's our first-ever end-of-year pop edits list. Each track aims to capture that gooey feeling of recognition, the moment you turn to your friend and shriek, "is this what I think it is?!" (Also a shout-out for when you think a tune is coming in but it's actually… not.) Most importantly, these tunes are unashamedly fun. Here's to another year of singing along.

Bianca Oblivion & ONHELL – "SINAIS SPICE"

Nyshka Chandran

New York drill princess Ice Spice does what she wants when she wants. Her brazenly IDGAF attitude is especially obvious on "In Ha Mood," where her catchy chorus—"like, damn, she in her mood"—sounds straight from the inner dialogue of a woman prioritising confidence and self-love. On this heater of a remix, Bianca Oblivion is also very much in her mood. Packed with all her signature sounds—pan-Latin club, blistering jungle and added vocals that compliment Ice Spice's conversational bars—the Los Angeles producer's rendition delivers serious dance floor pressure with poise.

Listen on: Bandcamp

Anastacia – "I'm Outta Love (Dissolver Edit)"

Katie Thomas

Dutch artist Dissolver, whose productions rarely drop below 140 BPM, put out this edit of Anastacia's 2000 hit "I'm Outta Love" in May, just as the European festival season was rattling into gear. He keeps it simple, laying the a capella vocal and harmonies over hardgroove-flavoured rhythms, a rolling bassline and snappy snares. The simplicity does the trick. The original was an instant classic, and Dissolver's take retains every singalong moment but makes it fit for a grooving dance floor. I first heard it during Bashkka's closing set at Glastonbury. As dance floor moments go, it doesn't get much better than singing, dancing and hugging your pals as the sun rises over Block9.

Listen on: SoundCloud

Hilary Duff – "Come Clean (Nick León Bubbling mix)"

Kiana Mickles

I vividly recall first listening to "Come Clean" in a soaking wet tent in the Catskills on my older cousin's bedazzled Bratz CD player. When I first encountered this Nick León edit on the dance floor, I was whisked back to being seven years old, but in a way that made me want to thrash around and swaddle myself in guilt-free nostalgia and angst. In the liner notes of the EP this Hilary Duff edit appears on, Nick León wrote: "I wanted these to reflect a moodiness I have been feeling in the club lately." That moodiness is here, but over dembow it's transformed into something magical.

Listen on: Bandcamp

OSSX – "Don't Linger"

Tom Gledhill

Including OSSX in this list was a given, but which one to choose? Their infectious rework of Faithless's "Insomnia?" Their jungle flip of SWV? Maybe this huge Jersey club edit of Faith Evans? All of these came out this year, but there's something undeniable about "DONT LINGER." Condensing Fatima Yamaha's 2004 tears-in-the-club anthem "What's a Girl to Do" into four uproarious minutes of Baltimore club, the trio reinvigorate the original hook with a fleet of livewire vocals and percussion. The results are a masterstroke of reinvention. Whichever way you cut it, OSSX had a ridiculous 2023. "DONT LINGER" is the cherry on top.

Listen on: Bandcamp

DJ Chrysalis & Regularfantasy – "Life in Plastic"

Andrew Ryce

Some edits merely reinforce a pop track with some dance floor-strength fundamentals, or use a vocal hook to dress up an otherwise blasé instrumental. This edit of Aqua's "Barbie Girl," from Australian-Canadian duo DJ Chrysalis & Regularfantasy, is neither—it's a new track in its own right. It's remarkable how the two producers can use a sample from one of the most ubiquitous and occasionally annoying songs of all time but make it sound almost sedate. "Life In Plastic" has an early-morning glow to it, stuff for the tail end of a party where they've been playing trance and prog house, and you can hear echoes of the night ringing through your head—proof that a good edit doesn't always have to be in sixth gear to work its magic.

Listen on: YouTube

DJ G2G – "MY HUMPS JUST WANNA VROOM VROOM"

Kiana Mickles

DJ G2G brings two futuristic ragers from opposite ends of the music spectrum together: the instrumental of Lil Uzi Vert's "Just Wanna Rock," a rap track synonymous with the rowdy dance that accompanies it, and the maddeningly catchy vocals from Charli XCX's "Vroom Vroom." If that doesn't sound appealing enough, by the time this mash-up reaches its "chorus," Fergie chimes in with the sassiest lines from 2005's "My Humps." It's a combination that could easily incite a multigenerational mosh pit on the floor. It's silly, like the best mash-ups often are, but it also marries the best elements of contemporary and '00s pop.

