Given how we're in an era where every song on an album is guaranteed to chart once said album is released, I guess the way to have follow ups from it once it comes out is to take a track and modify it in a way where it stands out from the rest of the track listing. This was the mindset for this ballad which got turned into a duet with Beyonce despite the original being about how Ed feels that the love of his life was perfect the way they were.
This song was released on the same day as "Castle on the hill," meaning that audiences chose this song about Ed Sheeran objectifying the person in this song over his heartfelt track about missing his childhood friends into making an inescapable hit from his third album. This should tell you the culture we've been a part of since the start of the decade as the internet tends to make hits out of songs meant to be divisive.
The Chainsmokers were already considered a household name by the time they released this third big hit they had in 2016, however the inclusion of one Halsey ensured that they would have one of the biggest hits of the new millennium so far given how it's a story about how her and Drew Taggart grew apart and how she wants him back, but he's moved on.
Post Malone had moderate success prior to this song about how he wished he was a rock star rather than a rapper (although I hesitate to call him a rapper if I'm being honest) however it was this track that finally made him transition from a meme that "White Iverson" made him earlier in the decade to a household name likely because of the subject matter.
This was originally from Post Malone's debut album Stoney; it was a mere album track which contained the type of misogyny you'd expect from someone who doesn't understand that women were people and thus was largely dismissed as a dud from the album initially. It gained traction a year after the album came out due to a live performance of the song which was so well received that it was pushed as a single.
Given how there's two versions of this track that were making the waves at the time of their release, it only makes sense that the Latin craze would come back into the mainstream even if most of it was confided to the Billboard charts. The original was a standard reggaeton track from two of its more popular members of the sub-genre, the remix has Justin Bieber which of course means the two men didn't have any further success.
This is to date the final hit single that Justin Timberlake has able to achieve in most parts of the world, although "Say something" from his most recent album (at the time of writing) was a minor success in certain parts of the world two years after this came out. This was the theme to the Dreamworks film Trolls which saw him in a lead role (albeit as a voice actor as the film is animated.)
This was the first of two big hits that the Weeknd had with Daft punk, the other being the only other song from the album of the same name "I feel it coming" which has a completely different subject matter to the one on here. This is about him dealing with his fame in ways I won't describe on this list as they can potentially be triggering to certain people reading this.
Following her departure from Fifth harmony, Camila Cabello launched a solo career which began with this song about how she was in love with the city of Havana (which just happens to be where she was born.) It was a massive hit for her likely due to it being released when the Latin craze of the late 2010's took off thanks to "Despacito" from earlier on this list.
This is a song that was infamous upon its initial release, so much so that people were urging others to listen to "Thunderstruck" by AC/DC instead given how that song achieves what this song is trying to and was released nearly thirty years prior. Although Imagine dragons were never critical darlings, this was the song where their reputation sunk to the levels of Nickelback and Creed before them.
This song feels like a lie due to it crediting Bebe Rexha as the lead artist when really it should be Florida Georgia Line (man what a stupid band name) as they have far more presence on here than the pop star. The song is rather innocuous on its own, however it caused massive controversy for breaking the record for the most weeks at number one on the Billboard country charts, a set of charts I think we can all agree has little value.
It looked like this guy was going to be a one hit wonder with "Impossible" from earlier in the decade following some problematic statements he made which suggested that he was homophobic, he was able to get back in the good graces of the general public by the time he released this ballad which saw him crossing over to America for his one and only hit on Billboard.
Dua Lipa already had a huge hit earlier in the decade with "Be the one" (which is still to come on this list) so it's little surprise that she would score a massive hit with this track about her learning some self-care when it comes to going out to party. It was such a massive hit for the English diva that it managed to crossover to the American charts as well as allow her debut album to be a massive success.
For whatever reason, Macklemore decided to part ways with Ryan Lewis (amicably at least) to work on his third album which didn't seem to hamper its success given how huge the lead single was from said album. I'm guessing it was due to its subject matter given how it's an ode to people in his life who are no longer with him, this is something that has brought a lot of success to those who explore it.
