My favorite songs of 2023

I am putting together my favorite songs released in 2023. I started off doing a project where I listened to as many new albums as I could (and recording my findings in a spreadsheet), but that project tapered off around June when my move + school year started. But even though I wasn't able to listen to every album that came out, I still came out of 2023 with some of my favorite musical projects of all time. Also as another disclaimer: I am not a professional music writer.

I am also limiting this list to 1 song per album/project.

1. Scaring the Hoes by JPEGMafia and Danny Brown. I wish I could go back and experience again what happened to my brain when I first heard this track so I could properly convey it with text. When I first saw this project was announced, I knew it would take over my life. When I heard this track before the album was released, I knew I would have to form some kind of religion around it. The reason why I'm limiting this list to one track per album is because Scaring the Hoes has 14 tracks so I wouldn't be able to fit them all (other songs I would have given the number 1 spot include Burfict!, Shut Yo Bitch Ass Up/Muddy Waters, God Loves You, and Kingdom Hearts Key). But the title track is the perfect introduction. It's less of a single and more of a thesis statement for the entire project. The production throughout this album is incredible, but STH hits different. The rhythmic, almost menacing handclaps (fun fact: those aren't handclaps--that's the sound my asscheeks make when this song comes on) and the horn sample which I can only describe as Blood Money era Tom Waitsian, it is by far my favorite beat of 2023. Combined with Danny and JPEG's charisma and the way they bounce back and forth, this song is a shot of adrenaline straight to the heart. Also I saw them live and that experience elevated a 10/10 to a 20/10 for me.

2. Prof. Aronnax' Descent into the Vast Oceans by Ahab. I started seriously listening to German nautical funeral doom metal band, Ahab around early 2022 so this was the first new release I got to experience. Even though I loved what I heard previously, nothing could have prepared me for this. The opening track is everything I want from a doom metal song. It starts out with a frantic onslaught of screaming and inhuman growls before mellowing out into a serene instrumental before the mournful vocals kick in. It really feels like the initial shock of your body slamming into the water, then having to slowly drift among the waves as your muscles give out and you're taken deeper into the depths. That's what I like about doom metal: it's music to decay to. This track (and by extension this album) hooked me from a story-telling perspective right away, which shouldn't be a surprise as it was based on Jules Verne's Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea. The story presented in this album intrigued me so much that I had to read the book for myself. Then I read it again. Then I read two different translations. Now I'm working on a visual novel adaptation. I know metrics for album rankings are subjective, so I'm willing to give an album an extra bump if it gets me to read a 19th century novel at least five times in less than two months and learn Python coding. (Other tracks I would have included: the album is at its strongest as a single listening experience, but I especially enjoyed Mobilis in Mobili and Ægri Somnia).

3. What A Man by Debby Friday. This is a track off of Nigerian-Canadian electronic musician Debby Friday's first album Good Luck and holy shit, what a debut. This is such a well-formed project I can't believe it. I was already enjoying the album throughout the first few tracks. It brought me back to listening to 2000s club music and thinking "wow I wish I got invited to parties." But then I got to What A Man and the world screeched to a halt. I think I was posting on my main blog at the time, so anyone unfortunate enough to follow me had a chance to see my incoherent screeching in real time. This track is incredible. Debby's warm and sultry voice, the spacey production, THE ELECTRIC GUITAR? The first time the guitar kicks in, that's just a teaser for what ended up being one of my favorite music moments of the year. The electric guitar feels like an oncoming storm and Debby is standing strong before it, taking on the wind and rain as her voice becomes louder and almost yearning. Then the song builds with Debby yelling to the high heavens as the guitars wail around her before fading back down into the low bass and rhythmic breathing motif found throughout the album. This track is an experience, and the music video is gorgeous too (the picture I chose for the banner is from the video itself) and the fact that it has less than 20K views hurts me. (Other tracks I would have included: I Got It, So Hard To Tell, Let U Down)

