Top 10 Favourite Hit Songs Of 2016

2016 was a mixed year for music as a whole. While hip hop had one of its most diverse years and rock and metal had a great year, pop had a strange time. It was marked by a lot of stagnation, songs that weren’t that great getting obscenely high in the charts to stay there for longer than anyone really wanted, a peculiar languid, dour vibe hovering over many of the year’s biggest songs. However there were a few massive tunes released that year, here are some of my personal favourite hit songs.

1: Ariana Grande - Into You: In a year where murky, moody R&B and tropical house dominated the charts, sometimes you just want a really good pop song. Something that may not be reinventing underground sounds for a mainstream palate or doing something radically different with what can constitute a pop song, but has an absolutely massive chorus. I could do my best Pitchfork writer impression and intellectualise all over the shop about why this is such a mighty tune but honestly it just speaks for itself. Strong structure, Grande’s powerful vocals, and that fucking chorus man.

2: TheWeeknd - Starboy: The Weeknd’s pop crossover might have come as a surprise given how he was at the forefront of that dark, weird strain of R&B that was all the rage in hipster circles at the start of the 2010’s but is now a well-established commercial force. However you can’t deny he’s got songwriting chops, and this collaboration with Daft Punk brings that across, a swaggering villain song with some surprisingly deep lyrics when you take a deeper look at them. You made this damaged man a star, and if you’ve turned your back on him post Beauty Behind The Madness because he’s supposedly changed everything he’s about, you’ve missed the point, and he’s a motherfucking star, boy.

3: DRAM& Lil Yachty – Broccoli: Sure DRAM might have been robbed when Drake crafted “Cha-Cha” into “Hotline Bling” and finally conquered the world, but he’s made 3 minutes and 46 seconds of sheer joy, piano, flute and dirty 808s coalescing into the perfect song to crack open a cold one with the boys with. Lil Yachty also gives Anderson .paak competition for 2016's best person to get a feature off, if there was a better summer song please do drop me a link folks.

4: MikePosner - I Took A Pill In Ibiza (Seeb Remix): Who knew the same man who made “Cooler Than Me” would craft something genuinely heartbreaking? Well in hindsight a one hit wonder would have the necessary life experience to make this song, but I never expected this to come from Mike Posner. The EDM instrumentals work well in contrast to the downbeat lyrics, while I’m not normally a fan of this style but here he’s genuinely delivered a masterpiece.

5: Rihanna ft Drake – Work: Rihanna's use of Bajan patois meant every gowl with a pinned tweet from when they were funny in 2014 and are desperately trying to strike gold again with shouts that make Michael McIntyre look like Bill Hicks was taking a pop at , but this is a serious tune. It might be pretty minimalist but everything works together perfectly to create something both poppy and dancey like you'd expect, but with a wavy edge to it, kinda like a Madlib instrumental. 

6: 21 Savage & Metro Boomin - No Heart: Upon first listening to 21 Savage, I thought he was alright but I wasn’t really impressed, pegging him as just an Atlanta version of what many of the Chicago drill artists were doing. Yet with the cold, haunting production of Metro Boomin, his lazy flow giving way to a vicious spray of ultra-violent lyrics that take on a new significance, highlighting to the general public at large how the experiences he’s had have left him dead inside. Truly something I never expected to be saying, that a 21 Savage song hit me right in the feels, but this list is characterised by surprises, me finally being redpilled onto the power of charting songs.

7: Bruno Mars - 24K Magic: Bruno truly came into himself as an artist when he started channelling the 80’s with “Locked Out Of Heaven”, making one of the standout songs of this decade with “Uptown Funk”, and while he might essentially be rewriting that tune with a bit more of an 80’s hip hop flair, he’s still cranking out great tunes so we should let him keep doing that tbh. 

8: Lil Uzi Vert - Money Longer: IT DO NOT MATTER. 2016 marked the point where the weird end of Soundcloud rap, sometimes referred to as “mumble rap” finally crossed over, with many of them making it onto the XXL Freshman List. Lil Uzi Vert is perhaps the most precise distillation of that sound, with Young Thug’s mastery of Auto Tune, a flow influenced by Future and Chief Keef and an energy and sense of fun nodding to Blink 182 at their best. Sure it’s not on the lyrical level of Kendrick, and lacks the heartbreaking quality of 2017’s XO TOUR LIF3, but you’ll have that hook stuck in your head for weeks.

9: Kanye West - Ultralight Beam: The opening track to the exhilarating yet chaotic The Life Of Pablo, it’s one of the most beautiful, life affirming things he’s put out into the world. While the full length album is gonna take a few listens to fully wrap your head around, this an absolutely undeniable song, with Chance putting in one of his best ever verses, and all the gospel elements working in tandem, filling you with an unbelievable sense of power and purpose. It’s a long dead meme to say that 2016 was an awful year for the world, but if there’s any song to make you forget all about that, it’s this one.

10: Drake- One Dance: I’m not a Drake fan, I like a few songs here and there but as a person he annoys me too much to be able to look past it on his full length projects. Views was too long and a massive let down considering how If You’re Reading This had me hyped up. But this is a seriously good song, Drake, Kyla and Wizkid weaving together something that you just feel, a melody that never leaves your head, your feet itching to throw shapes.