24 | Flesh Without Blood | Grimes | Added a layer of darkness that most pop songs have but do not like to draw attention to. This decade was the one that people started taking pop music seriously. |
6 | Formation | Beyonce | Bey decided to stop making music for EVERYONE and just make music for black women. And little did we know how much we all needed it. There were many notable political pop songs over the course of the decade. but most of them were not performed during a Super Bowl half-time show. |
| FourFiveSeconds | Kanye West, Rihanna, Paul McCartney | |
59 | Gladly | Tirzah | It's not even the best song off of one of the best albums of the past decade and it's still phenomenal. It's downtempo, dreamy, emotional, and feels like you are basking in the evening sunlight coming through your bedroom window. |
| God Is a Woman | Ariana Grande | Britney, N'Sync, and the Backstreet Boys defined the late 90s. Ariana Grande was a defining figure of the late 2010s. She can sound like anybody, but nobody can sound like her. |
29 | Good as Hell | Lizzo | This song is in everything, everywhere and is fun to dance to. I can't wait to see the dances for it at Mardi Gras. |
57 | Good For You | Selena Gomez | You know I admire Selena. This is song is pure sex. I prefer the album version, but the single version is good too (except for the rap verse). |
52 | Green Light | Lorde | Royals might be her best known song but Green Light is the dance floor banger we all need now. |
| Harlem Shake | Baauer | The first #1 hit driven by YouTube views, it arguably paved the way for many Vine/Musical.ly/Tik Tok meme-driven hits throughout the decade (for better or for worse). |
16 | Hello | Adele | This song hit like a tidal wave upon release, everyone knows it and loves it regardless of age.
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53 | High Hopes | Panic at the Disco | This song has legs and will be around for a long time. It's also hella fun to sing. |
| Hold On, We're Going Home | Drake | This song is infectious. I had it on repeat for months when this first was released. |
64 | Hold Up | Beyonce | Beyoncé and I both love Santigold and this song shows. |
37 | I Belong In Your Arms | Chairlift | Caroline Polachek's vocals have the ability to turn from breezy to soaring when she shifts into a higher octave on a dime, as she does in this song. |
26 | I Like Myself (Most of the Time) | K. Flay | |
| I Like That | Janelle Monae | It's a great jam that somehow gets even greater in the context of the album. I can listen to it on repeat. It's fun, it's serious, it's a "little crazy, little sexy, little cool." The chorus gets stuck in your head and the song's message is one we all should hold on to. In other words, it "keeps the whole world afloat." |
63 | I Really Like You | CRJ | |
51 | Juice | Lizzo | Massive hooks |
62 | Latch | Disclosure | |
55 | Love is Greed | Passion Pit | Passion Pit is one of my biggest pop crushes, this album meant so much to me when it came out, 2012 I graduated college and left for China, take a walk was a song I thought he was singing to me, time for me to step outside my comfort zone and live life the way I want to live it. Then three months later my father passed away from lung cancer, I was half way across the world and there was nothing I could do, Love is greed was a song that I kept playing on repeat, while this song could certainly be taken to be about love in a romantic relationship, I took it as an unconditional love between family members, because at the end of the day opening up your heart to someone is the most frightening thing to do because if/when things go south you have to deal with all the emotions that come with it. Love is greed made me feel it was ok to be greedy, because I want to love and I want to give love. |
43 | Make Me Feel | Janelle Monae | janelle is my pick for pop artist of the 2010s. this song is one of the reasons why. |
32 | Malmo | Starfucker | The song is an upbeat tune you can dance to, the lyrics are about not needing some eye in the sky to watch over you, basically your religion is keeping you fearful. The lyrci This is the holocene, is a great example of them saying this is the time of us not a time for god. Brave, unforgivable, this song keeps your head nodding. |
22 | Next Level Charli | Charli XCX | It shows the direction that I believe pop is going to go in the future with bubblegum bass and PC music-influenced production. |
25 | Oblivion | Grimes | Arguably the song of the decade for me. Combines aural, heady, electronic playfulness with lyrics detailing sexual assault...an amalgamation very surreal and perhaps unsettling. Amazing how this song, as well as the entire album "Visions" was made in Garageband in three weeks. |
50 | Old Town Road | Lil' Nas | It’s fucking everywhere and catchy as hell. Bonus for being the longest reigning #1 of all time. |
31 | Only Girl | Rihanna | whenever this song came on the radio while playing grand theft auto v, i had to let it play through to the end. every time. that’s a sign of a good pop song. and rihanna has a lot of good pop songs. |
45 | Power | Kanye West | This song was poppin' started the decade right imo |
40 | Realiti | Grimes | The best song from the best DYI pop artist of the decade. |
23 | Recover | Chvrches | My favorite song from one of my favorite bands of the decade. I tear up every time I hear it! |
| Retrograde | James Blake | I feel like this song brought a lot of unconventional sounds to the mainstream. |
28 | Roar | Katy Perry | Best Katy perry song |
15 | Rolling In The Deep | Adele | This song stopped the music world in it's tracks all at once. WE ALL tuned into the Adele show in 2010. Can't leave Adele off of a 2010's decade defining list. |
5 | Royals | Lorde | This track stunned me on first listen. The fingersnaps, open sounding bass, very smart lyrics...the minimal production keeps the listener waiting with bated breath. Wondering if Billie Eilish (the current pop darling of this year) was influenced by Lorde's vocal style and music? |
2 | Run Away With Me | CRJ | The saxophones! It is the siren call of those with impeccable taste.Reason? C'mon. Just listen to it! Also, Mr Robot.Single-handedly spawned r/popheads and ushered in a newfound wave of Carly fans and memes. The 80's-inspired sounds on this track, as well as throughout the fantastic "E-MO-TION" would be a trend seen in pop albums following its wake, continuing to this day. Also was responsible for the re-ignition of her career to propel her above more than just being known as the "Call Me Maybe" songstress. This one is a more personal choice, I just love her and had a hard time picking a favorite. I settled on this one because it got me through some tough times. Though it didn't blow the charts up like it should have, almost everyone who hears it agrees its one of the best pop songs of the decade. It's perfect and one of CRJ's greatest works, not much more needs to be said :3
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3 | Shake It Off | Taylor Swift | Taylor had quite a decade. This song sky rocketed her from just the living rooms of country fans to the living rooms of everyone. No reasoning needed. Another absolutely huge song and a perfect song by Taylor. She was obviously on her way to pop for awhile beforehand but this was the song that completed the transition and you couldnt escape this song when it was released. And it was just a part of the whole 1989 album that was just so great.That drum line and the honking sax was such a new sound. This song let everyone know her transition to pop was complete. No explanation needed, her first song after declaring she was now officially a pop artist and it was HUGE. This one was everywhere and hasn't died yet. |
38 | Shape of You | Ed Sheeran | This is the number one streamed song on Spotify. |