I did mention towards the start of this list that this song lost out to "Shape of you" given how both tracks were released on the same day worldwide, however that didn't necessarily mean that this was a flop from Ed Sheeran as enough people were touched by this song about longing for his childhood days that it became one of the bigger hits of the decade for the English folk singer.
Many people feel that this is a mere rip-off of "Roses" from the Chainsmokers a year prior to when this became a hit for them and Coldplay, obviously it didn't have any impact on the songs popularity as this proved to be twice as popular as that other track (which we'll get to eventually.) As of this writing, but parties have yet to score another hit on the charts, suggesting this was the song which killed their respective popularity.
This was Ed Sheeran's tribute to the Irish women in his fanbase, of course it received minor controversy from people who don't understand what cultural appropriation is and who are likely secretly against multiculturalism in general. Fortunately, this is such a minor (if not vocal) sector of the world as everyone else appreciated this gesture that Ed made by making this another inescapable hit for him.
Given how popular Khalid was here in Australia thanks to how well beloved he was on Triple J (what's happened to him I wonder?) it seems fitting that he would be the one to introduce Marshmello to the world with this collaboration he made with the American DJ. His gimmick is that he wears a helmet that's meant to suggest that he's an anthropomorphic marshmallow making music for the masses.
Just a heads up that five out of the five members of One direction will be making an appearance on this list as all of them managed to score a huge hit in 2017 alone following the demise of them as a group, at least during the 2010's, Liam was the one to score the biggest hit with this track that denounces his time with the boy band in a way many people to this day find condescending.
This was the first of two hits that Anne Marie had as a featured artist for a popular EDM track, here she speaks up for single mothers who have to raise a child on their own which no doubt connected with many single women at the time of its release. It also allowed Clean bandit to escape the one hit wonder bin in most parts of the world given how "Rather be" almost trapped them there two years prior.
This is one of the grooviest songs to come out of the decade, it comes to us from a band that had been active for over a decade by the time they scored their one and only hit in the music industry (as of this writing of course.) As with most indie bands, this managed to become a success due to ad execs somehow discovering the track and including it in their ads, that and it being a favourite on Triple J here in Australia.
Given how he caused quite a stir with his previous two singles in the music industry (which we'll get to later on this list) it seems fitting that this bonus track from the one-year anniversary of Shawn Mendes's second album would restore him in people's good graces even if nowadays people feel that it's little more than an obvious choice of a song to soundtrack a car commercial.
2017 was a great year for the individual members of One direction, here we have the biggest hit that Nial Horan had on his own which was likely due to the strange lyrics in the song about him having sex with the person he's singing to (does anyone know what he means about "like sweat dripping down our dirty laundry?") Like Liam from earlier, he only has the one hit to his name from this year.
Although Kendrick Lamar had massive success with his previous album To pimp a butterfly, it was the lead single to his album Damn that finally gave him a worldwide hit thanks to how bumping the production was as well as his flow being very tight on the track. He also scored a lot of success as a featured artists with songs that are still to come on this list.
This was the theme to the film 50 shades darker, a film that's infamous for having very little content given how the book it was based on was also short on content (although you can make that argument for the entire franchise.) Here we have Zayn teaming up with Taylor Swift making a theme song that unintentionally captures the feeling naysayers have towards the franchise.
Around the time that Khalid had a hit with Marshmello with their earlier collaboration on this list, he also managed to score a huge hit in Australia and NZ with this remix of one of his songs on his debut album which really resonated with audiences the same way that Twenty Øne Piløts did the year prior as it's about how he and his friends were all young dumb and broke in this world.
This was the first of two hits that all of these men managed to achieve together, that is all of them except for Lil Wayne as he was conspicuously absent on "No brainer" the year after this came out for some reason. I had heard of DJ Khaled prior to this becoming a hit, however I didn't believe it when people said he did nothing on his songs except shout "we the best new music" until I heard this song.
