Listening to 80 years of Billboard: Part 8: 2010s

[cnoocy]

“We hadn’t seen each other in a month
When you said you needed ‘space.’ (What?)”

The 2010s

I feel like the 2010s were more experimental than some of the previous decades. Though some of that is the increasing effect of internet culture on the actual charts, as shown on this list by “Lips Are Movin’” and especially “The Fox.” There are also some excellently odd videos in this set too, like “IDGAF” and “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together” which may be one of my all-time favorites.

Country seemed to be recovering its sense of humor after the Bush years, with songs like “Drunk on a Plane.” There were plenty of country songs in the 00s, but the ones that show up in these lists are generally jingoistic propaganda while songs like “Ticks” barely scratched the Top 40.

I’ve used Shazam to recognize “It Ain’t Me” multiple times in the last few years because I kept hearing it on the radio, thinking that the song had a pretty good sound and then hitting the post-chorus bizarreness and being blown away by it. The conceit of the song is akin to “God Will” by Lyle Lovett (https://youtu.be/uC_92CsTsy0) which is also nice to hear in an extremely popular song.

My wife and I had a driveway moment to “Billionaire” when it was getting regular play, specifically because all of the things the singer wants to do when he becomes one are acts of charity.

I first heard “Like A G6” while driving around on the morning before the MIT Mystery Hunt and I had to look it up several days later to convince myself that it wasn’t about puzzles.

“Girl Crush” is an update of “Jolene” with less heteronormativity. And three years later “Bad At Love” is an explicitly bisexual torch song that hit #27 for the year.

"Billionaire" by Travie McCoy Featuring Bruno Mars: #23 in 2010
"Like A G6" by Far East Movement Featuring Cataracs & Dev: #37 in 2010
"Mine" by Taylor Swift: #46 in 2010
"We R Who We R" by Ke$ha: #30 in 2011
"Tonight Tonight" by Hot Chelle Rae: #32 in 2011
"We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together" by Taylor Swift: #33 in 2012
"I Don't Want This Night to End" by Luke Bryan: #93 in 2012
"Wrecking Ball" by Miley Cyrus: #18 in 2013
"The Fox" by Ylvis: #73 in 2013
"Dark Horse" by Katy Perry: #2 in 2014
"Drunk on a Plane" by Dierks Bentley: #79 in 2014
"Lips Are Movin" by Meghan Trainor: #22 in 2015
"Girl Crush" by Little Big Town: #63 in 2015
"Closer" by The Chainsmokers: #10 in 2016
"Cheap Thrills" by Sia: #11 in 2016
"Same Old Love" by Selena Gomez: #40 in 2016
"Starboy" by The Weekend feat. Daft Punk: #20 in 2017
"It Ain't Me (feat. Selena Gomez)" by Kygo: #27 in 2017
"What Ifs" by Kane Brown: #72 in 2017
"Bad At Love" by Halsey: #27 in 2018
"One Number Away" by Luke Combs: #96 in 2018
"IDGAF" by Dua Lipa: #98 in 2018