I suppose I should include a ranking for songs from the second half of the 00's given how I've done one of these lists for every other time period I've covered on this site, as you'll quickly find out, these entries stuck around for quite some time to the point that many would outrank some of the biggest albums of all time in Australia through this metric. Also don't ask me to do a list like this for the 2010's and beyond, quite frankly I don't want to as many songs frequently re-enter the charts thanks to digital downloads and ESPECIALLY streaming. Heck I've had to impose a cutoff point of the final week of 2010 for each entry on this list for the sake of my sanity.
Also, the commentary from this list is a combination of those found on my biggest digital hits list as well as the main lists for entries that failed to appear on that list.
104 weeks
I'm willing to bet that Lady Gaga's dominance on the digital charts worldwide is what finally compelled her fellow Americans to check out her music, after all, it was considered the cool new way of consuming music and anything big on this format was bound to at least spark interest on the Billboard charts.
98 weeks
Even though this song's appearance on my 2008 and 2009 lists were primarily based on how well it did on the ARIA charts as opposed to every other entry where I based it on the AMR charts which never incorporated digital sales onto their charts, it appears ARIA was a bit liberal with how big this song was given how it somehow appears lower on this list than it did if I ranked it based on ARIA stats.
87 weeks
Given how Madonna was able to dominate our digital charts months prior to the release of this debut single from Lady Gaga (we'll revisit at that song in a bit) it only makes sense that digital media was hungry for more music akin to the queen of pop and that the masses felt Stefani was the way of the future in that regard.
81 weeks
Well, this was the official biggest hit of the decade here in Australia, so there's little surprise that the bulk of its success came from strong digital sales given how it was released when physical sales were rapidly on the decline worldwide.
78 weeks
You'd think that this being an unofficial theme to MasterChef Australia would've seen this be even more of a success on our digital charts down under, alas it was only equally as popular on that format as it was on our official charts.
73 weeks
From her initial international breakthrough, Taylor Swift seemed hip with the kids of the moment, as such there's little surprise this was equally as popular on our digital charts as it was through physical sales.
72 weeks
This was released rather late here in Australia even on our digital storefronts, I thought I'd bring that up since ARIA had a rule that prevented songs without a physical release from charting on their main charts during the first year and a half they implemented their digital charts which resulted in many songs charting late down under compared to the rest of the world this decade.
While her earlier entry on this list proved to be her most popular song on our digital charts, this lead single to P!nk's fifth album does remain a close second down under given how bombastic it was when it came out and how it remains to this day.
71 weeks
This feels like a much more appropriate placement for Silverchair on this list compared to my hypothetical physical list, indeed this is further proof that rock music was completely screwed over in the mainstream during the first half of the decade given how much of this song's success came from its digital sales when it first came out.
67 weeks
Again, we have an entry from early 2006 that I'm sure would've been much higher on this list had ARIA bothered to track digital sales from when it was first released, as is, it was still a massive success for TV rock suggesting the bulk of its popularity came from the digital storefront as well as physical sales.
I guess folk music also heavily benefitted from having its fanbase well connected with digital sales during the second half of the decade, as such we have this one and only hit from Jason Mraz appear much higher on this list than it would otherwise have done had I ranked it based on physical sales.
66 weeks
That's right, this title track from Eskimo Joe's third album would've been the biggest hit of the entire decade if we were going by digital sales alone given how inescapably popular it was on the format during its early stages. As you can guess, I've decided to construct this list to better reflect the rock and alternative scene of the second half of the decade for those rock purists out there.
64 weeks
This is another song that had more than one entry on our digital charts back in the day, meaning that once again we have a song that should be much higher on this list but wasn't due to ARIA's strange decision in not bundling all versions of a song into one entry on their digital charts back in the day.
Coldplay were another band to greatly benefit from our digital charts particularly with their fourth album named after this track, as such, this is the best proof I have that like Matchbox 20 and Silverchair, they were far more popular with their singles during the first half of the decade than the charts would otherwise suggest.
