2010s Chart Songs You Actually Liked

[Lemming]

There was a thread for this a couple years ago but now that the 2010s is properly over, let's have a ROUNDUP of chart songs you unironically enjoyed.

Should be interesting because there seems to be a general consensus that chart music wasn't up to much over the last decade, and yet there are some definite gems in there.

Easiest list to use is the Billboard year end charts, which you can find here, but if you'd like to use some mad alternate chart go for it.

KICKING US OFF:

Ke$ha - TiK ToK - yeah it's from 2009 but it charted during 2010. Killer hook in the chorus, endearingly awful lyrics, and I like that bridge or whatever you'd call it where the song suddenly slows right down.

Lady Gaga - Bad Romance - another 2009 release that charted in 2010. Pure quality.

Owl City - Fireflies - I LIKE IT ALRIGHT JUST LEAVE ME ALONE, CHRIST

Lady Gaga - Paparazzi - Gaga fucking dominated back in those days.

Foster the People - Pumped Up Kicks - I hate these fuckers with their carefully-sculpted hipster stubble and their stupid "ooh let's whisper/moan all the lyrics" singing style. Still, there's no two ways about it, this one was good. How the fuck did nobody come up with this bassline before?

Carly Rae Jepsen - Call Me Maybe - it's one of the best pop songs in recent memory, no matter how you slice it. Video was funny, which helped me stay warm towards it even when it was omnipresent and getting tedious.

Nicki Minaj - Starships - sick chorus, right? Always like it when a song just gives you what you want and repeats the chorus like four times at the end.

Katy Perry - Roar - I like Katy Perry, even if the chorus of Firework is CLEARLY a dodgy knockoff of Always by Erasure. This is another that alienated me very quickly when it came out, but which I've since come to like in retrospect.

Icona Pop - I Love It - not sure about including this one since it seems to have been created specifically to become as annoying as possible as quickly as possible, but still, you had this stuck in your head for like a week. Don't even pretend otherwise. When a pop song does that, it succeeded... I suppose.

OneRepublic - Counting Stars - good song, never want to hear it again but it's a good song.

Fleur East - Sax - this is just fucking good. Entire song built around a sick bassline, lyrics are clever and funny even if they're all essentially just for one prolonged joke, and Anne Hegerty awkwardly swayed to it on I'm A Celebrity.

Fuck it, skipping ahead to some more recent ones from the past year:

Panic! At the Disco - High Hopes - alright, this breaks the "unironic" rule. It makes me laugh because I imagine Buttigieg's stupid face, and the stratospheric, flying-in-the-face-of-reality nature of his high hopes.

Billie Eilish - Bad Guy - should hate this but I don't for some reason. awful, AWFUL vocal style IMO but it works for this one song. Terrible lyrics too - "might seduce your dad guy."

[samadriel]

Katy Perry - Roar - I like Katy Perry, even if the chorus of Firework is CLEARLY a dodgy knockoff of Always by Erasure. This is another that alienated me very quickly when it came out, but which I've since come to like in retrospect.

Icona Pop - I Love It - not sure about including this one since it seems to have been created specifically to become as annoying as possible as quickly as possible, but still, you had this stuck in your head for like a week. Don't even pretend otherwise. When a pop song does that, it succeeded... I suppose.

'I Love It' has been terribly overused by adverts, but thankfully not the fun "you're from the seventies, but I'm a nineties bitch" line.  I'm surprised to see someone else nom 'Roar', I thought it'd be too guilty a pleasure to be embraced, but I really like it.  I also like the mashup of MIA's 'Paper Planes' with 'Roar'.

[Oz Oz Alice]

I think it's less that chart music suffered because it's not an identifiable style, it's just the result of having the money to have what you've done played to more people than someone else's. In a way this takes us back to the late 50s / early 60s which was a similarly single track oriented market: I mourn the death of the B side. That said, just looking at the chart site you posted I'll look through the 10s.

Gaga was obviously on fire. The singles off the first two albums are solidly excellent: all the ones mentioned in the first post and more. Paparazzi takes it for me but I've got a soft spot for The Edge of Glory.

Only Girl in the World by Rihanna is a great single, casting her surface vulnerability between a 20 foot wall of what sounds like Logic presets. Green Lights by Lorde does the same thing and that really grabs me by the heart too. Lana Del Rey does it constantly which is why I've got every album she's done. I think No Tears Left To Cry by Arianna Grande is my favourite charting single of the last decade, I can't articulate why it just hits that way.

The problem is that such is the utter irrelevance of the charts in this day and age I don't know whether the thing people keep telling me about and I see everywhere has charted or not. Last year in my social circle and at venues I was playing the Ladytron album was all over the place but did it chart? In the past there wouldn't be that ambiguity. It felt like it was everywhere, at friends houses and venues I was playing or watching other bands at. The charts were a lot more important when I was growing up but at 28 I feel there's no value to them.

