A friend of mine recently let me know that just couldn’t get into Robyn. “Have you listened to ‘Dancing On My Own?’ What about ‘With Every Heartbeat?’ Are you sure we’re talking about the same Robyn?” I nearly screamed at her in response, but she just shook her head. “Just not what I’m into.”

I know that Robyn has a substantial fan base, but it always surprises me how small it is in the US. Or really, how in the US, it isn’t pop fans who listen to Robyn. It’s the indie music fans who read Pitchfork and are informed about the latest developments in music and know something about different genres and the latest trends. And yet, Robyn is absolutely pop music. She could easily be a Top 40 artist along with Lady Gaga and Rihanna and (finally) La Roux. But she isn’t, and I really can’t understand why.

To me, Robyn is everything I’ve always hoped for in pop music. She’s creating music that’s so much smarter and more impressive than anything else on the radio, but still maintains the spirit and joy of pop. Sure, some of the themes of her music aren’t always uplifting, but I would argue that it’s much more difficult to write a song like “Be Mine” while incorporating the heavy synth beat than something bland like half of Christina Aguilera’s latest record.

Are her lyrics off putting for radio listeners? Is her sound to European? It’s always surprising to see how few international artists make it in America, especially in the pop world. There is a slick and overly produced feel of American pop songs that I can’t seem to escape, almost as if every song is being created by the same producer (Dr. Luke?) with the same group of writers mashing sloppy, generic beats with simplified hooks. This isn’t to say that there aren’t awful European pop songs being produced as well. But when it comes to measuring America’s best against Britain’s, I can’t help but be embarrassed by our lack of creativity. I just wish our pop fans recognized that not all pop music is saturated in autotune and cacophonous beats. There is some fantastic pop music out there, and no one is currently better at creating that than Robyn.