50. Wednesday – “Chosen to Deserve” (2023)
The NC band plays a distinct indie country rock style that is best exemplified here by Karly Hartzman’s down-to-earth storytelling and MJ Lenderman’s beer-soaked guitar playing.
49. Jayda G – “Both of Us” (2020)
Jayda G’s already-classic deep house single is one of the most uninhibited exuberant statements in electronic music this decade as she plays with tempo over a looping piano and a constant plea for reciprocated love.
48. Lana Del Rey – “White Dress” (2021)
After the critical high of Norman Fucking Rockwell, Lana felt reflective on the next album opener, offering a strangely-syncopated piano ballad narrative of being a waitress ready to take on the world.
47. Pharrell Williams (ft. 21 Savage & Tyler, The Creator) – “Cash In Cash Out” (2022)
We haven’t been exactly lacking in Pharrell content at any point this century, but a pure behind-the-boards job with two of the best rappers in the world teaming up made for one of the most delightful one-offs this decade.
46. Taylor Swift – “cardigan” (2020)
It’s a bit hard to believe now, but Taylor Swift was desperate for a universally-beloved hit at the turn of this decade, so with a stripped-down arrangement and some of the most beautifully-constructed lyrics in her discography, “cardigan” deservingly rejuvenated Swift for a new era.
45. Adrianne Lenker – “anything” (2020)
A ode to just being quiet with the one you love, this song was wisely kept as a simple folk arrangement by Lenker rather than as a larger Big Thief production for not much else was needed to cut straight to the core.
44. SZA – “Kill Bill” (2022)
Much like the Quentin Tarantino film being referenced, this huge SZA hit finds therapeutic solace in murder — or in at least wanting to do it — rather than accepting the potential of being alone.
43. Megan Thee Stallion – “Thot Shit” (2021)
After her meteoric rise to the top of rap in just two years, Megan perfectly summed up how she earned it in this fast-rapping self-love anthem to shaking ass and running shit.
42. Phoebe Bridgers – “Kyoto” (2020)
The most straight-up rocker in Bridgers’ discography features a driving beat, triumphant horns and her trademark musings on her place in the world.
41. Chief Keef – “Bitch Where” (2022)
On paper, an under-two minute album opener that doesn’t have drums come in for a minute from a rapper who objectively peaked a decade ago has no business going as hard as it does, but every line and sound in this hits likes a massive serotonin boost.
40. PinkPantheress & Ice Spice – “Boy’s a liar, Pt. 2” (2023)
Since the ’90s, the R&B banger with a rap feature has been commercial gold, and its evolution has culminated to a perfect team-up collab between these on-the-rise women that definitively cemented their era-defining status.
39. Waxahatchee – “Lilacs” (2020)
Katie Crutchfield sees lilacs withering away even as they get basic necessities and has an existential crisis about what is really needed to get through the day: Love.
38. Charli xcx – “Von dutch” (2024)
BRAT summer may be over, but this highlight single — arguably the most rapturous in her entire catalog — clearly has no expiration date.
37. Bob Dylan – “Murder Most Foul” (2020)
Rub-a-dub-dub, it was Dylan’s first song in eight years and the longest in his career, leaving no stone unturned as he details the context of one of the most horrific moments in 20th century American history.
36. HAIM – “The Steps” (2020)
In a perfect world where pop rock moved the cultural needle as much as anything else, this would have been a number one song for 10 weeks à la Fleetwood Mac’s heyday.
35. Doja Cat (ft. SZA) – “Kiss Me More” (2021)
With a somber dreamy guitar backdrop, a thumping 4 on the floor beat and two of the most vocally-adept figure in R&B, this massive hit equally played across party playlists, long car rides and solo bedroom listens.
34. Bad Bunny (ft. Jowell & Randy and Ñengo Flow) – “Safaera” (2020)
On one of the most sonically-ambitious tracks in Latin pop history, Bad Bunny acts as host of a tour through reggaeton for his contemporaries and they all have a hell of a lascivious good time.
33. Yeah Yeah Yeahs (ft. Perfume Genius) – “Spitting Off the Edge of the World” (2022)
YYYs’ grandest statement since they broke through with “Maps” two decades ago is maximalist anthemic rock perfectly designed for hand-raising sing-along catharsis.
