Producing Alt Pop

Producing Alt Pop is all about balance: keep the catchy hooks and tight structure of a Pop song, then bend everything else to give the track its own identity. In this guide I’ll build an Alt Pop chorus from scratch in Ableton Live 12, layer by layer — chords, drums, bass, and leads — with audio examples at every step and the exact plugins I used. If you caught my Drum and Bass production guide, you’ll know the approach: a real session, real plugin choices.

What Is Alt Pop?

Alt Pop is literally Alternative Pop, meaning it’s Pop music that differs from mainstream Pop music. Now, you can see how this genre can be harder to pin down to a specific style. For the Pop aspect, we are really keeping the Pop songwriting and mostly sticking to the structure of a Pop song, plus having catchy vocal melodies. The alternative typically comes from borrowing different elements from other genres, such as Electronic music, Rock, Indie, Hip-Hop and Ambient music.

Some of the leading artists in Alt Pop for the current state of the genre include:

• Twenty One Pilots
• Billie Eilish
• Charli xcx
• Lorde

Each of these artists sounds vastly different from one another, but the way they manipulate Pop music to create catchy, memorable songs with their own sonic identity is what ties them together.

For this article I will be using Ableton Live 12, but you can use any DAW you like and follow along.

Producing An Alt Pop Song

In order to create a compelling Alt Pop song, we need to know which Pop music rules to follow and which to break. At the top of the list to follow is having a very memorable and strong vocal melody, or hook. This is the anchor of the song. Also sticking with the structure of a Pop song is pretty key. 

You can use more interesting chord progressions than your average Pop song, but try not to go too over the top. It needs to still be palatable, but it can stray from what you’d expect. Every aspect of the song should serve the sonic identity of the music. You’re not adding elements for the sake of it, each layer is carefully selected by the artist to truly create the personality of said artist in the song. 

One more thing to mention is that I will be breaking down the production of this into the drums, bass, chords, and leads. The reason I am not breaking down the chords and leads into specific instruments is because in this genre it really can be anything occupying those spaces, so I want to focus on the function rather than the instrument.

Chords

I am going to start with the chords of this song, as they really will be what determines the whole vibe of the song. The chords are pretty simple, being G Major, D Major, A Major, B Minor, and C Major. It’s not a typical Pop chord progression, but it’s also not so far out that it feels completely foreign to the genre. I started off by playing these on guitar, as it’s my main instrument.

Guitar

This is also a good time to mention that the first half of this chorus loop is a bit different to the second half. The chords are still the same, but the way they are played is different. Take a listen.

So the first half is played with stops in it, to give it a specific rhythm. Then the second half is just full on, strum your heart out.

In terms of tone, I am using ToneX by IK Multimedia with a Fender Tweed capture. I also have the stock chorus from Ableton Live at 33% for the first half and 14% for the second half. I love the sound of chorus with a gritty guitar, and it gives it a bit more sonic identity. In the second half there’s much more going on so I lowered the chorus effect to compensate for that.

If you look at the audio clips in the image above you’ll see that I am automating the gain of the amp to be lower in the first half than the second. I really wanted to give the sound a bit more power in that second half, so this was one of the ways I am doing that. I should also mention that I recorded this part twice with the same amp and panned each one hard left and right. This gives a really wide guitar sound. However, in the first half I have reduced the width of the guitars to 50% using a standard utility plugin that comes with every DAW. This makes the second half hit even harder.

Synth

I then used synths to add some more atmosphere and pop production into the song. I started with the Mellotron V by Arturia on a preset and increased the distortion, reverb, and added some flanger.

I am also sidechaining this to a kick drum that we will get into in the drum section.

I then added Analog Lab by Arturia using a Prophet preset which had an arpeggiator on it. I turned up the speed of the arpeggiator and reduced the attack of the envelope to get a really soft wash of sound. I then put on some chorus, a phaser, a bit of delay, and a tonne of reverb.

This is also being sidechained the same way as the Mellotron pad.

Finally, I added another instance of Mellotron V by Arturia, because I felt like the synths needed a bit more rhythm in there. This is a sharper keyboard sound being played in eighth notes.

You can see the MIDI below for this part.

Drums

Now let’s add some drums to the song. I am using the One Kit Wonder Pop Punk drum library from GGD, but you can use whatever you prefer.

I wrote out the drum MIDI to fit the rhythm of the guitars in the first half, and then in the second half I expanded this into a more pop beat but still keeping some of those accents from the first half.

Here is how the whole drum part sounds with just the drum library.

I then wanted to thicken up the drums a bit and add some more Pop production into them. So I found kick and snare samples that I liked on Splice, and lined them up to the drum MIDI.