This was another instant hit for Bruno Mars given how it's another throwback to when soul music reigned supreme in the American mainstream, although I've always felt that the bass on this track was too overbearing which is perhaps why it wasn't quite as inescapable as the second single from the album of the same name on Billboard. Even so, this still remains popular in the mainstream as of this writing.
This was the last solo hit that Sam Smith had before they revealed themselves as non-binary, although this revelation didn't happen for two years after this became a hit for them which means that they wanted to have two successful albums under their belt before they let the world know that they didn't conform to gender formalities which led to a bunch of other celebrities turning this into a trend that devalued the non-binary community.
This was one of two hits that Zedd had as a lead artist throughout the decade, the other will come shortly which sparked controversy due to it being similar to this song he had with Alessia Cara in just about every way. They're both about trying to mend a toxic relationship, both have ticking clocks in the production, and both have killer performances from their female vocalists.
To date, this is the only hit single from American Christian rapper NF anywhere in the world, although considering how long it took for the Caucasian rapper to find success from the start of his career, I wouldn't count him being trapped in the one hit wonder bin just yet. This is a song about how he felt he was a failure to his (biological) father, making this being a success that much more ironic in hindsight.
This is another song where me being nice to it is going to be a challenge, although in this case it's purely for the vocals as to put it simply, Julia Michaels isn't a good vocalist. Enough people were able to overlook her voice on this track in order to make it a hit worldwide due to how strongly written the song is, and indeed this did allow her to write for some of the biggest names in music thanks to its success.
Following the success he had with Conrad Sewell from 2015 (this collaboration will come much later on this list) Kygo decided to expand his success by collaborating with Selena Gomez two years later and by incorporating chopped up vocals which was a technique that had exploded in popularity by this point in time in the EDM genre. He is another artist who would have more entries on this list had he found success on Spotify and not just with sales.
It looked like Zayn was going to be the biggest name from One direction given how he managed to score two hits of his own in 2017 compared to just the one his former bandmates had that year, although it's worth noting that both of these hits had a female vocalist working with him as here he trades Taylor Swift for Sia for this song that was used in a trailer for a film that I doubt anyone remembers.
This was already a moderate success for Peking Duk when it was initial released, however it received a boost in popularity when it placed high on the Triple J year end list for 2016 due to it coming out relatively late in the year. They would have one more hit after this with their E.P Reprisal before they faded into obscurity.
Well, she might have made arguably the worst decision of her music career by pandering to Twitter for her album Witness (which is really saying something) however that didn't mean that Katy's career was dead just yet as she was able to score a massive hit as a part of this entourage with the likes of Pharrell and Big Sean on this track produced by the lead artist Calvin Harris.
This is the only collaboration that Marshmello has made where he doesn't have the main credit on the song as he gave that to Selena Gomez for some reason, I guess because she was inescapably popular during the second half of the decade which is strange considering she only started having hits once she made a clean getaway from Disney as well as long after she broke up with Justin Bieber.
This was supposed to be an even bigger hit for P!nk but wasn't because she hasn't bought into the Spotify payola like Drake or Ed Sheeran has, even so, its placement on this list should give you an idea of how well loved she remains even to this day in Australia if she can still compete with those guys with such a disadvantage in the mainstream. Speaking of disadvantage, this song is meant to provide a voice for those affected by the political climate of the moment.
This was the final hit that Zara Larsson had in any capacity in her career, at least she went out with a bang with this collaboration with Clean bandit who themselves seemed to be on a roll as they managed to score another massive hit worldwide with a female vocalist. They would have one more hit after this with Demi Lovato, although that song remains divisive to this day due to having the former Disney star on it.
Although "Smooth" remains Santana's biggest hit throughout most parts of the world, that honour actually goes to "Maria Maria" if we're referring to the Billboard charts as that had a much longer run at number one in America than "Smooth" did at the turn of the millennium. This must have been the incentive for why it was used as the sample for this posse cut from DJ Khaled, Rihanna and Bryson Tiller.
