2010 – 2019
Another decade is in the books and like the previous two it’s been a great 10 years of music.
As a music lover I decided to pick my best songs of the past decade. I had to constrict myself to certain rules in order to pick the “best”.
The rules are as follows:
The song had to be released as a single after December 31, 2009 and before then end of 2019.
An artist can only appear on the list once.
The selected song must have had a significant impact on popular culture.
Finally, the pick was a song that I enjoyed and listened to frequently over the past decade.
Let’s get into the list. The songs are not in order of best to worst, but in order of release date starting with the oldest.
- Eminem – Love the Way You Lie (feat. Rihanna) – 2010
- Eminem’s sort of comeback started off with this classic song featuring the already hot Rihanna. This would later lead to another successful decade for Eminem.
- Eminem’s sort of comeback started off with this classic song featuring the already hot Rihanna. This would later lead to another successful decade for Eminem.
- Ed Sheeran – Thinking Out Loud – 2014
- Considered to be Ed’s greatest song so far, Thinking Out Loud shot him into super stardom after the release of his album X. One of the few ballads we saw during this decade.
- Considered to be Ed’s greatest song so far, Thinking Out Loud shot him into super stardom after the release of his album X. One of the few ballads we saw during this decade.
- Mark Ronson – Uptown Funk (feat. Bruno Mars) – 2014
- Uptown Funk was so different and so good it started a new wave of 90s-style music that we saw even more of on Bruno Mars’ next album, 24K Magic.
- Uptown Funk was so different and so good it started a new wave of 90s-style music that we saw even more of on Bruno Mars’ next album, 24K Magic.
- Sam Hunt – Leave the Night On – 2014
- Leave the Night On started the pop-country trend which opened people’s eyes to great singers like Sam Hunt.
- Leave the Night On started the pop-country trend which opened people’s eyes to great singers like Sam Hunt.
- Taylor Swift – Shake It Off – 2014
- Widely regarded as the artist of the decade Taylor had a ton of hit songs during the past 10 years, but nothing impacted us more than Shake It Off.
- Widely regarded as the artist of the decade Taylor had a ton of hit songs during the past 10 years, but nothing impacted us more than Shake It Off.
- Drake – Hotline Bling – 2015
- Everyone remembers the dancing in the video, but Drake’s Hotline Bling was another pivotal song to defining the “twenty-teens” musical sound.
- Everyone remembers the dancing in the video, but Drake’s Hotline Bling was another pivotal song to defining the “twenty-teens” musical sound.
- Luis Fonsi & Daddy Yankee – Despacito – 2017
- I’ll never forget Despacito as being the resurgence of latino music in pop culture. This was a good song getting traction, then Justin Bieber hopped on a remix and it blasted it to the top of the charts.
- I’ll never forget Despacito as being the resurgence of latino music in pop culture. This was a good song getting traction, then Justin Bieber hopped on a remix and it blasted it to the top of the charts.
- P!nk – Beautiful Trauma – 2017
- P!nk didn’t have a good start to this decade after having a great run the previous years. Beautiful Trauma signaled a comeback for the very talented singer and I picked this because it’s my favorite P!nk song to date.
- P!nk didn’t have a good start to this decade after having a great run the previous years. Beautiful Trauma signaled a comeback for the very talented singer and I picked this because it’s my favorite P!nk song to date.
- Post Malone – rockstar (feat. 21 Savage) – 2017
- Post Malone is a prodigy who keeps churning out hit songs one after another. Hopefully that doesn’t stop when this decade comes to a close. The song rockstar put Post in the spotlight and he has stayed there since.
- Post Malone is a prodigy who keeps churning out hit songs one after another. Hopefully that doesn’t stop when this decade comes to a close. The song rockstar put Post in the spotlight and he has stayed there since.
- Zedd, Maren Morris & Grey – The Middle – 2018
- I still think this is an underrated song, even after all it’s success. Maren has established herself as not just a country-girl singer, but a crossover artist who has actual talent. It took a long time for Zedd to find a vocalist for this song, but when they heard Maren’s demo, they knew it had to be her.
- I still think this is an underrated song, even after all it’s success. Maren has established herself as not just a country-girl singer, but a crossover artist who has actual talent. It took a long time for Zedd to find a vocalist for this song, but when they heard Maren’s demo, they knew it had to be her.
Honorable Mention:
- Nelly – Just a Dream – 2010
- I chose Nelly’s Just a Dream not because it’s a personal favorite of mine, but because it came out towards the end of his successful run in the 2000s. Since Just a Dream we’ve seen many artists come on to the scene with very similar styles like Post Malone, Ty Dollar $ign, and Lil Nas X
- I chose Nelly’s Just a Dream not because it’s a personal favorite of mine, but because it came out towards the end of his successful run in the 2000s. Since Just a Dream we’ve seen many artists come on to the scene with very similar styles like Post Malone, Ty Dollar $ign, and Lil Nas X
I’m really looking forward to see what the “20s” brings us in the form of a musical sound. When we look back at previous decades, the “sound” from that decade can be easily heard. This decade may be one of the hardest to classify, but we’ll see if that get’s easier as we move forward in time.
See you in the 20s!
Side note – here are some artists I think will be on this list for the next decade:
Halsey, Billie Eilish, Lizzo, Justin Bieber, Post Malone, and Shawn Mendes.