4. Bite Back by Algiers (ft. billy woods and Backxwash). Speaking of songs that build... This is the sixth track off of Algiers' album, Shook and by this point I was already feeling pretty good about the release. I was already prepared to put the opening track, Everybody Shatter on my top 20, but when Bite Back kicked in, something changed. Here's a recreation of my initial reaction: "this sounds pretty good, I like the way this intro...is that billy woods??") Just to be transparent: billy woods' involvement would have been enough to give this an automatic top slot for me, but it helps that his verse is fantastic. His flow is slower than the introductory verse, but that only makes his lyrics stand out more. From the opening lines "One hand wash the other, they both wash the face / Centrifugal force and inertia keep everything in its place / Slowly, spinning in space, speeding, lead foot on the brakes" I knew I was in for something special. One thing I really appreciate about this track is the production. billy woods has a very steady flow with an almost menacing quality to it depending on the subject matter of the lyrics, and the beat shifts during his verse to reflect that. It sounds like it could be a billy woods beat, but it doesn't sound like one of his beats was carelessly shoved into an Algiers song. It's like the beat ebbs and flows with the artists involved. The production gets gradually more intense as billy picks up more ferocity in his delivery. A detail I really like is when billy says "claws rattling, delicate as roaches' wings," the percussion on the backing track picks up an almost rattling quality, but it doesn't sound corny or too obvious. Then billy continues, the backing track picking up even more intensity until it feels like each noise is blasting at full power...and then the tension releases and settles down with Algiers frontman, Franklin James Fisher, delivering the second verse. His delivery contrasts wonderfully with billy woods' too, with his faster, almost whispered vocals allowing the track to pick up momentum again after the previous release of tension. This track knows when to breathe and it's fantastic. But it also knows when to take the air from your lungs as Fisher goes all out with the vocals in the hook and third verse, reinstating what an absolute powerhouse vocalist he is. And just when the track is at its peak ferocity, in comes Backxwash with the steel chair! If billy and Fisher were allowing the beat to gradually shift under their performances, Backxwash grabs the song by the throat and makes it do whatever she wants. Her verse then trades off into Fisher delivering the outro, operating at full power in his delivery. This song is so well-crafted and none of the artists feel out of place. (Other tracks I would have included: Everybody Shatter, A Good Man, Irreversible Damage)

5. Billions by Caroline Polachek. As of writing this, I haven't been keeping up with other people's year end lists, but I know this album is going to make everyone else's. So I feel a bit intimidated to talk about it, but I will try. The production on this album is so good my brain can't even comprehend how it was crafted. I've seen it described as "maximalist," but that doesn't fully capture how well this album knows when to pull back and let the tracks breathe. Billions is one of the more sparse tracks compared to some of the others, but that only makes each production decision stand out more. The second time Caroline says "give me the closure," you hear a little musical sting in the background (probably some kind of synth, but at first listen I thought it was an electric guitar) which didn't show up after the first time that lyric was sung. It's that attention to detail and letting the production build on itself that makes this project incredible. And it goes without saying that Caroline is an outstanding vocalist. She sounds like a siren. It's ridiculous. (Other tracks I would have included: Welcome to My Island, I Believe, Hopedrunk Everasking)

6. The Black Seminole by Lil Yachty. Opening track off of Lil Yachty's psychedelic rock album, Let's Start Here, and what an opening track on a fantastic project. It should be clear by this point that I love songs that build, and holy shit does this song build. I first listened to this album while I was on a plane, and this track synced up with my takeoff. So while the plane was lifting off the ground and I was being pressed against my seat, Lil Yachty gave the final line before the electric guitars and the female vocalist kicked in, both wailing with equal ferocity. Top 10 music experiences of the year, but even going back to listen to that same track when I'm not on an airplane delivered the same euphoric experience. (Other tracks I would have included: Drive Me Crazy, Should I B, We Saw the Sun)

7. Xena by Skrillex and Nai Barghouti. I debated whether to put this song or Hydrate on the list, but Xena was the first track that made me fall in love with this album. With vocals by Palestinian singer, Nai Barghouti, Skrillex delivers an absolutely outstanding dubstep track. Like Billions, it's the kind of music production that makes me have to step back and fully appreciate the craft. The song is incredible at building intensity, but he also knows when to pull back to let the tension build again. And Barghouti isn't just a feature--she is the heartbeat of this song. Her voice melds with the production so well, but in a way that sounds like she's commanding it. My absolute favorite part of the song is when she starts singing in her lower register as the production turns to more naturalistic instruments. Sometimes I see electronic producers robbing their singers of their voices for the sake of cohesive production, but that isn't the case here. Nai Barghouti's voice is crisp, unique, and perfect. It's a fantastic melding of producer and vocalist that makes way more sense than it should. (Other tracks I would have included: Hydrate, Rumble, Ratata)