[Jockice]

Can I just say here that I absolutely unironically love Eliza Doolittle's Pack Up. I heard it in a restaurant I was having a meal in on Thursday and was reminded how fantastic it is. She also looks jolly pretty in the video.

I'm also very fond of Rihanna's We Found Love, although that may be partly due to the video as well. And Lana Del Rey's Ride. Although it's not as good as the Pastels song of the same title.

Call Me Maybe and Pumped Up Kicks are okay too. There's was a Nicki Minaj one I liked but I can't remember the title of. I hate to say this, but One Direction's What Makes You Beautiful was quite pleasant. As was Little Mix's Shout Out To My Ex.

Apart from that, no. I haven't a clue what's going on. I'm nearly 55 you know.

[Captain Z]

Sorry but I hate all of these songs, bar the couple I'm not familiar with. This is like opening a thread on best comedy of the decade and finding Mrs Brown's Boys mentioned first.

I Love It just makes me want to listen to Depeche Mode - I Just Can't Get Enough instead.

Kiesza - Hideaway is the only thing that immediately comes to mind.

[Oz Oz Alice]

There's was a Nicki Minaj one I liked but I can't remember the title of.

Stupid Ho I left out of my list above! Reminds me of Whitehouse and I love that it charted because of how sonically weird it is. Nicki Minaj is a great rapper and a decent singer but does put her name to an awful lot of shite. I also missed out that I think Azaelia Banks is pretty ace and 212 was my single of the year it came out.

[shagatha crustie]

2013-15 or so there was a lot of melodic and deep house inspired stuff in the charts which I actually quite liked. There was a period around this time where I would stick 4Music on in the background while around the house, to see if I found any gems (and desperately try not to slip out of touch). Ones I remember growing quite fond of:

Rather Be - Clean Bandit. Great arrangement, lovely strings, sounds authentically summery.

I Took a Pill in Ibiza - Mike Posner, somebody or other club remix.

Elastic Heart - Sia

Style - Taylor Swift. Still think it's her best song.

Drunk In Love - Beyonce

Waves - Robin Schulz

Lean On - Major Lazer

The Hills - The Weeknd

[shagatha crustie]

I was also seeing a girl at the time who was very into Years and Years (to the extent of following them round on their tour) so I ended up liking 'King' by osmosis.

[BlodwynPig]

A R E N A - 浮上した海

pure banger.

[Lemming]

Sorry but I hate all of these songs, bar the couple I'm not familiar with. This is like opening a thread on best comedy of the decade and finding Mrs Brown's Boys mentioned first.

That's what the "chart" qualifier is there for! It's less like "best comedy of the decade" and more like "comedies aired specifically on the main five British TV channels, and specifically at around 6 PM, that didn't immediately make you projectile vomit thick bile onto the screen".

Kiesza - Hideaway is the only thing that immediately comes to mind.

Was hoping your choice would be SHIT so I could throw it back at you, but yeah, this is a great choice.

Can I just say here that I absolutely unironically love Eliza Doolittle's Pack Up. I heard it in a restaurant I was having a meal in on Thursday and was reminded how fantastic it is. She also looks jolly pretty in the video.

I worked part time in a charity shop around the time that album came out and the manager just stuck it in this broken CD player behind the counter and had it play on loop for hours on end. Ended up warming up to some of the songs, Stockholm Syndrome style, and now they set off nostalgic flashbacks intense enough to induce comas.

[daf]

I might have to check the UK best selling list - as 99.7% of the songs on those Billboard lists meant nothing to me . . . (Ohhhhhhhhhhh, Vienna!)

bear with . . .

2010 (UK list) :
"Fireflies" - Owl City
"Barbra Streisand" - Duck Sauce
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
2011 : none
2012 : none
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
2013 :
"Where Are We Now?" - Dave Bowie & The Dave Bowie Band (feat. Dave Bowie)
"Get Lucky" - Daft Punk
"Happy" - Pharrell Williams
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
2014 :
"Uptown Funk" - Mark Ronson
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
2015 :
"I Really Like You" - Carly Rae Jepsen
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
2016 : none
2017 : none
2018 : none
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
2019 :
"Don't Start Now" - Dua Lipa

So, basically . . . I like disco!

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
(with the 'none' years - I'm not saying it's all rubbish - just that I've never heard of ANY of them . . . Dua Lipa got in for 2019, as I've now started following the chart since the start of 2020, so I've actually heard that one!)

[honeychile]

I'm going with the chart i've always understood "the chart" to be, the UK top 40.

