This was originally released as the theme to the second Despicable me film, a film that's a decent distraction for kids and their parents that like many Illumination films, receives far too much hate these days. I don't think anyone could've predicted this Oscar nominated track would turn out to be a huge runaway success given the lack of hits Pharrell had prior to its release worldwide.
Now I should point out that Taylor Swift is among my least favourite artists of all time, however I'm probably one of the few non Swifties to actually enjoy this anthem against the hater simply for how catchy it is (if only she took her own advice on this track.) I'm guessing this is why it was a huge hit for her given how it successfully transitioned her from a pop country chick to a pop diva still going strong to this day.
Although this song has the producer credited as the lead artist, it's really a Bruno Mars track given how it has all of the ingredients to his catalogue throughout the decade. It's a throwback to soul music from the twentieth century delivered by him in a way that makes him wish he was a part of the times.
This lead single to Katy Perry's third album (as Katy Perry at least) sparked controversy due to the similarities it has to "Brave" by Sara Barelles which was released several months prior to this becoming an inescapable hit for Katy. It was just the themes of self-empowerment, rather it was the melody being very similar in both songs.
This ballad from Ed Sheeran was the first hit of hits to bring him into the big leagues given how everything he released prior wasn't as big as his more recent material. It's also one of the last songs of his to be a soulful acoustic ballad as his subsequent releases would see him adapting to the trends of the moment rather than him staying true to his roots.
This is one of only two hits that John Legend had outside of his native America, the other was with Meghan Trainor where the two duetted on how they were going to love each other as if they would never see each other again (whatever that's supposed to mean.) Here we have John making a love ballad for his wife Chrissy Teigan which I'm sure connected with audience upon its initial release here in Australia as it took a while to take off everywhere else in the world.
OK this is an artist that I have trouble talking about without coming off as caustic, here we have the biggest hit from Meghan Trainor which is supposed to be a body positive song but instead comes off as highly abrasive towards people who don't fit in her standards of beauty. It was a hit due to songs about body positivity being rare upon its initial release, however it's widely been ridiculed for its toxic nature.
After much hype from her collaborations with the likes of David Guetta and Flo Rida, Sia finally managed to score a huge hit as a lead artist with this lead single to her album 1000 forms of fear. This is one of a surprising number of hits to be about the joys and dangers of being an alcoholic this decade as the lyrics is about how Sia is going to cut loose and have the time of her life regardless of the consequences.
This was one of the last hits that Pitbull had anywhere in the world, in fact I feel this was a success more due to Kesha's chorus as it had her working with a country beat as opposed to her usual club bangers from earlier in the decade. Pitbull would continue to have minor success after this became a hit, and while she had a lot of personal struggles after this, this wouldn't be the last we see of Kesha either.
This is the only hit that Australian DJ Timmy Trumpet had, yes, he calls himself that due to having a gimmick of him playing the trumpet whenever he does a live show. Here he recruits NZ rapper Savage who had his popularity restored at the time when a remix of his biggest hit "Swing" became a hit earlier in the year this was released.
This is another song from Taylor Swift I personally don't mind, I'm guessing because it's a rare example of her displaying self-awareness which I've come to appreciate compared to the rest of her catalogue. It appears the rest of the general public agrees with this sentiment as it remains one of her biggest hits to date despite it being the first single she released after (temporarily) pulling all of her catalogue from Spotify.
Following the success of his earlier entry on this list, Avicii was able to have a second hit with his album that's a fusion of country and EDM. This time he recruits country singer Dan Tyminski on vocals who manages to provide an equally compelling performance on this track as Aloe Blacc did on "Wake me up" which no doubt helped this become as successful as that track.
This is only one of two hits that the Australian indie band Sheppard had in their career (as of this writing of course) the other was "Coming home" from later in the decade which sadly won't be appearing on this list due to it only being a hit on the digital charts. Here we have a song that was featured in just about every commercial here in Australia upon its initial release which made it quickly outgrow it's welcome.
This is a bit of an odd entry, mainly because the debut single from Lorde technically was never released as a single in Australia and instead came on her E.P which charted on the albums chart in her homeland. No doubt it was the single which made the E.P a success for the NZ alternative singer largely thanks to it denouncing all of the cliches used in modern pop songs.