8. Babylon by Bus by billy woods and Kenny Segal. I already talked about billy woods, but he was a feature so this still counts. Everything I already said about billy woods' skills applies here as well, especially now that he has full control over the track. billy's flow sounds both effortless, and that he knows the perfect word to use for each line. And he uses interesting words. "Glistening waterbug on clean counter / Plague mask, gave the place a cursory glower / He ran away, I gave chase but gave up and sat on his gate for hours" I love this series of bars. He is a storyteller. And then, the beat pauses after billy's first verse, with low menacing notes, a clattering of naturalistic metallic percussion, and then the switch up??? Seriously the way the beat ramps up for SkrapKnel's verses takes the song to another level. The way the Curly Castro and PremRock pass the mic back and forth to each other is outstanding. This doesn't feel like a guest verse; this is a fully realized project. The shamelessness is even more apparent when billy takes the mic again for the final verse, but now with more ferocity in his delivery as if he's building off of the energy created by SkrapKnel. This song is masterful. "I take care of these words, Munchausen by proxy / Somehow beat the tox screen / God save the queen, but that train doesn't stop here anymore" (Other tracks I would have included: FaceTime, Year Zero, Soft Landing)

9. Drain You Empty by Cannibal Corpse. I listened to this album right around midterms and I needed it. But this was the song I kept coming back to. For one, it's fun. Obviously: it's Cannibal Corpse. But I love the way the song opens with a full minute of just blasting you before the drums, riffs, and screams really kick in. Good god the drumming on this album is so good. I absolutely love Corpsegrinder's delivery on this track. The way he shifts from bellowing growls to shrieks, the way he speeds up his delivery to match the pace of the drums, it's so good. I'm sorry I don't have a better analysis. It's fun. (Other tracks I would have included: Chaos Horrific, Overlords of Violence, Blood Blind)

10. Crossing Guard by Model/Actriz. This is a song that made me wish I went to gay clubs more. Yes, it's a killer dance song, but what draws me in is how chaotic the production is. It starts out slow and quiet, then bam! The production starts screeching at you in a glorious onslaught of noise, held together with a fantastic bassline. I love the vocalist too. He can be monotone and subtle, but he also knows how to raise his voice to match the ferocity of the production. I listened to this song countless times last year (often while crossing the street and trying not to get hit by cars), and the line "Like Germanotta, Stefani / Pull the weight from under me" will be stuck in my head forever. (Other tracks I would have included: Donkey Show, Amaranth)

Year-End Poll #74: 2023

[Image description: a collage of photos of the 10 musicians and musical groups featured in this poll. In order from left to right, top to bottom: Morgan Wallen, Miley Cyrus, SZA, Taylor Swift, Metro Boomin and 21 Savage, Rema and Selena Gomez, The Weeknd and Ariana Grande, Luke Combs, SZA, David Guetta and Bebe Rexha. End description]

More information about this blog here

Before getting into the ramble, I'm just going to get ahead of the responses and clarify that when I name a song on these polls, I use the official name of the song as it's listed on the Billboard charts (obviously unless the official title includes an uncensored slur or the song was credited to an artist's deadname, which I haven't had to deal with as of now.) Luke Comb's cover of Tracy Chapman's Fast Car is simply listed as "Fast Car - Luke Combs" on Billboard. Not "Luke Comb's cover of Fast Car" or "Fast Car by Tracy Chapman (Luke Combs version)."

Now that I got that out of the way. Hi. Good to see you all again. Welcome to the end of 2023. We made it.

This is going to be an interesting entry on this blog for me. Because not only is this the first time I posted a poll from the current chart, this is also the first time since 2009 when I have not been closely monitoring the charts all year. So right now, I feel like I'm trying to look back to figure out what happened.

So. What happened?

Ever since the streaming era began, it's been clear that pop success matters less and less, but that feeling was especially strong this year. I'm not saying any of these songs are bad (that's not the point of this blog). But streaming splintered people's listening habits so much that everyone is able to listen to their own thing. Before I got big into chart watching, I was not an avid pop listener. But I was still knew which songs were popular because they were so much harder to avoid.

As I'm writing this, I've been listening to various Top 40/100 stations on the radio. Even ignoring the number of Christmas songs, I have yet to hear a song that came out in 2023. It makes sense to hear songs from 2022, since songs often take a while to build momentum (such as the tracks from SZA's SOS), but I've heard songs from 2014, 2013, 2006, 1995, etc.

And that's not even touching the year-end chart itself which includes 1. songs from 2022 (Kill Bill, Anti-Hero, Snooze, Calm Down), 2. a remix of a song from 2016 (Die for You), 3. a cover/remake of a song from 1996 (Creepin), 4. a cover of a song from 1988 (Fast Car), and 5. a song with an interpolation of a song from 1998 (I'm Good (Blue)). There are only 2 songs on the top 10 that are from 2023.