32. Beyoncé – “ALIEN SUPERSTAR” (2022)
On pop music’s greatest statement this decade, RENAISSANCE finds Queen Bey at most in her element being a pure diva like in this track, where she’s simply “too classy” to put up with normal civilization.
31. Jazmine Sullivan – “Pick Up Your Feelings” (2020)
Jazmine Sullivan debuted back in 2008, so it’s criminal that the critical mass at large only started caring about her only when she could arguably have the title of queen of R&B with this fiery breakup anthem.
30. Dua Lipa – “Levitating” (2020)
A pop star in the most classic sense of that term, Dua Lipa owned the radio on the Future Nostalgia run with this breezy disco pop global smash that definitely at one point did not feature a remix with a homophobic rapper.
29. Sharon Van Etten & Angel Olsen – “Like I Used To” (2021)
Following the dark days of the ’20-’21 COVID winter, these two stalwarts of indie rock came together for an inspiring anthem on reclaiming all that drives the human spirit the most.
28. Hikaru Utada – “Somewhere Near Marseilles” (2022)
Maybe the biggest pop star of all time in Japan has woefully been overlooked in the Western world (apart from some Kingdom Hearts themes), but this 12-minute trance pop epic became a critic favorite and has inspired retrospective listening into her truly vital discography.
27. Caroline Polachek – “Bunny Is a Rider” (2021)
Alt-pop was arguably pushed further into uncharted melodic and sonic territory by nobody more than Polachek with this bass-heavy single about thriving on your own path.
26. Cardi B & Megan Thee Stallion – “WAP” (2020)
Some would argue that this gleefully filthy single’s novelty has worn off, but it still feels like a cultural behemoth hanging over the entire decade, announcing that women would dominate the hip-hop industry and every sexual taboo was fair game to discuss.
25. Alex G – “Runner” (2022)
Few indie rock songs have ever covered more territory in terms of jaunty melodies and zippy sonic textures in such a short span making it one of the most relistenable songs in some time.
24. Hitkidd & GloRilla – “F.N.F. (Let’s Go)” (2022)
A crucial sliding door moment this decade came when Megan Thee Stallion overlooked a beat from Hitkidd that would later be sent to GloRilla, who used it to stomp onto the scene with a immediately-classic girl-chant summer anthem.
23. Lady Gaga & Ariana Grande – “Rain on Me” (2020)
Whether Lady Gaga felt she needed a more commercially-viable star to maintain her diva status or simply wanted Ariana’s four-octave vocal range as an aesthetic contrast, she pulled off a number one single that is pure dance-pop jubilation start to finish.
22. Waxahatchee (ft. MJ Lenderman) – “Right Back to It” (2024)
From the first listen of this indie country dream collab, you feel like it always existed, that these two just had to pluck the song out of thin air and record it in one take.
21. Monaleo & Flo Milli – “We Not Humping (Remix)” (2022)
Like “WAP”‘s evil sibling, this remix examines why men aren’t getting any that easily and most importantly, where every single line is an absolute earworm.
20. Low – “Days Like These” (2021)
In the wake of the death of Mimi Parker and the dissolution of Low, this HEY WHAT centerpiece has been one of the toughest listens as the duo sing so directly of the fable of finding peace and order in life until ambience consumes the song into a warbling oblivion.
19. ROSALÍA – “SAOKO” (2022)
This MOTOMAMI opener deconstructs reggaeton into an art pop club gem without losing any ferocity and is a statement that ROSALÍA’s style is purely in her image rather than any Latin pop expectations.
18. Taylor Swift – “the last great american dynasty” (2020)
The biggest left-turn in her oft-too-predictable writing style to-date comes on a folktronica, mostly third-person historical narrative on everyone who owned her mansion, with Swift debatably — and arguably correctly — anointing herself as the last great American dynasty.
17. Chappell Roan – “Good Luck, Babe!” (2024)
After Midwest Princess only gained Roan mild critical and commercial success, it was this single — a synthpop anthem bemoaning compulsory heterosexuality — that broke the door wide open for her.
16. Sufjan Stevens – “Will Anybody Ever Love Me?” (2023)
Even in a catalog with “Casimir Pulaski Day” and “Fourth of July,” Sufjan forged new territory in folksy tearjerkers with this Javelin centerpiece, made more searing by the loss of his partner that same year.