No-one's mentioned Robyn's Dancing on my own yet (no.8 , 2010). A lot of pixels already spilled about this so little to add from here, but it easily merits inclusion.

I wasn't taken by The Ting Tings when they came along, even the better stuff off their first album sounded like they stumbled across a few decent ideas an didn't know what they were supposed to do with them. And then bang, out of the blue came Hands (no.29, 2010), this perfectly sculpted synth-laden distillation of drudgery, industrialisation and the crushing of the human spirit and allusions to revolution (I see you looking it up / why don't you think about it). Still not quite sure where this came from but it got into the top 30, probably with the help of Calvin Harris being credited for the mix in the track's title.

Lady Gaga's self-appointment as queen of queer pop rankled with many, including me, but to give her her dues it's hard to argue that for all of her trademark awkwardness with lyrics Born this way (no. 3, 2011) didn't deliver the goods with musical precision. Less-remembered from the same album was Hair (no. 13, 2011): less controlled, less micro-managed and as a result maybe more truly spontaneous and liberated. Four simple chords, more schmaltzy lyrics with something heartfelt at the core, and a big conventional beat which cutely shifts moods in the second verse before bringing it back.

I think there was a whole thread about Plan B's Ill manors (no.6, 2012) back in the day. It's still a thrilling listen, especially the choruses with those explosive combined bass and snare hits, and the shuffling beats giving an amazing sense of unpredictability and chaos.

Little Mix churned out quite a few good songs, but i think DNA (no.3, 2012) is the most entrancing. In terms of musical styles that marked the decade, although dubstep had been knocking around for a fair old while its incorporation into mainstream pop flourished in the early part of the 2010s and you can hear the influence in the chorus here. I also find the chord (not sure exactly what you call it in this song) between the major and the relative minor really sustains nicely here, as it often feels like a weak bridging link in music rather than a potent chord in itself.

Pharrell Williams - Happy (no.1, 2013). [Joe Biden voice]C'mon, man[/Joe Biden voice]. As an appreciator of northern soul, the boomerang effect this song had between Britain and the US (here, then back, and here again) was heartwarming, none of which would be possible if the tune didn't slip under your skin and hit you with some subcutaneous, intravenous, care-free good feelings.

Weird how the 2010s seemed to be a decade of breakthrough for albanian and kosovar diaspora pop stars. Between them Rita Ora and Dua Lipa churned out too much good stuff to list, but the former's I will never let you down (no. 1, 2014) unabashedly cast off some of the grittier pretenses of her debut album while still clinging on to some of the melancholic tendencies which ran though it. It's also super-fun to play on guitar, because most of it is played on the g string, always the most satisfying. See Motorcycle emptiness.

Lipa reeled off a a superior string of singles but the undoubted highlight was and remains New rules (no. 1, 2017). I very rarely watch music videos meaning i often know what bands or singers sound like without ever really knowing what they look like, but i remember seeing this one on telly and being struck by the aesthetic. This was long after i'd heard the song though, which i think i described on another thread as like having a cup of ice cold water chucked over you - instantly commanding your undivided attention and switching you off to everything else around you. Those mini percussion rolls into the choruses are probably the best seconds of music that happened in the 2010s, closely followed by those bass dives during the pre-chorus.

From the american end of the diaspora, Bebe Rexha's collaboration with Jax Jones Harder (no. 23, 2019) didn't splash as deep into the charts despite a lot of airplay but i fell completely under its spell while listening to it on bus trips around Cornwall during a late-summer holiday last year. It's a significant departure from typical Jax Jones, and actually has a bit of a b-side feel to it - no pressure, have some fun and see what happens. The production is all lightness of touch, giving the vocals space to whirl around in the fields.

There's something about when singers reach for notes they can't comfortably reach, especially in the lower registers. In Zara Larsson's Lush life (no.3, 2016) she never sounds like she gets her voice around those low notes in the verses, but she also sounds like she doesn't much care whether she does which lends the vocals an extra layer of swagger which is just what the popping and bubbling rhythm asks.

Ariana Grande has several i could list, but the one which still stops me in my tracks is Dangerous woman (no. 17, 2016); the way it glides in between the fairly minimalist verses - a kind of Ariana on default settings - into those chourses which feel like all the vents get sealed and the heat and the pressure just turns up with every bar. I don't think it's the Ariana song i play most though - that would be Zedd collaboration Break free (no. 16, 2014), which also had input from Max Martin, and sounds exactly how you'd expect in the best possible way. EDM club-friendly pop which doesn't challenge the listener intellectually, only in its daring you to resist it. Ariana's voice is a long-standing bugbear of mine; she reminds me of Madonna in that she can undeniably hit all the right notes, but there's a distinct lack of character or personality in her voice. These two are a couple of examples of where she actually cuts through that.