This year's tendency to look back is emphasized further by the genre which had the largest presence: country music. Not just because country music tends to be more traditional, but country music hasn't had a presence this big on the top 100 since the 90s. The biggest song of the year is a country-pop track by Morgan Wallen, whose 36 track album debuted at number one on the Billboard album chart. Not the country album chart. The Billboard 200. Beyond that, we have Luke Combs, whose cover of Fast Car reached the top 10, but two other singles from his album Growin' Up reached the Billboard Year End 100 without relying on the usual techniques country songs often need to cross over to the pop charts. Additionally, each year as of late tends to have it's pick of "think-piecey songs," whether it's Blurred Lines in 2013, WAP in 2020, or [insert any Taylor Swift song here]. The two most controversial songs of the year also happened to be country, with Oliver Anthony's Rich Men North of Richmond and Jason Aldean's Try That in a Small Town.

Why was country so big this year? One of my theories is that with streaming splintering people's listening habits so much, chart metrics will tend to favor physical media. I don't think it's a coincidence that Taylor Swift tends to dominate the charts while also being one of the top-selling artists on vinyl. If people are willing to pay actual money for your music instead of letting it stream in the background, the charts are going to calculate that differently. Not only are country fans more likely to buy physical music, but the two previously mentioned controversial country songs were also helped by right-leaning listeners boosting their sales, resulting in the two songs receiving a 78 and a 66 position on the year-end chart respectively.

As I'm writing this, I'm worrying that I'm not giving country music its proper credit. "Why was country music so big?" is a question that doesn't need to have a deeper answer. "A lot of people liked it so it had a larger presence" is also a sufficient answer. Country music doesn't have to cheat to reach the charts. The reason I'm delving into this is not the mere fact that country was popular, but the fact that country was so popular and seemed to shape the pop landscape as a whole, while not having the usual staples of a country-pop crossover. Unlike previous crossovers, none of the songs I mentioned needed a pop star or a rap verse to break onto the pop charts.

But speaking of a genre requiring a pop star to find a mainstream chart presence, 2023 marks the year of the first afrobeats song to reach a billion streams on Spotify, with Rema and Selena Gomez's Calm Down. But even without the pop feature, afrobeats also had an explosive year in 2023, and it's possible we'll only see the genre grow more popularity, similar to how reggaeton took over the pop landscape after Despacito crossed over to the mainstream American charts in 2017. If you, like me, aren't that familiar with the history of this genre and you would like to learn more, please know that afrobeat and afrobeats are two distinct genres. This article also does a good rundown of the differences and their respective histories. Also, while the song itself isn't afrobeats, Unavailable by Davido came out this year and it's incredible. The full album is amazing too. It's dreamy and atmospheric with energetic drums and I need to find a slot for it in my favorite releases of the year.

For a year where pop music was widely considered to have a down year, I sure had a lot to talk about. I haven't even touched on the "decline of rap music" (especially sad since it's the 50th anniversary of the genre), Taylor Swift's dominance (I mentioned her twice though; she'll live), or delved deeper into the presence of older songs on the charts. It certainly was an interesting year in music to talk about. But listening to it? Well, I'll let you decide that.

But if you look past the top 10 (or even the top 100), this was an incredible year for music. I haven't had the time to listen to every new release (thanks law school), but I still listened to enough that I came out of this year with some of my favorite musical projects of all time. I plan on sharing my favorite songs/albums of the year in a later post.

Thank you for spending this year in music with me.

The Billboard year-end chart for 2023 has been released. I'm going to wait until after finals to make the poll, but I also want to do more research to figure out what's been going on this year on the charts. I'm emphasizing again that this blog uses Billboard's lists and they have their own metrics and processes for calculating hits. I'm saying this now because ... yeah there aren't a lot of songs from 2023 on the charts lol.

I also might post a list of my favorite 2023 releases, but my effort to listen to every new release started to dwindle around June when I moved, so it wouldn't be a complete list.

would you consider making polls of all the winners from each decade? so all the 70s, all the 90s, etc.? when you have time of course - good luck w your finals!

I like this idea a lot! It feels like a good way to do a general "flyover" analysis of the decades. I do worry that some years will have a natural advantage, but that's been the case already with a lot of the polls lol.

I'll definitely consider it! And thank you for the luck; I need it.

Long time no see

Hey! I'm still in law school hell (I'm surviving, at least), but this blog has never left my mind.