This is the third hit that Jonas Blue managed to achieve throughout the decade, this time he brought on Australian singer William Singe to provide vocals on here which are among the best in his catalogue (in my opinion of course.) Singe was best known prior to this collaboration as a member of the failed Australian group the Collective, I'm guessing Jonas was a fan of the group as he recruited him on here.
This is a song whose music video was considered so good by the music industry that (I swear I'm not making this up) there were posters for it in the movie theatres, I'll leave my readers to decide if it was even worth promoting the music video in theatres like it was a real movie or not but suffice to say, this was where the arrogance of Adam Levine was seriously starting to test the patience of the internet.
Given how Swae Lee was fresh off the success of the Mannequin challenge that came from his hit "Black Beatles" (which is still to come on this list) it seems fitting that he would be the reason why French Montana was finally able to score a hit internationally as he provides a chorus to that big breakthrough he had on this track.
To date this is the final hit single that Lorde has been able to achieve anywhere in the world, even in her native NZ, this remains the case as her third album was a huge critical and commercial failure for her when she recently released it (as of this writing.) At least this was a hit in the southern hemisphere even if some people have accused her of selling out on this track given how pop friendly it is.
Even though this is credited as a song just from the Chainsmokers, it's actually another collaboration in their catalogue which in this case was with their frequent songwriting partner Emily Warren who decided to sing on the track rather than simply write it like she did with several of their other singles. This has been criticised for glorifying first world privilege due to the lyrics depicting the two narrators as such.
If you want to know why the cover art I'm using for this entry is blurry, that's because it depicts someone with their hand in their pants. As you can tell with what I just said, this is a blatantly sexual track that was a hit here in Australia likely through how provocative it is.
This was the other big hit that the Weeknd had with Daft punk on his album Starboy, although it's worth noting that these two collaborations were the only ones that appeared on the album which was largely a solo effort much like his previous album Beauty behind the madness. This also had a different subject matter as this was a love ballad as opposed to "Starboy" which had a darker subject matter.
This was the second single to come out of Bruno Mar's Grammy award winning album 24K magic, it also remains his final Billboard chart topper (at least as a solo artist and as of this writing) likely due to it being a throwback to the heyday of the Temptations and the Miracles without drowning the song in autotune like the title track from earlier on this list did.
You'd think that the big hit from Andy Grammar would be "Honey I'm good," it was in his native America in 2015 but everywhere else, it was this adult contemporary ballad from the following year. There's not much I can say about this track other than it allowed the country singer to be taken seriously for a little while.
Well, this was certainly a step up in maturity from Charlie Puth, no more was he the type of guy who would pine for the affection of a woman in his life and instead he's now calling out presumably this same woman for being an attention seeker who doesn't actually care about him or anyone but herself. It's a change in direction everyone seemed to appreciate for one song as it remains his final hit to date.
This is a song that has good intentions to it, great even as it's named after the American suicide prevention hotline and is obviously meant to bring comfort to those who were in a dark place during the second half of the decade. Khalid and Alessia Cara certainly treat this subject matter with respect, however Logic might be a bit out of his depth considering that infamous line that I won't repeat on here.
This was the only solo hit that Harry Styles achieved throughout the 2010's, granted he would become a massive household name going into the 2020's, however his only hit without 1D was a song about how we all need to get over ourselves as accept that things are a sign of the times. Naturally this rubbed many people (me included) the wrong way, although other people praised it for being a throwback to the heyday of rock music.
It looked like Miley Cyrus was done with being provocative for the sake of it following the disastrous reception she received from her Dead petz album from 2015, as such she went in a more wholesome direction with this pop country ballad, which was a massive hit for her, but one people felt would signify her following in her father's direction. She quashed these fears with her next album which went in a rock direction.
This was a collaboration between three artists that had varying degrees of success throughout the decade, there's Hailee Steinfeld who was by far the most successful of the three due to her acting career giving her buzz for her music career. Florida Georgia line was also decently successful in their native America but not as much internationally, and finally there's Alesso who only had one other hit with "Heroes" this decade.
