Best Songs of the Decade: Year-By-Year

12/21/2019

Picture: Adele (top left), Bruno Mars (top right), Katy Perry (bottom left) and Lizzo (bottom right)

by Julian Spivey
With the decade coming to an end we got to wondering what the best song of each year this decade was. Ten songs from each year were compiled based on things like time spent atop Billboard, Grammy nominations, general popularity and placement on year-end lists. Those who’ve worked on The Word or have been affiliated in some way with it were asked to rank these 10 songs for each year from best-to-worst and then those numbers were averaged to find out what we as a unit felt the best song of each year was. These are the results …

2010: "Teenage Dream" by Katy Perry

Accolades:
2nd best song of decade (Billboard)
4th best song of 2010 (Rolling Stone)
Nominated for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance (Grammy Awards)
Nominated for Best Pop Song of the Year (Billboard Music Awards)

At the beginning of the decade everybody couldn’t get enough of Katy Perry’s bubblegum pop and one of her career-bests was her 2010 No. 1 single “Teenage Dream.” For her album of the same name Perry wanted songs about the euphoric feeling of being in love as a teenager and this song really gets that feeling down pat.

2010 Runner-Up: "The Cave" by Mumford & Sons

2011: "Rolling in the Deep" by Adele

Accolades:
Song of the Year (Grammy Awards)
Record of the Year (Grammy Awards)
Best Short Form Music Video (Grammy Awards)
Top Alternative Song (Billboard Music Awards)

It only seems to happen like twice a decade or so, but when Adele releases an album, she’s going to dominate the pop world for the entire year of its release. Her 2011 album 21 instantly became one of the most iconic modern albums of our time and the lead single “Rolling in the Deep” a powerhouse vocal from maybe the best vocalist of our time.

2011 Runner-Up: "Firework" by Katy Perry

2012: "Wrecking Ball" by Bruce Springsteen

Accolades:
Song not released as single
Album of same name ranked Album of the Year (Rolling Stone)

This feels like a mistake, honestly. My all-time favorite artist is Bruce Springsteen and I loved the non-single, title track from his 2012 critically-acclaimed album Wrecking Ball that I tossed it in the running of 10 best songs of 2012. It averaged out to the top spot. My theory is some voters didn’t notice Springsteen’s name and instead thought this was Miley Cyrus’s 2013 hit of the same name. Either way, I’m happy that Springsteen’s anthem to never backing down in the face of destruction found its way here.

2012 Runner-Up: "Over You" by Miranda Lambert

2013: "Royals" by Lorde

Accolades:
Song of the Year (Grammy Awards)
Best Pop Solo Performance (Grammy Awards)
#1 Song of the Year (Slate & Consequence of Sound)

Lorde burst upon the scene at just 16-years old with “Royals,” a new sounding pop hit that was described as “art pop” that drew on influences from alternative music, and it stayed at No. 1 at Billboard for nine straight weeks. It was certainly the most unique sounding pop hit of the decade and also meant something with it taking own consumer society and ridiculous luxury items that many in the music industry brag about in their hits.

2013 Runner-Up: "Roar" by Katy Perry

2014: "Follow Your Arrow" by Kacey Musgraves

Accolades:
Song of the Year (CMA Awards)
Ranked 39th Greatest Country Song of All-Time (Rolling Stone)

“Follow Your Arrow” by Kacey Musgraves was a massively important song for country music, even if many radio stations within the genre wouldn’t play it. Musgraves’s anthem to being who you are no matter what contained potentially the first pro-gay message in mainstream country music history, and it helped Musgraves expand her fan-base into the pop realm, as well.

2014 Runner-Up: "All of Me" by John Legend

2015: "Thinking Out Loud" by Ed Sheeran

Accolades:
Song of the Year (Grammy Awards)
Best Pop Solo Performance (Grammy Awards)
Nominated for Record of the Year (Grammy Awards)
Nominated for Single of the Year (American Music Awards)
Nominated for Video of the Year (MTV Video Music Awards)

Ed Sheeran is a bit of mystery in that he’s written some of the best pop songs of the last decade, while also writing some of the worst (I’m looking right at you “Shape of You”). “Thinking of You,” which peaked at No. 1 in late 2014 and continued to dominate in 2015, is Sheeran’s career shining moment. The romantic ballad with influences of soul – like Sheeran’s home country hero Van Morrison – reflects on everlasting love and has become a staple at weddings worldwide since its release.

2015 Runner-Up: "Girl Crush" by Little Big Town

2016: "Love Yourself" by Justin Bieber

Accolades:
Best Pop/Rock Song (American Music Awards)
Nominated for Song of the Year (Grammy Awards)
Nominated for Best Pop Solo Performance (Grammy Awards)

Justin Bieber seemingly grew from teen pop sensation to adult pop sensation before our eyes in 2016 with his No. 1 hit “Love Yourself.” The song, a kiss-off to an ex-lover who had done the narrator wrong, showed some maturation for Bieber and even gained the artist some love from people who had once made fun of the artist as a teeny-bop idol providing little-to-no substance in his music.

2016 Runner-Up: "Humble & Kind" by Tim McGraw

2017: "24K Magic" by Bruno Mars

Accolades:
Record of the Year (Grammy Awards)

I’m shocked that it’s Bruno Mars’s 2017 hit “24K Magic” that was the Mars song to top one of our yearly votes and not his funky infectious 2015 Mark Ronson collaboration “Uptown Funk.” “24K Magic” kind of took off where “Uptown Funk” began with its funk groove, but with a more hip-hop influence involved. Mars’s vocals reminded some of James Brown, and the artists moves when performing are definitely patterned after the soul legend.

2017 Runner-Up: "Better Man" by Little Big Town

2018: "Shallow" by Lady Gaga & Bradley Cooper

Accolades:
Best Original Song (Academy Awards)
Best Original Song (Golden Globe Awards)
Best Pop Duo/Group Performance (Grammy Awards)
Nominated for Song of the Year (Grammy Awards)
Nominated for Record of the Year (Grammy Awards)

Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper’s collaboration “Shallow” from the Oscar-nominated “A Star is Born” from 2018 was everywhere after the release of the film in 2018 and into the early parts of 2019. “Shallow” instantly became one of the all-time great movie songs (and won the Oscar for Best Original Song) with its soaring vocal from Lady Gaga and its dedication to acting from Bradley Cooper (doing a bit of a Kris Kristofferson imitation). It’ll live on for many years for sure.

2018 Runner-Up: "This Is America" by Childish Gambino

2019: "Truth Hurts" by Lizzo

Accolades:
Nominated for Song of the Year (Grammy Awards)
Nominated for Record of the Year (Grammy Awards)
Nominated for Best Pop Solo Performance (Grammy Awards)

2019 was the year of Lizzo. She burst upon the scene with a vengeance this year and has taken the entire world by storm. The interesting thing about her hit “Truth Hurts” is that while it topped the charts this year it was actually released two years ago and didn’t chart. It was the video sharing app TikTok that truly propelled the song about romantic problems and addressing an ex to superstardom and wound up seeing “Truth Hurts” added on to the deluxe version of Lizzo’s Cuz I Love You.

2019 Runner-Up: "Me!" by Taylor Swift feat. Brandon Urie

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