I haven't been able to chart-watch as closely as recent years (this is actually the first year since 2009 where I haven't been observing the Billboard charts in real time. From the glimpses I've seen, the pop charts are in a weird place, but I still plan on doing a poll for 2023 when Billboard releases their year-end chart. But I imagine my blurb will be less "thoughtful analysis of pop music and culture" and more "mod crawling out of his well to express his utter bafflement."

Anyway, even though all of the polls are long closed, I don't want this project to die. Which is why I'm encouraging people to continue to share their thoughts and memories related to the songs featured. Whether that's through my inbox, or as replies to the polls themselves. I am also always eager to ramble about music business/culture (especially changing trends and genre distinctions). I am a few weeks away from finals, but I will drop everything to talk about this.

Also, while I haven't been able to keep up with new music releases recently, for the first half of the year I was listening to as many new albums as I could. When the year comes to a close, I'll share my favorites if anyone is interested.

Anyway, that's it. I just wanted to check in. Thank you to everyone who continued to keep this blog alive.

I have toyed with the idea of redoing all of the polls now that this blog has more traction (literally just copy and pasting -- nothing new unless I discover new info in my research). Let me know if anyone's interested.

Long time no see

Hey! I'm still in law school hell (I'm surviving, at least), but this blog has never left my mind.

I haven't been able to chart-watch as closely as recent years (this is actually the first year since 2009 where I haven't been observing the Billboard charts in real time. From the glimpses I've seen, the pop charts are in a weird place, but I still plan on doing a poll for 2023 when Billboard releases their year-end chart. But I imagine my blurb will be less "thoughtful analysis of pop music and culture" and more "mod crawling out of his well to express his utter bafflement."

Anyway, even though all of the polls are long closed, I don't want this project to die. Which is why I'm encouraging people to continue to share their thoughts and memories related to the songs featured. Whether that's through my inbox, or as replies to the polls themselves. I am also always eager to ramble about music business/culture (especially changing trends and genre distinctions). I am a few weeks away from finals, but I will drop everything to talk about this.

Also, while I haven't been able to keep up with new music releases recently, for the first half of the year I was listening to as many new albums as I could. When the year comes to a close, I'll share my favorites if anyone is interested.

Anyway, that's it. I just wanted to check in. Thank you to everyone who continued to keep this blog alive.

I have toyed with the idea of redoing all of the polls now that this blog has more traction (literally just copy and pasting -- nothing new unless I discover new info in my research). Let me know if anyone's interested.

Bracket Reveal OoOo

Sequestered Song Skirmish - Challonge

(“Round 1” and “Round 2” are the same round, as it will have three-way matchups.)

The first round will start July 15 00:00 GMT (in 24 hours), each poll will close a week after it is posted, and I think I will try to post 8 a day, in which case it will end at the end of the month.

My favorite poll write-ups

Hello. So for each poll, I included a little blurb/ramble going into some historical or musical context behind each year. Most of these were written the day I posted them and some years didn't give me a lot to work with. But there were years that really gave me an opportunity to expand on areas of music history/business I'm truly passionate about.

So I decided to compile all of my favorite write-ups into one post.

1956: The rise of Elvis Presley and rock & roll on the Billboard charts

1959: The Grammy Awards vs Black music

1966: The Vietnam War effect on the pop charts

1970: The traumatic dawn of the new decade

1972: Cultural shifts in the 1970's and the last stretch of the Vietnam War

1973: Watergate, Philly soul, and the birth of hip-hop

1979: Disco Demolition Night and the death (and by "death" I mean "gentrification") of disco

1980: Punk rock, new wave, and the sudden end of the 1970's

1983: MTV vs Black music

1987: Tipper Gore and the Parents Music Resource Center vs rock music and the creation of the parental advisory label

1991: Nielsen SoundScan's effect on the Billboard charts, and the controversy of 2 Live Crew and Miami bass

1993: The birth of West Coast hip-hop and the coast wars

1999: Y2K and the MP3 breaches containment

2002: Nu metal's place in music marketing

2004: The South got something to say

2007: The controversy of "ringtone rap" and Auto-Tune

2008: Partying and pirating during the financial crisis

2009: Electropop and Auto-Tune's change in perception

2012: Psy was robbed

2013: The death of club music and the Blurred Lines lawsuit

2016: Streaming killed the MP3 star

2017: The mainstream rise of reggaeton in white America and the "monogenre"

2019: Old Town Road, TikTok, and the question of genre and marketing continues

2021: Covid-19's shadow over the pop charts

2022: The current state of pop music in a splintered musical landscape

Winners of the 2010s Polls

Sorry for the delay - life got in the way.