This was a collaboration between Macklemore and Kesha, it would've been interesting why it took so long for these two to collaborate except Kesha's legal battles with her label have been well documented which more than explains why this didn't happen sooner in the decade. The subject matter is also why this was a huge success for them as they are both reminiscing on when they were at the height of their popularity.
Even though Starley is an Australian artist, she was based in the UK when she released her debut single which is why it became a massive hit throughout Europe before crossing back over here shortly after it became a success. It was a hit worldwide thanks to it being from the tropical house genre which was only continuing to grow as the decade kept moving forward.
It seems odd to me that this had already become a massive hit worldwide by the time it began charting in Lauv's native America, apparently it only did so due to it being the theme of a Netflix film no one's heard of (side note, avoid Netflix originals if you can, they're rarely any good.) Once it took off on Billboard, it was widely mocked for its strange production elements, which would explain its initial failure over there.
This is the final entry from Kesha on this list, it's by far her most personal ballad to become a hit as it directly addresses the turmoil she had while working with Sony and specifically Dr Luke. While it was far from the biggest hit of the decade (even taking into account it was somewhat pushed aside by Spotify payola) it did lead to change in the music industry where many people corroborated her claims of abuse.
Even though Justin Bieber already had plenty of EDM tracks by the time he collaborated with American DJ Bloodpop (whose career was another casualty in collaboration with the Canadian superstar) this was the first time he scored a hit in the genre as the lead artist given how every other collaboration he's made on this list has him as the featured artist by the person who produced the track.
There have been so many controversies involving Demi Lovato that I wouldn't even know where to begin listing them, thankfully this site isn't about that sort of thing so instead I'll focus on her one and only hit (as of this writing) that was based on the meme of the same name. One thing I am comfortable bringing up about her is that I've never been a fan of her vocals which is a sentiment most people have with this song.
This was the first official advanced single from Rita Ora's second album Pheonix, an album that was six years in the making as it was meant to come out back in 2014 and instead came out four years later due to mismanagement on her career from her label. I get the feeling this was a massive hit worldwide but got lost in the Spotify shuffle to not reflect that, it was sort of the case here but not enough for it to appear any lower on this list.
If you can believe it, this songs success here in Australia came from its strong digital sales rather than it being popular on streaming services, this means that the failure of this track everywhere outside of Australia and Sam Hunt's native America was due to it underperforming on streaming services rather than audiences not buying the song. This means that a song that I've heard nothing but bad things about online was well loved by several people down under and in America.
This is a song that needed some incentive from the general public to become a hit, in this case it was when audiences realised just how many times the word low was repeated throughout its runtime (a staggering 176 times.) This allowed the indie singer Jon Bellion to score a massive hit in Australia and his native America as well as the rest of the world to make it a moderate success.
This was the other big hit that Calvin Harris had from his album Funk wave bounces, while it wasn't as successful as his earlier entry with Katy Perry and Pharrell, it was a massive worldwide success for him regardless thanks to the performances from Migos and Frank Ocean.
These guys had been active in the music scene for nearly two decades when they finally scored a hit here in Australia with this song due to it performing very well on the 2016 Triple J year end list, they would repeat this achievement the year later with "Go bang" (which is still to come on this list) but it sadly wouldn't become a tradition as the band wouldn't have a third hit through these means.
I used to have an obituary for David Guetta given how for the longest time, this collaboration with Justin Bieber was the final hit of his career. However, it turns out he's just recently scored another hit, making him one of the lucky survivors of collaboration with the troubled Canadian pop star over the years.
This song is a large reason why I don't have much respect for Taylor Swift, I won't go into why as this site is meant to be fun, but let's just say my opinions of it are the same as everyone else's upon its initial release so look those up for more information on why this song is so despised to this day. Thankfully she's back peddled from this song since and gone back to singing about her love life and haters.
