10. Check out the best songs of the 2010s below. You may not know this song by name, but as soon as that first chord hits, you'll feel a familiar euphoria. Now, looking back on the progress we've made this decade, the song feels downright prophetic. second song in history to be certified diamond, anyone who thinks Foster the People is a one-hit wonder band, Gen Z's distaste for polished industry professionals, Billboard's Lyndsey Havens noted at the time, she ranked "New Rules" the No. Wake up, DRANK! The breakup anthem is so luminous, so confidently bizarre, that pop mastermind Max Martin called it a case of "incorrect songwriting." But it was precisely thanks to all those idiosyncrasies that "Latch" became a hit with general public, breathing fresh air into a crowded EDM scene and minting a brand new pop star in the process. But with "Dang!" While "Despacito" lost all three historic Grammy nominations, the sheer outrage inspired by that snub speaks to the song's power. Despite its heart-wrenching lyrics ("Don't I know you better than the rest? Everytime she drops, she is the only thing we're playing. This is Swift's thing: She remembers. Drake's mythology probably wouldn't exist in the same way today without the messy confessions of "Marvins Room." Green Day, Revolution Radio (2016) Reprise Records Possibly pop punk’s biggest name churned out one of … Although "Lover" is such a recent release that we can't yet be sure of its legacy, it feels fairly guaranteed that it'll play an indispensable role in Taylor Swift's discography — as well as in wedding ceremonies for decades to come. Eight years after her monumental album "Body Talk," Robyn lured us back into her chromatic world with "Honey" — more specifically, the album's opening track "Missing U.". "Everything in the song was verbatim what I was dealing with at the time," the rapper revealed. "Get You" sounds like the daydreams you have when you're in love. In the beginning of the decade, Nicki Minaj was a buzzy, up-and-coming rapper who was best known for delivering the best verse of the year on Kanye West's posse cut "Monster." "Norf Norf" thrives on this duality: a sleek delivery of clever lines that glide on the surface of a tense, twitchy atmosphere. "You can imagine the characters who cycle in and out of his songs whispering 'We gon' be alright' to themselves, or reassuring loved ones between sighs, trying to make it through the next day," Pearce wrote. All of her brags and snarls are yours now. But which songs can be pulled out from an album or discography and still be just as good, if not better? The entry date is when the song appeared in the top 10 for the first time (week ending, as published by the Official Charts Company, which is six days after the chart is announced). As Jason Parham wrote for Pitchfork, this song "is not consumed with the moment, as Drake songs routinely are, but with forever. "), listening to it is how I imagine breathing underwater would feel. The obvious choice here would've been Maggie Rogers' viral, Pharrell-approved "Alaska," but "Fallingwater" does everything her breakout hit did, only better. Nothing can ever beat the old-school classics, but the 2010s was a time when the music industry experimented with new genres while refining old ones that have been neglected over time. The beauty of Sky Ferreira's defining hit "Everything Is Embarrassing" is its eternal relatability. "Love It If We Made It" is a generational anthem in the most literal way possible. "Zebra" is the clear standout on Beach House's celebrated album "Teen Dream." There's hardly a need to explain why, because you already know: The song, along with its many-hued music video, truly defines the era of feverish social media-fueled obsession. Somehow, Daniel Caesar managed to precisely crystallize that euphoric disbelief, that constant sensation of floating — and then enlisted Kali Uchis for her characteristically surreal vocals to amplify the effect. Strokes of genius like this illustrate why many West fans refuse to give up on him and his potential for creative redemption. Stigmas and narrow expectations for mothers, especially for black mothers, still run rampant. "I'm a rude b----, n----, what are you made up of?" Insider ranked the 113 best songs of the 2010s, taking into account both quality and cultural impact. Is it something you can listen to over and over without getting tired of it? It's no fluke, either. Then, as that brazen line echoes and fades, Banks' smile starts to fade, too. Pop that pretty question right now, baby") — but in reality, it's us she has wrapped around her finger. Although FKA Twigs released one of this year's best albums, her 2014 single "Two Weeks" remains her standalone master stroke. © Copyright 2021 Rolling Stone, LLC, a subsidiary of Penske Business Media, LLC. The 35 Best Songs of the 2010s. that burrowed into our collective consciousness. But at the same time, for me, I love that kind of music.". "Super Bass" rocketed Minaj to another dimension. Instead, "Ribs" evokes that universal sense of fleeting youth, when everything mattered and also nothing did, when you were worried about all the wrong things but somehow knew more about what mattered than the adults around you. How fitting that the preeminent song on James Smith's solo album, "Loud Places," best illustrates his chemistry with Romy Madley-Croft, his bandmate from The xx. Frankly, I can’t imagine a Best Songs of the 2010s list without this song. 