I did mention on the NZ side of this site that this was a big hit on the Australian streaming and digital charts despite being ineligible for our main charts, this is roughly where it would've appeared on the official list had it been eligible for the list. I guess I should bring up the song itself on this entry, it's another song that became popular this decade to be widely mocked for its strange concept and equally bizarre music video.
This was one of two hits that Justice crew had during their time together, the other we'll get to in a bit but suffice to say that this was a dance troupe turned boy band that was briefly a phenomenon in Australia before their hype faded into obscurity.
OK let's get one thing out of the way right now, I'll be referring to Sam Smith by their preferred pronouns of they/them as I want to reassure my readers they have a right to present themselves however they chose while they're on this site. That said, it also pains me to admit that I don't particularly care for them as a vocalist especially on tracks like their solo debut single which was an instant success for them.
This remains as the biggest hit to come from the Hilltop hoods, I guess it became so big due to it being released around the same time that Bill Cosby got convicted of his multiple sexual harassment allegations and that this was meant to be an ironic take on the actor's legacy rather than a sincere one.
I could talk about how this song's appeal is meant to be that it's actually a joke (albeit a pretty unfunny one in my opinion) about how this guy wants the approval of his girlfriend's dad to marry her until he realises said father doesn't like him, but that's been talked about to death already. Instead, I'll bring up that this was a huge hit in Australia and NZ during our summer season despite it being a mere modest success in their native Canada which resulted in their label marketing the song as a summer jam in America.
This was the only hit from the American girl group GRL, at least it was as a lead artist as they did score a minor hit with Pitbull on his hit single "Wild wild love" (which will appear much later on this list.) There's a reason as to why these girls are a one hit wonder worldwide and it's one I won't go into here as it involves one of the members being in a very dark place in their life which led to them no longer being with us.
This is the only other hit that Emeli Sande managed to achieve in her career here in Australia, this time it's as a featured singer for Rudimental's fifth single from their debut album which for what it's worth, proved to be their biggest hit from the album and would've been their biggest hit overall were it not for their earlier entry on this list that came out five years after this did.
This was the introduction to two acts who would go on to have massive success over in their native UK, those being Clean bandit who would see success worldwide later in the decade with the likes of "Rockabye" and "Solo" and the second being Jess Glynne who would only trouble the international charts once more with her appearance on "These days" with Rudimental and Macklemore.
This was released on time here in Australia for Jason Derulo given how popular he had become throughout the decade; indeed, you can argue that he successfully took the prince of RNB crown from Chris Brown down under given how Chris wouldn't have another hit down under until the very end of the decade with "No guidance." As such, this song where Jason compares his girlfriend's body parts to various celebrities was a hit here much sooner than it was on Billboard.
You should know that I'm only featuring the songs that were big from Meghan Trainor on this list for prosperity as I really don't like talking about her or her music, here she is with her second single which showcases her calling out her partner for cheating based on the most circumstantial of evidence, I guess Beyonce had a hit or two in her career where she did just that, so why not Meghan with this track?
This was originally released on an E.P from 2013 known as Did you hear the rain; it was a flop even in his native UK and only started gaining traction the following year when it was released as a single to promote George Ezra's debut album. It proved to be a much bigger hit in that regard and even allowed him to crossover to America eventually when the album proved to be a massive success.
This was released in 2013 while the Norwegian duo was still known as Envy, I'm not sure why they felt this song could've been a bigger hit if they renamed themselves as Nico and Vinz, however that's exactly what happened when they rereleased this under their new name as it became a massive worldwide hit for them. They would have a second hit a year later with "That's how you know" before fading into obscurity.
Were it not for the fact that this song was featured as bumper music for the Australian soap drama Winners and losers, I doubt anyone would know about Paloma Faith given how she's one of those indie singers on a major label that seemed tailor made to be alienating to both the indie sphere and the mainstream crowd. Perhaps it was because of this fact that the showrunners used this song as it encouraged us Aussies to check out her album.