Listen on: SoundCloud

Janet Jackson – "Empty (sim0ne bootleg)"

Andrew Ryce

Janet Jackson's "Empty" is the deep cut for savvy dance music fans. The song, gorgeous on its own terms, ends in a flurry of percussion and jabbing basslines that would have you believe that Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis had accidentally invented footwork in the mid-'90s. (Of course, they didn't—shout out RP Boo.) "Empty" was also prescient lyrically, probing the nature of online-only relationships forged through networking websites. But Scottish DJ sim0ne's edit doesn't focus on the track's proto-club elements, but rather its melodic majesty, framing it with a Eurodance-style beat and rippling synths. What was once a lament for loneliness becomes a sweaty, almost athletic celebration of togetherness.

Listen on: SoundCloud

Mina – "Sway"

Carlos Hawthorn

Since 2017, Boko! Boko!'s Mina has been supplying DJs with crafty pop remixes that absolutely tear up the club. She's got a real knack for striking the perfect balance, preserving the original magic while also being daring—the opposite, in other words, of lazily strapping a donk to a soaring vocal. Perhaps the highlight of Now That's What I Call Mina (Vol 4), the final volume in the popular series, is "Sway," which transforms Dean Martin's crooner classic into a storm cloud of drums and bass booms that will have you head-banging, erupting into a fit of giggles or, hopefully, both.

Listen on: Bandcamp

t.A.T.u – "All the Things She Said (gyrofield edit)"

Tom Gledhill

Whether bashing out dubstep tunes on UKF or sound system-shredding drum & bass, gyrofield has established herself as a fine producer and DJ in recent years, with a sound defined by its malleability, dexterity and meticulous craft. Released as a Patreon exclusive, "all the th1ngs she said" flips t.A.T.u's lesbian pop smash into a stadium-sized drum & bass anthem. A track with many previous iterations, gyrofield's take stands out thanks to its patient scene-setting. After two minutes of ratcheting up the tension, the track drops into chopped-up breaks, pitched vocals and weighty bass, all working in concert to delirious effect.

Listen on: SoundCloud

DBN Gogo – "SAdesFakSHen (feat. Benny Benassi, Thuto The Human)"

Whitney Wei

Amapiano has swept through the world in recent years, morphing into mutant offshoots and producing global stars like DBN Gogo. The Durban-born, Pretoria-raised producer delivered this unpredictable and boisterous remix of Benny Benassi's 2002 classic "Satisfaction," all sawtoothed electro house build-ups that jettison into swishing kwaito drums. The drop is decidedly less sharp, more groove than the original, and will either raise multiple question marks or absolute hell on the dance floor. Love it or hate it, to create something as oddly cohesive as this in spite of the disparate elements is a feat all on its own.

Listen on: YouTube

When we were compiling this list, we couldn't leave out these two from last year.

Bow Wow feat. Ciara – "Like You (Regal86 Jungle Flip)"

Bella Aquilina

In 2005, the year of YouTube, Ed Hardy and the end of Brad and Jen, Bow Wow and Ciara's "Like You" captured the zeitgeist: wearing Ed Hardy in the video, waxing lyrical to each other on the phone before meeting their respective partners and flirting with their potential betrayal. Lacing jungle breaks through this dance of forbidden desire, Regal86's adaptation raises the duo's illicit energy to the fore. While it may be a pop edit in the most rudimentary sense, the track sees the Monterrey producer return to the roots of the Amen break, the seminal drum sample that made its biggest mark on the speed-rush glory of UK hardcore and jungle. Regal86's flip traces the thorough-line across the Atlantic. A pop edit with a double dose of nostalgia.

Listen on: Bandcamp

Sean Paul - "Temperature (Speed Garage Dub)"

Katie Thomas

One of the edits I heard out most this year—and a favourite of Job Jobse's—is a dub of Sean Paul's "Temperature" by prolific UK producer SKEPTIC. (Scrolling through his SoundCloud, I spotted takes on everyone from Shy FX to Sade, plus a "Hackney Parrot" dub–yes please.) Here, he takes the instantly recognisable vocal, pitches it up, whacks in a warping bassline and adds snares on the two and the four. It's the tried-and-tested speed garage formula, and for good reason–it works. As the first chorus comes in, SKEPTIC strips it back to just the vocal and the bass. When the drums return, it absolutely goes off.

Listen on: SoundCloud

Read the rest of our end-of-year coverage here