's "Broccoli" or Chance the Rapper's "Angels," only better — elevating this optimism with vivid storytelling, a hint of rebellion, and a fresh melody that would make Pharrell proud, or feel at home on Outkast's "Speakerboxxx/The Love Below.". It's like D.R.A.M. But in Beyoncé's hands, it feels positively transcendent — especially considering her iconic performance at the 2011 MTV Video Music Awards, when she revealed her first pregnancy onstage after nailing the song's four key changes. "The higher line of melody happens (and it's really just the original line a bit higher) and by then we're so unwittingly thirsty for a lift. As Judnick Mayard wrote, "A Seat at the Table" is "an album for Black women made by one Black woman. Before there was "Take Care" or "Work," there was "What's My Name?" *Sighs wistfully.*. At a time when pop music was still comfortably discredited — when purists would insist that it was shallow or somehow less "authentic" than "real music" — "Dancing On My Own" emerged exultant and unbothered, burning an effigy of loss and betrayal and heartbreak before scattering the ashes under a disco ball. She released three top 30 singles throughout 2010 before her debut studio album, "Pink Friday," dropped that November. Vince Staples' enduring ode to Long Beach is both loving and cynical. Additional Popular Song Lists. Best-selling songs of the 2010s based on combined sales. Check out the best songs of the 2010s below. As an exquisite blend of tropical pop and R&B (with a last-minute, climactic swerve into punk-rock territory), it's both a product of its genre-bending era and a timeless, sexy slow burn. The moment feels like an explosion, or a rebirth. 1 movie of the decade — since it's a prime example of a modern record that's "considered both Important and Iconic.". With its jarring honesty about monogamy's pitfalls, there is an open-ended strength within SZA's experience that feels available for listeners to latch onto. Warm, sparkling guitar riffs initially dominate the song. 9 on its list of the century's best songs: "Maybe the greatest striver's anthem of our modern era was written in half an hour by a 15-year-old in Auckland, New Zealand — perfectly reasonable, since no one views the world's absurd unfairness, or their own rights within in it, with greater clarity than a 15-year-old, especially one situated 8,800 miles from Wall Street and the heart of pop-culture imperialism.". Before he was widely recognized as the greatest lyrical rapper alive, Lamar still intertwined complex storylines, societal observations, and explorations of his own duality with infectious beats and thrilling hooks. When the song ends, it feels like you're coming down from an adrenaline rush. Recently awarded the prestigious Song of the Decade Gong at The Q Awards and also the Best Contemporary Song honour at the 2012 Ivor Novello Awards, Lana Del Rey’s breakthrough anthem is a baroque pop masterpiece. Anything I could possibly write here will simply reiterate something you already know, something that has been documented and think-pieced ad nauseam. Nothing can ever beat the old-school classics, but the 2010s was a time when the music industry experimented with new genres while refining old ones that have been neglected over time. Later, Chance would perform a Christmassy version of the song on "Saturday Night Live" and again at the White House for the National Christmas Tree Lighting ceremony — transforming its warm, smiling energy into a small but important moment in American history. "Blank Space," for example, was an ingeniously satirical script-flip that plays an essential role in Swift's catalog. The lyrics and production are just as intimate, just as shimmery, but stronger and more confident. No other song illustrates the album's transcendence better than "Cranes in the Sky," a shimmering ode to nurturing your own soul in a chaotic and unjust world. You'd never expect to love a song so much that includes the lyric, "I guess that c--- getting eaten" — until you can practically hear Azealia Banks grinning in the first verse of "212," her nimble voice strutting through Belgian house music. “Love the Way You Lie” featuring Rihanna (Recovery 2010) Eminem has always had a … For more of our best of decade coverage, check out our 100 Best Albums Of The 2010s and our 30 Best Hip-Hop Albums Of The 2010s. Drawing from the innovations of artists like Frank Ocean and Solange, "Face" is smooth and warm and exquisitely minimalist. "Nights" by Frank Ocean , "Formation" by Beyoncé , "Alright" by Kendrick Lamar , and "All Too Well" by Taylor Swift rounded out the top five. Joe McElderry was the first artist to top the chart in the decade, when " The Climb " replaced " Killing in the Name " by Rage Against the Machine . You don't listen to "Holocene" to feel hopeless or small, but rather to feel spiritually bigger than your smallness. The 50 best rock albums of the 2010s. ", it's been mythologized as Ocean's official debut single, essays entitled "Adele is the artist of the decade", LMFAO's "Sexy and I Know It" reigning as the No. ", "'And now I'm left behind, all the time,' she sang, a devastating sentiment rendered in succubus sing-song, and a setback transcended by the track's forward-thinking production," Snapes wrote. 