I mourn the death of the B side.

Not quite a b-side, but when Camila Cabello released Never be the same, a month ahead of her debut solo album, it was accompanied by the much better Real friends (2017) at the same time, functioning as a kind of b-side by default. It's utterly charming and in its simplicity is one of the best guitar songs i can think of in recent years.

[Pauline Walnuts]

Stupid Ho I left out of my list above! Reminds me of Whitehouse and I love that it charted because of how sonically weird it is. Nicki Minaj is a great rapper and a decent singer but does put her name to an awful lot of shite. I also missed out that I think Azaelia Banks is pretty ace and 212 was my single of the year it came out.

Stupid Hoe







The Videos great too. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T6j4f8cHBIM

Put me down for a fan of her 'pop' stuff.

[Brundle-Fly]

Probably tracks that sounded like something from the last century.

[shagatha crustie]

The problem is, when they actually hit on something properly good in the charts, a genuinely well arranged, infectious piece of pop (Happy, Get Lucky, Uptown Funk, Call Me Maybe would qualify as examples of this IMO) they just absolutely rinse the shit out of them and they are quickly ruined by their ubiquity, use in adverts etc.

[Keebleman]

Billie Eilish - Bad Guy - should hate this but I don't for some reason. awful, AWFUL vocal style IMO but it works for this one song. Terrible lyrics too - "might seduce your dad guy."

This was the only song on your list I had heard of.  I like it a lot.  I like the sinister but catchy music and the boldness of the switch in tempo at the end.  And it's witty too, which for nearly 70 years now has been the rarest of qualities in pop music.  The correct version of the lyric you quote is, "Might-seduce-your-dad type."  See, isn't that better?

[Dr Rock]

I liked that Childish Gambino one. The one with the video.

[madhair60]

Stupid Hoe
Anaconda
Everything by Kanye
Carly

Probably some other shit

[chveik]

Stupid Hoe
Anaconda Chun Li
Everything by Kanye
Carly

Probably some other shit

btw I'm quite surprised that there aren't more Kanye songs in those Billboard year end charts

[Better Midlands]

Some great pop mentioned above,  I'll add off the top of my head

Taio Cruz - Dynamite
Katy Perry/Kanye - E.T.
Rihanna/Drake - What's My Name?
Far East Movement - Like A G6

The Rihanna especially, one of my favourite songs of the millennium.

As someone mentioned above, a new sound was found and then everyone hammered it into the ground in this decade.

Can't believe I'm nostalgic for 2010/11, feel like pure shit just want to go back.

[honeychile]

The Rihanna especially, one of my favourite songs of the millennium.

As someone mentioned above, a new sound was found and then everyone hammered it into the ground in this decade.

Can't believe I'm nostalgic for 2010/11, feel like pure shit just want to go back.

Louder was probably the beginning of the end of my love affair with Rihanna's music but What's my name really struck me. Right from the off it has this gorgeous sense of yearning and wistfulness (which also dripped into Fading) and i can remember often listening to the album on the way to working a job i hated, and that mood really touching me.

[Norton Canes]

Um that cutesy Peter Gabriel type one. 'Goatse'?

[Lemming]

Can't believe I'm nostalgic for 2010/11, feel like pure shit just want to go back.

It really is an absurd feeling, right? It's more or less what prompted me to make this thread. But I'm fairly sure I spent most of 2010/2011 bemoaning the fact that it wasn't the mid-2000s anymore.

[thecuriousorange]

Black Magic by Little Mix is one of my favourites.

[thenoise]

Stupid Hoe got in the charts? Fuck me. Never heard it on the radio...

[DrGreggles]

EDIT: ignore, that was 2007...

[SteveDave]

"Wasted" by Tiesto for me

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3eApJGC02dA

There's also a version called "Naked" that features bare buttocks in the following video link https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RiM4jYf_5YA

[Marner and Me]

Arse

[SteveDave]

Reported.

[Jerzy Bondov]

Taio Cruz - Dynamite

I came in to post this song. I don't get why I love it so much. If I try and recall it in my head it's sub-Black Eyed Peas 'woo let's have a great night lol' dreck, but when I put it on I'm immediately rocking the club like it's dynamite. What a smash.

I really, really like Somebody That I Used to Know by Gotye. It gives me goosebumps. Love the layered vocals, love the lyrics. I have such a soft spot for duets where the second singer comes in and picks apart the first singer's argument (obviously Don't You Want Me but also Nothing Better by The Postal Service and Exile off the new Taylor Swift one). Gotye's character comes over as a right prick in this song, this arsehole holding his ex to her polite 'let's still be friends' promise even though he freely admits they're better off apart. I don't think I've heard a song about that before, a well observed and really specific sort of clinginess. Great.