This was the only success that Katy Perry had from her album Witness, an album that's been universally despised due to it being Katy Perry, who had previously been known for being an edge lord in the music industry, suddenly deciding to be a Twitter activist by suggesting that mindless entertainment was problematic as it distracted people from social issues. Needless to say, it's regarded as everything wrong with modern activism that's often found in Disney products and on Buzzfeed.
This was the only hit that Drake was able to achieve with his "playlist" More life, it's due to him referring to his album as a playlist that people believe him to be on good terms with Spotify and other streaming services which has resulted in them accusing him of payola from these services.
One of the more positive role models to come from the indie sphere this decade was Alessia Cara, mainly because two of her three entries on this list were songs tackling serious subject matter in a way that was (at least for her part) respectful to the mases ("Stay" being the odd one out of her three hits this decade.) This song sees her tackling the issues of outer beauty and how plastic surgery isn't the way to go in conforming to beauty standards.
This was the second hit that Martin Garrix had here in Australia, although in this case it was likely due to the presence of Dua Lipa who was a rising start in her native UK as well as in Australia with her music. It was her second hit down under following the success of "Be the one" from earlier on this list, and it likely led to the success of her first American hit "New rules" months after its success.
While she was plenty successful throughout her career up until 2017, it wasn't until this track that Selena Gomez became a critical darling as it was considered one of the best songs of the year by many publications. I guess that's due to it finally ditching her need to either pander to the Disney crowd or be needlessly titillating like she was on her earlier hits in the decade.
This was the final hit that either artist involved had anywhere in the world, I'm guessing they would've had more success going forward if their subsequent material wasn't pushed aside from all of the Spotify charts, get used to me saying that by the way as many of these entries from the last stretch of the decade had this happen to them but were still able to be a success here in Australia regardless.
This was all set to becoming a flop for Amy Shark much like everything she had released up until this point (much of it under her old stage name Amy Cushway) its fortunes changed when it ranked high on the Triple J year end list for 2016 which helped it catapult up the charts during the early months of 2017 and thus put the Australian singer on the map.
This is to date the only hit to come from British DJ Jax Jones, a song that's perhaps more famous for the lyrics video where a cereal box mascot occasionally dabs during its runtime whilst otherwise marching on the spot. It was a massive worldwide hit likely for the lyric video as well as the lyrics themselves being about how the featured artist Raye didn't want anything to do with a stranger chatting her up.
This was the only hit that Lady Gaga managed to achieve between her second album Born this way and her big comeback from the A star is born soundtrack, it's a song that she had little faith in when she released Joanne as it wasn't included on that album largely to the albums detriment as it was a massive flop for her worldwide.
This was the only hit to come from American singer Maggie Lindemann, it's a song about how she's so much more than a pretty girl which she demonstrates by bringing up all of the borderline illegal stuff she does (which is worrying given that she was underage at the time) which connected with audiences upon its initial release. Hopefully this was an example of her being an edge lord and that she doesn't do anything she brings up in the song.
Technically this was the only hit to come from ASAP Rocky here in Australia as this is another example of an artist being the featuring artist for the producer of the track, in this case it's British producer Mura Masa who only managed to score success in the southern hemisphere with this track due to his fellow Brits not being familiar with who the American rapper is as opposed to us Aussies and kiwis who recognised him on Selena Gomez's "Good for you."
This was the debut single from Dean Lewis, it took its sweet time in finding success here in Australia as even though it was placed high on the 2016 yearend list for Triple J, it wasn't enough for it to crossover for the Australian singer initially and only did so when it started appearing in commercials the following year. Naturally this sleeper success led to him having a lot of hype for his debut album which came two years later.
This was the second advanced single that Rita Ora released from her second album, or at least it was the second song as such to be included on the album given how many songs she released over the decade that had long been abandoned by her and her management by the time it finally saw the light of day.
Well, this is a song that made it on here through the skin of its teeth, we have the one and only solo hit from Louis Tomlinson which also tried to distance the pop star from his band One Direction much like what his former bandmates were doing in 2017. This is also yet another song to have Bebe Rexha as a featured artist, possibly the most successful artist in this vein throughout the entire decade.
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