Thank you again for participating. I'll be back shortly with the three winners of the 2020s polls.

2010: 849 votes

Winner: Bad Romance by Lady Gaga (42.3%)

2011: 517 votes

Winner: Rolling in the Deep by Adele (25.5%)

2012: 941 votes

Winner: Call Me Maybe by Carly Rae Jepsen (26.2%)

2013: 544 votes

Winner: Radioactive by Imagine Dragons (34.4%)

2014: 489 votes

Winner: Counting Stars by OneRepublic (35%)

2015: 521 votes

Winner: Uptown Funk by Mark Ronson ft. Bruno Mars (32.8%)

2016: 405 votes

Winner: Stressed Out by Twenty One Pilots (28.4%)

2017: 443 votes

Winner: Believer by Imagine Dragons (23.5%)

2018: 309 votes

Winner: Havana by Camila Camila Cabello ft. Young Thug (27.2%)

2019: 448 votes

Winner: Old Town Road by Lil Nas X ft. Billy Ray Cyrus (38.2%)

Bequeath the Basement Bangers!

Do you enjoy music so niche that one must squint through opera glasses to find the niche?

Interested in discovering new music? Do more people need to know about a disco ska metal band from Lake Wobegon? Do you want to make fun of cringefail artists that flopped? Or perhaps you have a penchant for pretending to be a fan and using elaborate schemes to promote your music...

Then this is the tournament for you, pal!

Submission Rules

This is for songs with under 3000 views/streams (on whatever platform). (It was going to be <1000, but I wanted to be able to put in OrcaMind songs. Basically just the less popular the better.) Songs with more views will still be considered, though. It depends on how many submissions I get. It’s preferable to be able to listen to the song online somewhere. Since obscurity is key, though, inaccessible songs on physical or lost media still qualify, they just might not get many votes.

Submit songs in this form or the ask box. (The linked form is preferred, to keep it organized, but whatever.)

Submissions will close on… I don’t know, July 19th maybe? Depends on submission quantity.

How this will work

I don’t want to deal with complicated brackets, so the bracket will be single-elimination, and will have a power of 2 (or maybe 3, depending?) number of songs. In determining which songs will fill that number, the following will be considered (in order of priority):

Obscurity

Number of submissions

Submitter enthusiasm/provided description and reasoning

How good I think it is

Propaganda is allowed and encouraged.

These folks couldn’t compete in the big leagues, so now we’ll make them compete against each other, but for no reward!

Inspired by stuff like: @musical-song-competition @best-fnaf-song-competition @fictionaladoptionpolls @4thwallbreakersshowdown @obscure-hottie-fight @hit-song-showdown (Mine is like the opposite of that) @guess-that-ship @purpleboytournament @arrowtossingtournament @christian-denominations-poll @mysterycharacterbracket @theater-kid-throwdown @obscuremilfoff @ponysongbracket @weird-song-bracket @songshowdown @fuck-you-upmusicbracket

Sorry some people are being rude and not reading the (very clear) plan you laid out in the pinned post :/ As someone who also loves studying pop music trends, I really like the idea of this poll and hope you can continue on with it!

Thank you, I really appreciate it. Fortunately the support for this project has far out-weighed the few rude comments I've received. I especially appreciated the people who mentioned my write-ups. Even though I really enjoyed writing them, I still saw them as a bonus to the polls themselves and I expected most people to just scroll past them (which is fine btw). So to see people talking about them really meant a lot to me. I also love it when people tell me about the memories they have with these songs, or how they discussed the polls with people in their lives. Those comments really do warm my heart.

Fortunately, I don't think some bad apples will fully ruin this project for me. They just happened to show up in my inbox the moment I'm going through some rather stressful life changes. I still don't think I'll be able to run a project like this for a while (unless I can really squeeze something in before school starts), but I'm always happy to talk about music and music history.

Thank you (and everyone else who left supportive comments) for your kind words. I truly appreciate it :)

1. These polls are centered around songs that appeared in Billboard’s Hot 100 Year End lists (as stated in the blog’s description and . . . The title of the polls). A lot of songs don’t chart during the year they came out, often because it takes a while for songs to rise in popularity.

2. The polls are not reflective of my own personal taste in music.

3. If you’re not interested in participating, you don’t have to. You also don’t have to be rude.

I know these polls are essentially over at this point, so there’s not much use in me talking about it. But regardless of my opinions of the songs themselves, this was still a project I was passionate about and this is taking the wind out of my sails. Odds of running similar polls in the future are unlikely.