63 weeks
This was a song that was a massive sleeper hit for the band in question, as such it appears much lower on this list than its success would suggest given how most of its success came from the lower half of the charts. Still, it was bound to be a hit for the indie duo Empire of the sun given how they were a favourite on Triple J as well as the song being featured in many commercials here back in the day.
While none of her songs were as popular on our digital charts as they were on our physical charts, that didn't mean they were unpopular on that format as Beyonce was still one of the most popular artists in Australia regardless of which format we're referring to.
62 weeks
You better believe P!nk's popularity skyrocketed here in Australia thanks to her fanbase being in tune with digital downloads, as such, this second single from her fourth album is by far her most successful of the decade down under if we were measuring it based on digital sales alone.
61 weeks
I did mention that this one and only hit from Wolfmother greatly benefitted from digital downloads upon its initial release, as such we have it appear on this list which goes to show how much we Aussies loved indie music from local artist during the second half of the decade.
I always did wonder if anyone cared much for Jay-Z's verse on this track, it turns out many didn't as it was the version of this song without the verse that managed to be successful on our digital charts with the rap version only barely scraping the top twenty just as this version was dropping out of our charts.
It's a bit of a coincidence that this song has equal amounts of success as the previous entry regardless of which format we're looking at, although the difference being there wasn't a huge demand for this song when it finally received a physical release, meaning its popularity gradually grew as time went on as opposed to being immediate once it was released physically.
OK it turns out their earlier entry wasn't that much more popular through digital sales than this was, however, it was noticeable enough that the theory of this flopping in America because of that songs success over this remains plausible.
60 weeks
Although this song was equally as popular regardless of which format we're referring to, I should bring up that Kesha proved to be more popular here in Australia on our physical charts with her subsequent follow ups which would explain why they were more popular here at the time than they were internationally given how the rest of the world had abandoned tracking physical sales going into the 2010's.
59 weeks
You'd think that both artists on this track would've thrived in the 2010's here in Australia given how popular this was on the digital charts which had all but taken over the mainstream going into the new decade, alas this was the rapper's final hit here and Alicia would only score one more hit in 2012 before she too faded into obscurity.
58 weeks
I mentioned that this song did alright thanks to its physical sales here in Australia, however I think we can all agree its placement on this list is a much better representation of how popular it was for RHCP back in the day given that it came from a highly successful album and was flogged on the radios.
Unfortunately, there won't be any further appearances from Sneaky sound system after this entry, although at least I can truthfully say this was a hit almost entirely through digital sales which is why it has a much more respectable placement on this list compared to it being a mere bonus entry on my 2007 list for the band.
56 weeks
It's hard to believe nowadays that JT was the epitome of cool back in the day, however this dominating our digital charts is the best proof I have for this in retrospect given how we have no entries from the likes of teen pop or other popular genres from the first half of the decade that even by the second half of the decade was deemed as lame by the masses.
This is a song that really suffered in this ranking due to it being more popular with physical sales, I know that because there's no version of this song that's devoid of Kesha (although I'm sure she wishes otherwise) meaning that this song wasn't anywhere near as popular on the digital storefront as it was with its physical sales.
55 weeks
This is another song that had more than one version become popular back in the day, as such it has a much lower placement on this list than you would otherwise expect given how the album version of this track proved to be more popular back in the day than the single version.
We Aussies really wanted to hear Christina Aguilera take on the music from the first half of the twentieth century, at least we did when it came to radio airplay and digital sales given how both eclipsed how well this did with its physical sales back in the day.
54 weeks
Who knows how big "Take your mama" would've been here in Australia given how well that song did over in NZ where digital downloads was already incorporated on their charts, although this was equally as successful on both formats down under, so perhaps that song wasn't so big back in the day after all.
This was also released just before ARIA began tracking digital sales, meaning that this could've easily outranked itself on my hypothetical physical list were I more confident in how popular it was during the first few weeks of its existence on that format here in Australia.