I also added a third kick sample, but this is just playing on every beat of the bar, otherwise known as “four on the floor”. This is what the synths are being sidechained to and it further gives that Pop vibe without taking the identity from the song. It’s very subtle, but it’s doing more than you think to the overall groove of the song. Here’s how the drums sound now with the kick and snare samples added.

Finally I added some percussion loops from Splice to give some extra character to the drums.

Here is how all of the drums and percussion sound together.

Bass

For the bass part of the song, it really does depend what kind of vibe you’re going for. If you have a rather sparse arrangement with few elements, then the bass can be quite prominent and layered with a specific sonic characteristic to fill this gap. On the flip side, if you have a dense production then you can’t have a very layered and all encompassing bass part as it will muddy up the production.

For the sake of this article, I’ll be going somewhere in between. It won’t be super sparse as I want to show how different elements affect the overall song. However it won’t be completely dense so we still have room to play with the bass a bit. 

I will be using a combination of recording an electric bass and using synth bass.

Bass Guitar

For the bass guitar part, I recorded exactly the same part as the guitar chords.

For the amp I am using ToneX by IK Multimedia again, and also compressing fairly generously afterwards with FabFilter Pro-C, to get a more consistent low end.

Synth Bass

I then wanted to add a really thick, pumping, and distorted bass synth sound. I created this using two separate virtual instruments. The first is using Kontakt by Native Instruments to load in The Giant piano library. I really wanted to manipulate a basic piano sound to get the vibe I am after. So I removed all of the reverb to make it as dry as possible. I then added Berzerk Distortion by Waves. This really allowed me to dial in the crazy distortion that I am after. I also sidechained this to the kick, as I will with the second layer.

To add even more thickness to this part, I used Serum loaded with a favourite distorted bass preset of mine.

These are playing the same notes as the guitar chords, and together sound like this.

Leads

Now to add some more melodic layers to the track, and an instrumental hook. Let’s start with the main lead track.

Main Lead

For this I am again using Serum. I wrote a catchy hook for both the first half and second half. It’s a very wobbly lead sound with a lot of personality, so it really helps to paint the sonic picture of the song that I am going for.

I felt like the hook needed to evolve in the second half as it’s a different feeling and required something new that fit.

Background Leads

I love using background leads to fill the space a bit more, or to even support the overall sonic character of the music. Here I have two. The first is a lead guitar part that is the same rhythm as the guitar chords, but providing a simple counter melody to the part.

I am using ToneX by IK Multimedia again for this sound, with a Marshall Plexi capture. I am also using FabFilter Pro-Q quite aggressively to make sure that it sits in the mix as a background lead, and not overpower the main lead.

The second background lead is actually a vocal sample from Splice. I pitched it to be in the same key and chopped it up to get a melody that I like.

I then used FabFilter Pro-Q to filter out a lot of the low end and some of the high end, to once again ensure that this doesn’t become a focal point of the song. Then I used PanMan by Soundtoys to send this background lead to the left and right ear rhythmically. This keeps it out of the center of the mix and gives some more interest in the stereo field.

Conclusion

So here is the final production of an Alt Pop chorus.

If you take anything from this article, it should be that producing Alt Pop is less about following a specific set of production rules and more about adding your own personal identity to a Pop song. You stick to catchy melodies and a simple Pop structure, but what you do with the rest of the production can come from pretty much anywhere.

For this track, I leaned quite heavily into the Rock and Indie side of Alt Pop with the distorted guitars, bass, and acoustic drum library. However, those elements are mixed with distorted synth bass, synth pads, vocal chops, electronic drum samples, percussion loops, and different types of processing that push the production away from sounding like a standard Rock song.

Having the guitars become more distorted in the second half, developing the lead synth and drum beat, really gives it a fresh and unique take on Pop, without even changing the chord progression.

Of course, this is specific to my own tastes. If you want something closer to Billie Eilish, you might strip the arrangement back considerably and focus more on unusual sound design, bass, and vocal production. Alternatively, you could push the guitars and live drums further for something closer to Alternative Rock, or replace more of the organic elements with synths, samples, and programmed drums to move towards Electronic Pop.

The important thing is that these decisions feel intentional and serve the overall sonic character of the song. Alt Pop gives you a huge amount of freedom, but that doesn’t necessarily mean throwing every unusual sound you can find into the same production. Start with a strong Pop song, decide what you want its sonic identity to be, and then choose sounds and processing that build that identity. That balance between familiarity and experimentation is ultimately where Alt Pop gets interesting. If you’re still building your production fundamentals, our roundup of the best music production courses is a good next stop.