Year-End Poll #73 (The Finale!): 2022

[Image description: a collage of photos of the 10 musicians and musical groups featured in this poll. In order from left to right, top to bottom: Glass Animals, Harry Styles, The Kid Laroi, Adele, Ed Sheeran, Jack Harlow, Lotto, Justin Bieber, Kodak Black, Elton John and Dua Lipa. End description]

More information about this blog here

And now we're at the final poll. Much like the previous years, many of the songs featured here are from previous years. This is mostly due to how Billboard calculates their hits and there are other methods of calculating the charts. But since this blog focuses in Billboard, that's the metric we're going with.

It's hard to know for certain which direction pop music is headed at this moment since we're still in it. Depending on how things go, it seems like TikTok is going to continue to be a taste maker when it comes to popular music. This could also account for why pop songs are getting shorter. The "verse chorus verse chorus bridge chorus" format is not set in stone. In fact if you followed this blog since the beginning, you've seen the beginning and rise of this pop song format in the late 1950's.

Also from what I can see, it looks like pop music is taking a more meta direction, with overt influences and references to recent pop music history. This can be seen in both stylistic choices, such as the synth-pop influences in Harry Styles' As It Was, to the way samples are used. Jack Harlow's First Class samples previous poll entry, Fergie's Glamorous, and Latto's Big Energy samples Mariah Carey's Fantasy -- which samples The Tom Tom Club's Genius of Love.

The charts are admittedly in an awkward place right now. I'm looking at the Hot 100 right now and I'm having trouble putting together a narrative (other than "wow, people forgave Morgan Wallen fast lol"). Between the lockdown, shifting tastes and listening habits of audiences, economic factors, and the splintering of the streaming industry, "pop music" doesn't mean the same thing it did fifty years ago. Or even twenty years ago. But between influences from the changing political climates, the rise and fall of different genres, developments in music technology, and the question over the cost of music, the one consistent thing about pop music is that it isn't consistent.

Thank you to everyone who took part in these polls. I'll post a follow-up post shortly wrapping things up and discussing the future of this blog.

Year-End Poll #73 (The Finale!): 2022

[Image description: a collage of photos of the 10 musicians and musical groups featured in this poll. In order from left to right, top to bottom: Glass Animals, Harry Styles, The Kid Laroi, Adele, Ed Sheeran, Jack Harlow, Lotto, Justin Bieber, Kodak Black, Elton John and Dua Lipa. End description]

More information about this blog here

And now we're at the final poll. Much like the previous years, many of the songs featured here are from previous years. This is mostly due to how Billboard calculates their hits and there are other methods of calculating the charts. But since this blog focuses in Billboard, that's the metric we're going with.

It's hard to know for certain which direction pop music is headed at this moment since we're still in it. Depending on how things go, it seems like TikTok is going to continue to be a taste maker when it comes to popular music. This could also account for why pop songs are getting shorter. The "verse chorus verse chorus bridge chorus" format is not set in stone. In fact if you followed this blog since the beginning, you've seen the beginning and rise of this pop song format in the late 1950's.

Also from what I can see, it looks like pop music is taking a more meta direction, with overt influences and references to recent pop music history. This can be seen in both stylistic choices, such as the synth-pop influences in Harry Styles' As It Was, to the way samples are used. Jack Harlow's First Class samples previous poll entry, Fergie's Glamorous, and Latto's Big Energy samples Mariah Carey's Fantasy -- which samples The Tom Tom Club's Genius of Love.

The charts are admittedly in an awkward place right now. I'm looking at the Hot 100 right now and I'm having trouble putting together a narrative (other than "wow, people forgave Morgan Wallen fast lol"). Between the lockdown, shifting tastes and listening habits of audiences, economic factors, and the splintering of the streaming industry, "pop music" doesn't mean the same thing it did fifty years ago. Or even twenty years ago. But between influences from the changing political climates, the rise and fall of different genres, developments in music technology, and the question over the cost of music, the one consistent thing about pop music is that it isn't consistent.

Thank you to everyone who took part in these polls. I'll post a follow-up post shortly wrapping things up and discussing the future of this blog.

Hi! Sorry if this is a stupid question but, do you think you could explain why Taylor Swift isn't on any of the recent polls despite the claims that she "is the music industry", winning album of the year at the Grammys 2020 and AMA's artist of the decade and things like that? Is it because her albums chart but not as singles? I'm just curious!

Thank you for all your hard work! :)

Hi, thanks for your question! My knowledge of Taylor is a bit limited, but I'll try to answer it the best I can.