BEP were completely unstoppable by the end of the decade regardless of which format they charted on, as such there's little surprise that the lead single to their third album with Fergie would be a massive success for them on the digital charts like it was on our main and physical charts.
Even though this isn't the most recent entry on this list (that honour goes to "Replay" from earlier on this list) this is the song whose success is the most recent as it only became a hit here thanks to it rising up the charts due to it being considered the best song of 2009 according to listeners of Triple J. For what it's worth, this performed far better on our digital charts than it did on our physical charts.
53 weeks
While this was mostly a sleeper hit even on our digital charts, the fact that it has a much more respectable placement on this list compared to my hypothetical physical list should tell you how much we Aussies loved Evermore on our digital storefront as opposed to their physical media.
Regardless of which format she was charting on, Lady Gaga was an unstoppable force going into the 2010's which should tell you how wide her mass appeal was during her first two albums worldwide.
I should forewarn my readers that many songs that have multiple versions of them will be placed much lower than you would otherwise expect on this list due to each version of these songs charting separately on our digital charts. This obviously wasn't the case for this track as no one cared about "Sexy chick" back in the day, however I feel this is a good place to mention this on here.
52 weeks
This didn't seem to last as long on our digital charts as it did on our physical charts, although at least it was a success on our digital storefront likely due to how big "Love generation" was. That song won't be reappearing on this list mainly because it came out months prior to when ARIA began tracking digital sales.
Wasn't much of a hit on our digital charts at all, likely due to its popularity coming strictly through its video.
You'd think this would've been a shoe in for the main list, however even as a digital single, this took forever in a day to climb up our charts even after it placed high on the 2007-year end list for Triple J. At least it being a rock track meant that it was able to have more presence on the digital charts than it did on our physical charts which is a luxury it wouldn't have had even a year later.
I know this shouldn't' qualify for this list given how it was more of a 2010's hit here in Australia, however I decided to include songs that got big in early 2010 for this list given how they can fill in for the first three months of 2006 where the digital charts still didn't exist on ARIA's database.
51 weeks
It's strange this was only a sleeper hit at best in Evermore's native NZ given how it was easily one of the biggest hits of the decade here in Australia even without the inclusion of digital sales, of course, having those sales did boost it up to be in the same leagues as the likes of the biggest names in music worldwide that it outranks on this particular list of mine.
This is our final new entry on this list as well as the final new entry for my blog until I come up with new ideas for it in the future, it's the debut single from the Fray which was too much of a sleeper hit to qualify for my 2006 list and indeed only made the cut for this list due to lingering in the top twenty for the digital charts for quite some time due to the success of their top entry on this list.
Given how this song only took off in Australia due to its affiliation with the Devil wears Prada, it only makes sense that the bulk of its success came from streaming which is why this managed to have a much higher placement on this list than on my hypothetical physical charts list.
While this was a massive hit through physical sales (as evidence by its high placement on both of my 2007 lists) the bulk of this fourth single from Fergie's success comes from those who overlooked her album on the digital storefront in favour of this ballad where she gets to showcase her vocal talents without any gimmicks or notoriety.
This was the Veronicas biggest hit on the digital charts as it was in every other format here in Australia, although I would've thought this would do better on that format given how they fitted in with the emo rock scene of the moment even if I wouldn't exactly say their music was emo the same way that Good Charlotte and Panic at the disco was.
Given how Ed Sheeran flourished on the digital charts worldwide throughout the 2010's, it's little surprise that his predecessor Newton Faulkner would also see a chunk of his success on that format here in Australia which makes the lack of success he had throughout the 2010's that much more puzzling in retrospect.
This was a hit twice on our digital charts as it became a success upon its initial release as the theme to the first Transformers film and a second time when Linkin Park released their third album where it also serves as its lead single. Sadly, they didn't find much success with any of the other singles from the album regardless of which format we're referring to.
This was a song tailor made to be used as a ringtone, after all you don't make a chorus that goes "stop calling I don't wanna talk anymore" and not have that be the purpose of your song. I guess in order to make it come off as a real song, Lady Gaga recruited Beyonce to play off her in the song and especially the video which would be a shoe in for my weird videos list if I could find enough of them to make one for this decade.