15. Olivia Rodrigo – “deja vu” (2021)
At the 1:25 mark in Rodrigo’s best song is the most gasp-worthy moment in pop music this decade where a twinkly unassuming breakup ballad turns nuclear — a stomach-churning synth/drum break that revealed her to be capable of a sinister sonic aesthetic.
14. Chloe x Halle – “Do It” (2020)
The most pop fun you can have for three minutes this decade comes from the Bailey sister duo who seem in no hurry to follow up on their huge breakthrough rather embarking on solo and acting endeavors.
13. Waxahatchee – “Fire” (2020)
The titular fire of Crutchfield’s signature track is the sun reflecting off the Mississippi River on the Tennessee/Arkansas border, and it inspired a tale of how we too easily beat up on ourselves instead of loving who we are in and out.
12. Yves Tumor – “Gospel for a New Century” (2020)
From self-image to music video aesthetic to sonic ambition, Sean Bowie’s experimental pop project is the liberated artistic ideal, and on the Heaven to a Tortured Mind opener, the song alone is an enthralling futuristic kick in the teeth.
11. Phoebe Bridgers – “I Know the End” (2020)
More than any other indie rock song of this era, the Punisher closer straps you in for an emotionally-draining pilgrimage through young adult aimlessness, American malaise and apocalyptic freefall all set to a soul-cleansing instrumental build.
10. Kendrick Lamar – “Not Like Us” (2024)
The culmination of the most one-sided diss war ever seen in hip-hop was this snappy Mustard-produced club banger whose most sinister achievement against Drake — even more than “A Minorrrrrr” — was getting everybody out of their seats through frequent airplay.
9. Bad Bunny – “Tití Me Preguntó” (2022)
This Un Verano Sin Ti single is the definitive moment of the Puerto Rican star’s career thus far, where popularity, critical praise, and the genuine fun that exudes from every second here is one and the same.
8. Christine and the Queens – “People, I’ve been sad” (2020)
Maybe the single most unanimous praise for a song this decade was for this bilingual synth-pop single where the synth bass mixing and melodic phasing from Chris is unquestioned pop perfection.
7. Fiona Apple – “I Want You to Love Me” (2020)
Fiona Apple is 5 for 5 on not only making legendary albums but opening them with awe-inspiring torchbearers, and this pleading unimpeachably-driven ballad is maybe the best of them all.
6. Braxe + Falcon (ft. Panda Bear) – “Step by Step” (2022)
Alan Braxe and DJ Falcon are French electronica legends — and relatives — that have swirled around each other but never released under the same moniker until this collab with the psychedelic pop legend Panda Bear for an inspiring house anthem that delivered on every conceivable front.
5. Lana Del Rey – “A&W” (2023)
In every questioning of Jack Antonoff’s ability to get the most out of these pop stars, I think back to Lana and how, at her best like on “A&W”, there is a lyrical dexterity, self-referential reflection and outright strange instrumental choices that is being pushed out of her or allowed to uninhibitedly express with full support, and you must marvel at everyone involved.
4. Cassandra Jenkins – “Hard Drive” (2021)
Like a highlighted recap of a literary journal creative nonfiction piece, Jenkins’ enthralling plain-sung lyricism is backed by the most lavish sophisti-pop instrumentals found this side of Sade for a song that has no proper comparison.
3. Destroyer – “June” (2022)
Dan Bejar is just getting more confident and stranger with age as this jazzy art rock epic rails against snow angels and fancy language, shifts into a tale of rejuvenated spirit in the moonlight and then ends with an indecipherable-yet-insanely-quotable poem addressed to somebody named Aggie.
2. Megan Thee Stallion (ft. Beyoncé) – “Savage Remix” (2020)
Merely just keeping the chorus of the original, this “Savage” remix saw fellow Houston native Beyoncé step in and reconstruct a whole new banger where she provides two verses — and has Megan offer new upgraded verses as well — and once again proves she could just do hip-hop if she wanted to.
1. Alvvays – “Belinda Says” (2022)
The growth of the Canadian indie band from jangle pop to full-on shoegaze resulted in one of the most captivating evolutions in rock history, best exemplified on this Blue Rev centerpiece where Belinda Carlisle’s idea of heaven and paradise in her signature song is twisted into a tale of unexpected pregnancy, hell on earth and just driving away from it all.
Bitter Melodies 