One of the limitations of this blog's format is that it only focuses on the top ten of the year-end hot 100. Meaning we're looking at the tip of the tip of the iceberg in terms of popular music. Many popular songs that are more well-remembered or even more well-liked are from lower on the charts. Taylor Swift has had a major presence on various charts, but only two of her singles reached the year-end top ten.

It is funny how some of the biggest artists don't always make an appearance in the top ten. I mentioned before how Nirvana's Smells Like Teen Spirit didn't even crack the year-end top 20. Queen, Britney Spears, Cher, and Prince only appeared once on these polls. In 1965, The Rolling Stones, Beatles, Righteous Brothers, Temptations, and Four Tops were all out-charted by Sam the Sham and the Pharaohs.

I do think your theory about her being more of an album artist rather than a singles artist could also be a factor. Folklore looks like it had decently-performing singles which charted (not on the year-end from what I can see), but the album performed better as a whole than individual singles. The album being released during the height of the lockdown was probably a factor too. It looks like her most recent album is still in the promotion stage, so we'll see how this shakes out.

Thank you again for your question!

We did it. Roughly 720 songs later (not an exact number because there were some repeats), we've reached the end of this blog. As of me writing this, a good chunk of the 2010's polls are still open.

Thank you again to everyone who participated. Being able to ramble about this area of music history and technology is a huge passion of mine, so I really appreciate the chance. I know it wasn't a traditional tournament format, but the longer it went on the more it didn't feel right to pit songs against each other outside of their original context.

As for the future of this blog, I don't think I'll be able to keep these polls going for a while. I will do a year-end poll for 2023 in December when Billboard releases the chart, and possibly I'll do that every year until this website explodes.

I considered doing these polls again with songs further down the list. Unfortunately, my schedule is going to get really hectic after I move (literally, my plane leaves in less than 24 hours - I did not plan this), and I liked being able to listen to each song at least twice before doing these polls. Also a lot of my poll summaries/blurbs focused more on the historical/cultural context of the year than the songs themselves, and I don't want to repeat myself too much.

I'll think about it, though. Maybe I'll do polls focusing more on Billboard's genre-specific charts.

I also considered editing together a montage showing all of the number 1 songs and the songs that received the most votes on here. Maybe I'll even out my own choices too, so everyone can see how I have no business running a music blog lol.

Still a lot to think about, but I'm happy with how this blog turned out. Again, thank you for participating. I had fun, but it's going to be nice to go back to listening to my own music library again haha.

Year-End Poll #73 (The Finale!): 2022

[Image description: a collage of photos of the 10 musicians and musical groups featured in this poll. In order from left to right, top to bottom: Glass Animals, Harry Styles, The Kid Laroi, Adele, Ed Sheeran, Jack Harlow, Lotto, Justin Bieber, Kodak Black, Elton John and Dua Lipa. End description]

More information about this blog here

And now we're at the final poll. Much like the previous years, many of the songs featured here are from previous years. This is mostly due to how Billboard calculates their hits and there are other methods of calculating the charts. But since this blog focuses in Billboard, that's the metric we're going with.

It's hard to know for certain which direction pop music is headed at this moment since we're still in it. Depending on how things go, it seems like TikTok is going to continue to be a taste maker when it comes to popular music. This could also account for why pop songs are getting shorter. The "verse chorus verse chorus bridge chorus" format is not set in stone. In fact if you followed this blog since the beginning, you've seen the beginning and rise of this pop song format in the late 1950's.

Also from what I can see, it looks like pop music is taking a more meta direction, with overt influences and references to recent pop music history. This can be seen in both stylistic choices, such as the synth-pop influences in Harry Styles' As It Was, to the way samples are used. Jack Harlow's First Class samples previous poll entry, Fergie's Glamorous, and Latto's Big Energy samples Mariah Carey's Fantasy -- which samples The Tom Tom Club's Genius of Love.

The charts are admittedly in an awkward place right now. I'm looking at the Hot 100 right now and I'm having trouble putting together a narrative (other than "wow, people forgave Morgan Wallen fast lol"). Between the lockdown, shifting tastes and listening habits of audiences, economic factors, and the splintering of the streaming industry, "pop music" doesn't mean the same thing it did fifty years ago. Or even twenty years ago. But between influences from the changing political climates, the rise and fall of different genres, developments in music technology, and the question over the cost of music, the one consistent thing about pop music is that it isn't consistent.

Thank you to everyone who took part in these polls. I'll post a follow-up post shortly wrapping things up and discussing the future of this blog.