50 weeks
Remember how I said songs with multiple versions of them are likely to appear much lower on this list than you would otherwise expect? It turns out there's more than one version of this track from Sandi Thom to become popular back in the day as there was a second version that only barely missed the cut on this list which naturally was combined with the main version on our main charts.
Taylor Swift was always going to dominate our charts with this second single from her breakthrough album regardless of which format it was charting in, this is further proof that she was the star of tomorrow once the decade came to an end which of course she effortlessly lived up to throughout the 2010's.
49 weeks
If there's a version of this song without T-Pain's guest verse, then it clearly had little impact on the main song as this is the only version to become a hit on our digital charts back in the day. It was far more popular on our storefront than it was as a physical release as was the case for just about all of Chris Brown's songs throughout his career down under.
This was one of the rare songs from 2009 that was more popular as a physical release than a digital release, likely because people have described it as a victory single that was donated to Miley Cyrus as the emotional climax of the Hannah Montana film that was playing in theatres at the time of its release.
48 weeks
I'm not sure why Shakira's popularity died out after the success of her second English language album worldwide considering how well it did on the digital market in addition to its physical sales, perhaps her time in the spotlight was meant to end with her first album but got extended due to how irresistible this bonus track from the second album was.
While this may be Nelly Furtado's highest entry on this list, this is mainly because "Promiscuous" (which we'll revisit in a bit) had more than one version chart on the digital charts, meaning this second single from Loose was the biggest hit from the album through digital sales. Once again, this is a song that did far better through this method rather than physical sales on this list.
I think it's safe to say that the digital format had a wide variety of music fans during the second half of the decade given how Leona Lewis was able to achieve equal amounts of success on that format that she achieved with her physical sales here in Australia.
Mika was unavoidable during the album run of his debut album back in the day, it's little wonder that the bulk of its success came from strong digital sales here in Australia given how we Aussies were amused with the precocious nature of the (then) closeted LGBT star at the time.
This is another band I'm confident would've had more success with their first album back in the day had ARIA tracked digital sales when it came out, at least the lead single to their second album greatly benefitted from the format given how much bigger it was compared to its physical sales back in the day.
This made history here in Australia by becoming the first song to make it to number one on ARIA purely through digital sales, as such, it's only fitting that it would retain a high placement on this list even if it saw equal amount of success with its physical sales back in the day here as well.
47 weeks
Even though they were no longer in teen pop, Westlife did begin their career as a boy band which likely rubbed our digital storefront the wrong way.
This is the only entry from Akon where he's the lead artist, I guess he wasn't considered very popular on our digital storefront back in the day as the success he had in Australia mostly came from physical sales. None of his other songs as a lead artist even cracked the top twenty on those charts to give you an idea of how unpopular he was on the format.
This saw a massive improvement on this ranking compared to where it otherwise would've been placed on my hypothetical physical charts list, I guess fans of Brendan Urie and company were really hip with the new way of consuming music when this song first came out much like fans of the band's contemporaries at the time.
While it may seem that this was only as popular on our digital charts as it was as a physical release, I should point out that this had much stiffer competition on the digital charts given how there were far more entries it had to compete with than as a physical release.
It seemed like Keri Hilson would be the future of pop diva's if we were to look at how big her collaboration with Timbaland was on the digital storefront upon its initial release, alas this massive improvement this song has on this ranking compared to its physical sales is the best she was able to achieve on the format down under.
I honestly would've been dumbstruck if Kanye West wasn't more popular on our digital charts back in the day than he was on our physical charts, in fact it's worth noting that "Gold digger" charted on the digital charts during its initial launch which was months after it fell off the main charts due to it being pulled from shelves back in the day.
I would say that people considered Kid Rock to be cool during the early years of the digital charts here in Australia, except I feel the success of this song on the digital charts was more due to the nostalgia baiting it relied on throughout the track. Besides, this guy has been widely mocked on the internet since his initial breakthrough in her native America in the late 90's.