196 songs There is something so deliciously Rihanna about "Love on the Brain," a startlingly beautiful ballad that feels at once vulnerable and combative. As Pitchfork's Ryan Dombal wrote at the time, the combination of Calvin Harris' sleek California funk, two of rap's most adaptive guest stars, and Frank Ocean's "subtle radicalism" makes for an effect that is "magnetic and a little startling.". I mean, "Lemon" would've been an arresting song even without the stroke of genius that is a Rihanna verse. Here Are the 100 Best Songs of the 2010s Get ready for the ultimate throwback with our playlist. This isn't on Rodeo… it's coming soon," he wrote on SoundCloud). After years of singing of love stories based in fantasy and embellishing the details of failed courtships, Swift found a mature groove on this Mazzy Star-esque love song, writing from within a long-term relationship — a place of security and frustration and comfort and understanding and persistent, abiding, I'll-run-away-with-you-if-you-ask passion. 2012 began with LMFAO's "Sexy and I Know It" reigning as the No. "That song originally I thought shouldn't be on a Tame Impala album, because it has this dorky, white disco funk," he told Under the Radar magazine. "I wouldn't call it cheesy, but it's not trying to be too cool, because the lyrics are pretty dorky and the groove is pretty dorky. Glover wrote and coproduced the song, on top of playing drums and glockenspiel. As Billboard's Lyndsey Havens noted at the time, there's something about the chorus' rallying lyric, "I'm a rebel just for kicks now," that felt especially resonant in the tense, high-stakes atmosphere of 2017. 2010s, 2019YearinReview, Best 100 Songs. 196 songs Did it pioneer a totally unique sound, or does it perfectly harness a musical trend that you already enjoy? For someone who keeps his finger on the pulse so successfully, it should be impossible to identify a career-topping song. Syd, the lead singer of The Internet, has written that she "wanted to make this song feel like a love trance," and she succeeded: It's a melodic, silky, hypnotic account of passion and pining. With layers of instrumental color and a uniquely spectral voice, Vernon is capable of packing a lifetime's worth of emotion into deceptively simple lyrics. "When we were writing it and me and [cowriter] Julia Michaels referenced 'sexual bender,' we weren't thinking of it as gender-bending or bisexuality, but rather a sexual or drinking bender," lyricist Justin Tranter told MTV. Take into account its meticulous, summery, atmospheric production — Google says the actual definition of "atmospheric" is "creating a distinctive mood, typically of romance, mystery, or nostalgia," which is literally "Thinkin Bout You" to a tee — and how it's been mythologized as Ocean's official debut single, the song is practically a priceless historic artifact. The magic may have been best described by Grande's fellow singer-songwriter, Lorde, who called the song "maybe the closest thing to pop perfection i've ever heard. Ocean has always been able to load brief stanzas with double meanings and layered interpretations, and with "Nights," he touches upon a veritable feast of modern, existential concerns: exploitation, the drive for pleasure, the fear of mortality, the monotony of life, the loss of innocence (Has there ever been a more perfect way to describe a phone call from an ex than "Did you call me from a séance? There's an endless number of ways to judge a great song. Here are the best 25 pop punk albums from the 2010s. Sam Smith's exquisite vocal range could make any gospel-inspired ballad feel alive, but it's really their stirring emotional depth and honesty that made "Stay With Me" such a sensation. Amongst the noise, a teenager quietly made "Royals" available for free online, its gleaming vocal harmonies strung together with a defiantly, arrogantly simple beat. Thus far, it's the song that best encapsulates the force that is Cardi B. Our 113 best songs of the 2010s are ranked below, in descending order. "Latch" is a spectacularly weird song — so weird that Disclosure felt sure it wouldn't be well-received. It's difficult to articulate the significance and resonance of "Cranes in the Sky," and I'm certainly not qualified to try. The thoughts expressed are those of the author(s). 77 songs topped Hot Rap Songs in the 2010s. Smith conducts a gospel-like chorus of chants and drum beats and hand claps, swelling around Croft's breathy croons — and transforming the song from an intimate confession into an all-consuming, gravity-defying hymn. Songs about love gone wrong remained a pop staple in the 2010s: All the decade’s technological advances didn’t do much for romance, when all was said and done. If "No Tears Left to Cry" was Ariana Grande's triumphant comeback single, confirming that she hadn't lost her optimism or range in the face of trauma, "God Is a Woman" let us know that we actually had it all wrong. is the ideal portal to the Arctic Monkeys' sleek, swaggering, lipstick-smearing, leather-jacketed world on "AM," the band's best album to date. Swift and her lover are suspended there, driving in the dark, unseen and timeless. If she's a crumpled up piece of paper lying here, then so are you. "Dance Yrself Clean" is a sprawling tour de force that somehow remains captivating for nearly nine straight minutes. "Don't act like you forgot / I call the shots."