This may seem a bit lower on this list than you would otherwise expect, that's because we Aussies didn't incorporate either streaming or YouTube views when it came out which meant that the views the video received had no impact on its popularity on our charts. Even so, it was still a massive hit for Iggy Azalea and Charli XCX given how campy the song is as well as the Clueless homage being fun to watch even to this day.
This was the lead single to Coldplay's album Ghost stories, an album that saw them further venture towards pop music which allowed it to spawn two hits with this and "A sky full of stars" (which will be featured later on this list) proving that the band still had a fanbase this far into their career.
This was originally a simple ballad from the American duo A great big world, it was released to deafening silence likely due to no one in the music industry knowing who they were outside of YouTube. Somehow, Christina Aguilera got wind of this ballad and decided to turn it into a duet with them which allowed this to take off worldwide, making it the final hit single from her to date.
Given how both the brothers from Good Charlotte were judges on the Voice Australia (which led to them having to hilariously share a chair with each other on the show) they decided to release an album of just the two of them exclusively in Australia and NZ which contained this lead single that was a chart topper for them in both countries. They would eventually leave the show to reform the band later in the decade.
Whereas the previous two entries from Avicii were both well received for his blending of EDM and country, this wasn't as highly regarded mainly for the vocals of Audra Mae who many people (me included) feel she gives a terrible performance on this track. Not everyone had this opinion obviously as it became the Swedish producer's third hit from his debut album which was also a huge success.
This was the one and only hit from American DJ ZHU, it was a massive hit here in Australia due to being discovered by Triple J despite it being yet another flop for an American EDM artist on the Billboard charts. Whereas most EDM tracks were more about noise, this one goes for ambience which really connected with people (me included) back in the day.
Although she had a hit the year prior this year in America with "The way," this was the song which introduced the rest of the world to Ariana Grande outside of her TV show Victorious on Nickelodeon likely due to it having Iggy Azalea as the featured rapper who was already taking the world by storm with her earlier entry on this list. This has a throwback sound to the 70's which is further accentuated in the video.
This was originally released in early 2013 where it was a minor success in Sara's native America due to it being a sincere self-empowerment anthem, although it received a massive boost in popularity worldwide when "Roar" from earlier on this list became a massive success by copying just about everything from it. It also helped that it appeared in every commercial you could think of once the comparisons were made.
This was a comeback single for the Veronicas after many issues with their label to get them to release their third album, it was a ballad which no doubt was meant to signify the struggles they had with their label that they framed as them coming out of a bad relationship with someone.
This was originally released from the Dutch rapper Mr Probz in 2013 to deafening silence, likely because hip hop generally doesn't do well when it comes from European artists (with rare exceptions of course.) It was given the remix treatment from Robin Schulz the following year where it became a massive worldwide success, although there weren't any other songs the German DJ felt worth of a remix.
Many people (me included) have described this as elevator music set to EDM, I guess the success of Kenny G throughout the 80's and 90's has taught us that there is indeed a market for this type of music even if this was a bigger hit than any of the singles the clarinetist had throughout his career.
This was the first of three hits that Peking Duk had here in Australia, although considering we've already looked at their other two hits on this list, I think it's safe to say that their popularity increased with each song they released in their career. I guess if this had of been released around the time Triple J puts out a year end list, it would've been one of the biggest hits of the decade given how popular it remains.
This was a posse cut from three women who would have varying degrees of success moving forward from this track, Ariana Grande would explode in popularity after this, however Jessie J and especially Nicki Minaj would struggle to find any success moving forward for whatever reason. I guess it was due to how miscast all three of them were as we're expected to believe Grande to be a sex goddess, Jessie to be sweet and innocent and Nicki to be a third wheel.
This was the only hit to come from Ella Henderson, a British pop singer who I heard described as the English equivalent of Lorde when it came to teenage pop stars who seemed wise beyond their years. Evidently, she came from X factor UK despite only coming in sixth place on the 2012 season, I guess that explains why she only had one album to her name for so long even though it had this as its lead single.
It hadn't even been ten years since the original track from Savage was released even in his native NZ, and yet we have this remix of an already provocative track from Australian DJ Joel Fletcher becoming a massive hit for him all over again albeit only in Australia and not his homeland.