Pretty much all of Lady Gaga's repeat entries on this list saw equal amounts of success on our digital charts as they did as a physical release, like I said, her popularity was unavoidable back in the day regardless of which format we're referring to.
46 weeks
I'm not sure if there's a version of this song without Will.I.Am's involvement, however even if there was, it it's obvious that this song was far less popular as a digital single here in Australia than it was as a physical release back in the day.
We have another rock track made popular with the emo crowd to find more success through digital sales back in the day rather than physical sales, this time it's the second single from Fall out boy's breakthrough album which suggests its rise in popularity in the format was due to album sales not being a hinderance to its success like it was with its physical format.
Much like his top entry on this list, this was more of a hit on our digital charts for JT suggesting that we Aussies simply weren't interested in making T.I a hit through our digital storefront given how his only solo entry won't be making an appearance on this list.
It's a shame that Gabriella Cilmi remains a one hit wonder worldwide with the lead single to her debut album given how the bulk of its success came from digital sales in addition to strong physical sales back in the day, I guess that controversy at the 2008 ARIA awards where she appeared to engage in underage drinking was a death note to an otherwise promises career.
All three of Chris Brown's tracks from his second album managed to see more success on our digital charts than they did on our physical charts, this is to be expected of course given how well he and all of his knockoffs did throughout the 2010's on that format.
This barely made the cut for this list, once again due to how much of a sleeper hit it was on our digital charts like it was on our main charts for Ladyhawke. At least its success on our storefront was more mainstream than it was in the real world given that it beat out several other songs that would've comfortably made my hypothetical physical list.
As the club boom was beginning to rise in popularity during the final stretch of the decade, it seems natural that it would flourish on the digital charts given how it was seen as the hip and new genre to get into. As such, this collaboration between David Guetta and Kelly Rowland was bound to be more popular on that format than as a physical release.
45 weeks
I told you we'd be getting to this song eventually, again it had more than one version become popular on our digital charts back in the day as there is indeed a version of this track without Timbaland's guest verse on it that did moderately well in addition to the version with his verse which is the version that earned this a spot on my list.
It's interesting to see how most of P!nk's songs performed better on our digital charts than in any other format since their inception in 2006, one of the more popular songs in this format was this third single from her fourth album which likely explains why it and her top entry from this list managed to become moderate hits on Billboard several months after they were both a massive success down under.
This proved to be far more successful on our digital charts than our physical charts back in the day, this is the best proof I have that Matchbox 20 were way more popular with their singles throughout the decade than the weak physical sales would otherwise suggest given how they all came from highly successful albums.
Just the fact that this began charting around the time it was supposed to receive a physical release should indicate how much more successful this ballad was on our digital charts compared to our physical charts, although it's worth noting that it did have a strong debut at number one due to how heavily delayed it was over here.
Likely due to the appeal of this track coming from its music video on YouTube.
44 weeks
This was equally as popular on our digital charts as it was on our main charts, I get the feeling that Fall out boy would've dominated both of these formats with their earlier entry on this list had that been the lead single to their breakthrough album and not this track.
This is the only other song from Fergie's solo album that did quite a bit better on our digital charts than it did on our physical charts, although there's still two more entries from the album to come on this list even if they appear much lower on here than they would if I were ranking this based on physical sales.
Out of the three entries on this list, this is the one whose success on the digital charts here is the closest to what it achieved on our physical charts, you'd think it would be bigger on our digital charts though considering it was the second single from his magnum opus Exclusive.
I'm sorry to say that Lily Allen didn't have much success with her first album here in Australia regardless of what format we're referring to, that's a shame considering how much more popular her second album was given that this remains equally as popular as both a physical release and a digital single.
43 weeks
I'm a bit surprised this wasn't even higher on this list given how the likes of Fall out boy and especially Panic! at the disco saw a massive improvement on this list with their entries, still the fact this was more of a genuine hit on our digital charts for My chemical romance does prove where the bulk of their fanbase came from in our music scene.
