This guy already went back and labeled the biggest song of every decade back to 14,000 BC.

If you got 20 minutes to kill, I highly recommend listening to each one, it's all 20 second clips. Someone else made a thread about it on here over the weekend.

Well I wasn't going just by popularity, but I do think popularity is part of it. "Pumped up kicks" didn't even get to #1 so it's hard to say it's the 'song of the decade.'

I was trying to think of what, to me, summed up the 2010's in pop culture. The 2010's were a decade of american youth really being more outspoken and mainstream on social issues because of the changing technology, and I think that's reflected in the music. The ubiquity of everyone in the sense that basically every social media platform started this decade, so artists could bring music directly to the fans in new ways and fans had more access to music and the artists than ever before. Discovering a whole new genre of music is now as easy as a few clicks on Spotify so I think we see more crossover appeal than ever before.

So in that vein songs that jump out to me that really kind of define the 2010s are 'Follow your arrow' by Kasey Musgraves, 'Royals' by Lorde like I already said and there are some other good ones on here also.

I do actually think 'Friday' by Rebecca Black is a song that really captures the 2010s because of how it was released, it really fits that current pop culture thing of 'is this self-aware or not?' But it also wasn't nearly as popular as these others we're talking about. If I had to pick a song that represents the 2010s, in might actually be this one.

If I had to pick a song that I think is the singular best song of the 2010's, for me it's 'The House that Built Me' by Miranda Lambert.

I think artist wise it would be more of a toss up between Taylor Swift and Drake but i have a harder time pointing out a single song from Drake that shifted his trajectory to superstar. Taylor was definitely already headed in the direction of superstar but Shake it Off was the turning point of her being the biggest star on the planet. That song was absolutely every where and I think we'll be hearing it at weddings and events for the rest of our lives.

If we're looking at artists, I think it's gotta be between Taylor Swift or Ed Sheeran. (I give the edge to Sheeran.)

Does anyone else come close?

The only song of this past decade with any real styling power was "all about that base" and maybe...possibly "what does the fox say"

It has to be Taylor Swift. I think there a few people in that next group who had various peaks in the 2010's (Beyonce, Sheeran, Gaga, Beiber, Maroon 5, Rihanna, etc.)

But it's gotta be Swift, if for not other reason that just pure volume.

5 #1 songs, 15 more top 10 songs...

Speak Now, Red, 1989, Reputation and Lover albums all came out this decade.

Like, we can talk about other people for the sake of conversation, but the artist of the decade has to be Taylor Swift.

I guess it's probably due to my age, but for the life of me I couldn't name any songs from those albums besides Shake It Off.

There's a ton you would recognize.

'Ready for it' was ESPN's Saturday Night Football song for a whole year which was kind of annoying.

But just a few of her hits were Sparks Fly, Today was a Fairytale, 22, We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together, Highway Don't Care, Bad Blood, Blank Space...

I think what puts her over the edge for me is she's had hits throughout the entire decade. She had two different albums in the top ten of 2010, and Lover is going to be one of the top albums of this year.

bob and TC are 100% right on this. TSwift is the artist of the decade, no debate.

Get Schwifty

TCTTS said:

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Not ashamed to admit that, as a grown ass man in my late '30s, I'm a big Taylor Swift fan. Artist of the decade, no question, IMO.

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I've said it for a while: 1989 is an AWESOME album. And I'm a male in my 40's.


Taylor Swift is easily top 3 for artist of the decade....and I'd lean towards it being her.

Not a big fan but Lady Gaga's "Born This Way" set the Guinness Book of World Records for fastest selling single on itunes according to wikipedia.

Seems like something by Justin Timberlake would have to be in there. Justin Bieber for sure as well.

Then there's this with over 2 billion YT views:

Edit: Katy Perry's "Roar" has almost 3 billion views so I guess that crushes Sia. I'd also add Daft Punk w/ Pharell and Nile Rodgers "Get Lucky".

Here's Billboard's top ten on their chart for the 2010s.
https://www.billboard.com/charts/decade-end/hot-100


1. Uptown Funk - Mark Ronson feat. Bruno Mars

2. Party Rock Anthem - LMFAO feat. Lauren Bennett & GoonRock

3. Shape of You - Ed Sheeran

4. Closer - The Chainsmokers feat. Halsey

5. Girls Like You - Maroon 5 feat. Cardi B

6. We Found Love - Rhianna feat. Calvin Harris

7. Old Town Road - Lil Nas X feat. Billy Ray Cyrus

8. Somebody That I Used to Know - Gotye feat. Kimbra

9. Despacito - Luis Fonsi & Daddy Yankee feat. Justin Bieber

10. Rolling in the Deep - Adele


Others I've seen mentioned on this thread:

13. Call Me Maybe - Carly Rae Jepsen

29. We Are Young - fun.

36. Radioactive - Imagine Dragons

67. Some Nights - fun.

73. Roar - Katy Perry

No love for the Biebs?

Gonna represent the younger generations perspective and say (reluctantly) it's one of the four out of:

Despacito, Shake it Off, Roar, and Radioactive

Anybody with a grade school daughter knows it's "Let it Go" from Frozen. I heard that nearly an infinite number of times in the first year after the movie came out.

'Sunflower' by Post Malone is another song with big time staying power.

I think 'what songs will people still be listening to' is an interesting question.

I do think there are some instant classics from this decade that we're going to be hearing for decades to come for various reasons.

House that Built Me - Miranda Lambert
My Church - Maren Morris
DNA - Kendrick Lamar
Wrecking Ball - Miley Cyrus
Bodak Yellow - Cardi B
Ni**as in Paris - Jay Z and Kanye West
Girl Crush - Little Big Town
Diamonds - Rihanna
Mo Bamba - Shack Wes
Wow - Post Malone

Recency bias probably the reason why this gem from 2011 not in the running:

Deserves consideration for Emily Ratajkowski alone.

[url] [/url]

Good thread. I think any of these 11 songs (all of them already mentioned) are candidates. Ranked in order of best to worst song, IMO.

1. Uptown Funk
2. Hello
3. Somebody That I Used to Know
4. Royals
5. Blurred Lines
6. We Are Young
7. Shake It Off
8. Despacito
9. Old Town Road
10. Radioactive
11. Call Me Maybe

I can totally understand not being into her music, but what about her can you not "stand"? She comes across as one of the nicest, most down-to-earth pop stars of recent memory, not to mention a savvy business woman as well.

Oh, good Lord, is this a political thing? That didn't even cross my mind. Never mind...

Earlier on this thread I pointed out that to me, if you wanted a song that like captures the decade, it might be the best choice.

It's definitely not the best song, or the most popular, but it really is a good song to capture the 2010s. People at first listened to it just to make fun of it, but now it's become one of those 'so bad it's awesome' kind of things, it's popularity was 100% due to social media. To top it all off the original artist barely made any money off of it.

It's like the most 2010's song imaginable.

There is another year to go in this decade.

aftershock said:

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Buck Turgidson said:

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Anybody with a grade school daughter knows it's "Let it Go" from Frozen. I heard that nearly an infinite number of times in the first year after the movie came out.

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Being a dad if two girls under 6, if someone held a gun to my head and told me they'd pull the trigger if I messed up a single lyric, "Let it Go" would be on the short list for sure.

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I am picturing a parody heist gone bad movie with Will Ferrell being held at gunpoint. This is the point where his luck starts to turn...