Given the sudden success of Lorde during the midpoint of the decade, it only makes sense that we started seeing people inspired by what she had to say which leads us to this big hit from the indie band Echosmith. They had been active since the late 00's, however they finally managed to score a hit with this track about how they wished they were like the cool kids despite known that they were too quirky to be like them.
This is the first song to have Zedd in any capacity, here he produced the track which would go on to be a quartertone of his sound which is perhaps why Ariana Grande allowed him a featuring credit despite him not providing any vocals on this track. It was a huge hit for her likely due to it fitting in with the EDM scene, although it could also be due to the wacky video that seems to reference much sci fi flicks.
Much like their earlier entry on this list, this was a hit mainly for it being released around the time where Triple J announced their best songs of the year where this and their earlier hit "High" (which is still to come on this list) placed high on their annual list for 2004.
This was the second hit that Calvin Harris had with Ellie Goulding this decade, although it would also be the last time the two would team up as (at least as of this writing) they haven't reunited since this collaboration became a hit for them. This feels like the opposite of their other team up from earlier on this list as this depicts the end of a relationship whereas that depicted the start of a relationship.
This is a band that the internet loves to hate, so much so that there's rumours that the trio in question make music the way they do specifically to garner hate from internet critics which has led to some of the most abrasive reviews of their music over the years. This was their debut single which was built around a SpongeBob SquarePants meme that of course got the internet in a fury.
I guess this Swedish pop star listen to quite a lot of Prince as that's what I and many others hear when listening to his one and only hit worldwide, then again this is another artist who to date has only released one album so it's not like they have a catalogue of other songs that have been unfairly ignored over the years.
I'm including both versions of this song on my ranking as both versions were massive hits throughout the world even though only the remix from Hippie Sabotage was the hit here in Australia and NZ whilst the original version from Swedish pop star Tove lo was the big hit throughout Europe and in America. Regardless of which version we're looking at, we have a song about her drug addiction and how it affects her wellbeing.
This was the lead single to Ed Sheeran's second album, an album that saw a massive departure from his debut as it incorporated hip hop elements to it as opposed to the folk rock that Ed was accustomed to at this point. While I and many others have called sellout to this, the majority of the world considers this to be where he became a great musician as the feedback towards this album has been overwhelmingly positive.
Given how the first two singles from David Guetta's album Listen underperformed for the French DJ, it seemed like this would follow suit for him which wasn't the case as it proved to be the big hit from the album thanks to the vocals of Sam Martin who curiously also appeared on one of the earlier track from the album "Lovers of the sun."
I feel that I should put out there that this is my least favourite song I'll be featuring on this site, it's not because it's offensive or anything (offensively bad perhaps but not problematic) but because it embodies everything I personally hate about music. I guess these qualities were enjoyed ironically back in the day which would explain its success.
Given how they were overhyped in social media, you'd think that this debut single from 5 seconds of summer (often stylised as 5SOS) would have more success even here in their homeland. Alas it wasn't that big of a hit all things considered as though this did get to number one here, it wasn't as inescapable as a lot of the other music this decade that was targeted towards teenage girls.
Well, I guess Redfoo was planning on making a solo career exclusively here in Australia given how this was the second hit he had here and not in his native America, although it was a hit over in NZ which suggests that the kiwis were also catching on to his solo career in a way his fellow Americans weren't. He did eventually release material in his homeland which predictably led to him becoming a meme.
This was a hit twice for Vance Joy here in Australia, the first time was upon its initial release and the second was when it was crowned as the best song of 2013 according to listeners of Triple J. Since its release, it's been featured in just about every commercial you can imagine here in Australia due to it being the perfect background music that can be used to pitch something to the general public.
This was a remix from David Guetta of the Cher classic from 1966, well I say remix even though it's more he took the chorus of the original track and used it as a foundation for his collaboration with Skyler Grey which allowed him to score a massive hit upon its initial release.
Bet you didn't know any of the Peter Jackson films from Middle earth had a hit single to them, did you? Well, the second Hobbit movie does as he commissioned Ed Sheeran to write a song for the film which became a modest success here in Australia and a massive success in NZ and throughout Europe. It didn't do the soundtrack any favours as that was as unsuccessful commercially as the rest of the franchise.
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