If this feels a little low on this list, I should remind my readers then that there is indeed two versions of this song even if it was the version with Snoop Dogg on it that became a success on our digital charts back in the day. Still, this did quite well given how any version of a track was fair game for becoming a success during the chart's infancy.
I guess this is proof that Avril Lavigne wouldn't have been that much more popular here in Australia if digital sales counted during the album cycle of her first two albums, sure the likes of "I'm with you" and "Don't tell me" would've been genuine hits here, however it appears she wasn't as hip with the digital crowd here as she was with those who bought physical copies of her music.
This is further proof that throwback music is another genre that thrived on our digital charts during its infancy, as such, this throwback to the music of the 40's from Christina Aguilera was quite popular on that format in addition to it being a massive success with physical sales.
I guess we found the real reason why this was the big hit in Kings of Leon's native America and not their actual big hit from Only by the night (which we'll revisit in a bit) given how it was the big hit off the album if we were only going by digital sales.
Chris Brown is someone who greatly benefitted on our digital charts back in the day, although Jordin Sparks was also quite popular on that format meaning that both were equally as instrumental to this duet being a huge success on our digital charts back in the day in addition to its success as a physical single.
We have another hip hop track that saw sound success on our digital charts back in the day, this time it's the breakthrough hit from the Hilltop hoods who were able to match the success they had on our physical charts on the format, or at least achieve moderate success as we're quickly running out of genuine hits during the 00's in this regard on this list.
42 weeks
While this was a decent success as a physical release here in Australia, this might be because it was a huge success on our digital charts which is the best proof I have for the Foo fighters being another candidate as a band who would've greatly benefitted with their singles had digital downloads been tracked during the first half of the decade here in Australia.
This is a song from Miley Cyrus that proved to be equally as popular on our digital charts as it was on our physical charts, as such it managed to retain a high position on this list as it did on my hypothetical list ranking these songs based on their physical sales.
41 weeks
Well at least I've been able to feature one track from the Killers on this site, you better believe that these guys would've had at least one appearance from their debut album had digital sales existed when it dropped two years prior. Here we have the second single from their sophomore album which managed to benefit from the digital charts existing when it was released as a single.
Given how Timbaland's entry from earlier on this list did so much better on our digital charts than our physical charts, I'm somewhat surprised this wasn't the case for the debut single for the band he "presented" on his solo album as that had the additional benefit of being from an indie band.
You'd think this song would've have most of its success on our digital charts considering that even back in the day, people felt it was little more than a meme. It turns out it was equally as popular on both formats for the rapper here in Australia albeit months after it was a worldwide phenomenon for him.
Miley Cyrus is another artist who did much better on our digital charts throughout the decade, however her older brother really benefitted from this format given how the one and only hit he had with his band managed to actually go to number one on those charts as opposed to it missing out on our main charts.
It's a bit surprising that Rihanna's previous entry wasn't more of a success on our digital charts considering that the second bonus track from Good girl bad was, it still didn't reach the dizzying heights it achieved over in NZ or her native America, however its success was certainly far more admirable there than on our main charts.
What I said about Jay Sean's entry earlier on this list applies to this debut single from Jason Derulo, so much so that you can pretty much copy and paste what I said here and apply it to his subsequent releases.
40 weeks
I guess fans of Beyonce were more willing to buy physical copies of her music rather than download them given how each of her entries were more popular on our physical charts (barring one of course) than they were on our digital charts with this signature track from her being no exception.
I don't think there's a version of this track without T.I on it, even if there was, that certainly didn't have any appeal on our digital charts back in the day which means this second single from Futuresex/Lovesounds was far less successful on there than it was as a physical release.
It seems odd that this would be less successful on our digital charts than as a physical release given how this was released slightly sooner than when Leona Lewis saw massive success in this format with her earlier entry on this list, I guess this goes to show just how unpopular Alicia Keys was here in Australia during the peak of her popularity.
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