I did reference the digital charts quite a bit on my 2010's retrospectives, didn't I? Well, I've decided to explore what was popular on those charts and present them on this list albeit without any changed commentary except for new entries on this list (because I really can't be bothered doing so.)
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.
Although this was plenty successful as a single, the bulk of this song's success comes from the music video which is a montage of Benny Blanco's life up until this point which tugged at the heartstrings of viewers around the world. The song recruits both Khalid and Halsey to narrate his life experience which also contributed to the song's overall popularity.
This was the second single to come from the soundtrack to A star is born, it was more of a hit on digital services as was her top entry on this list, proving that Lady Gaga's comeback would've been even more substantial were it not for the soundtrack having to compete on streaming services with some of the big names on this list from the second half of the decade.
This took a while to take off given how the indie sphere had taken a back seat to the club boom during the early phases of the 2010's, however it was given a massive boost in popularity several months after its initial release due to it being performed at the 2012 Superbowl as well as it being covered on Glee of all things. The band is best known for their earlier entry on this list; however, this too was a massive hit for them.
Well, this is a song that's bound to resonate with anyone who entered the real world throughout the 2010's, here we have the duo Twenty Øne Piløts scoring the first of three massive worldwide hits with a song about them regretting the fact they grew up too fast and how they want a do over with their childhoods due to how stressful it is in the real world. It took a while to take off, however once it did, it was critically acclaimed.
There were no signs of David Guetta slowing down entering the decade as he managed to score a third hit in a row from his breakthrough album, this time he recruits Kid Cudi who was fresh off the success he had with his own breakthrough "Day n night" from 2009 which is perhaps how he managed to maintain his winning streak across the world.
This was written by Sia, I thought I'd bring that up because Rihanna said yes to this track where it became a huge worldwide chart topper for her but no to "Cheap thrills" (which is still to come) which wound up being a huge worldwide chart topper for Sia later in the decade. I guess I am curious to see a version of this song from Sia herself given how similar Rihanna sounds to her.
Now this is one of the more interesting songs to become a hit this decade, namely because it's about the victims of Pompeii and how the band Bastille attempt to internalise their thoughts in this song about them forever being crystalised from the disaster. This was such a compelling idea for a song that it even managed to crossover to America albeit a year after its initial release in their native UK.
This was one of two big hits that Ariana Grande had this decade where she clearly wanted to move on from her previous turmoil's, we already looked at the other song earlier on this list, so let's instead focus on why this connected with audiences when it did. She was nearly cancelled earlier in the decade for her bad behaviour, but was spared from this fate when she became the victim of a terrorist attack at one of her concerts which this song indirectly addresses.
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.
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.
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.
While I stand by that the Dave Stewart and Barbra Gaskin cover of Lesley Gore's "It's my party" completely misses the point of the original, this cover of Lesley's other iconic hit from Grace Sewell manages to recapture the feminist spirit of the original which I and many others feel does the original justice for a modern audience. Apparently, there's a version of this track with G-Eazy on it, although I'm unfamiliar with this version.
This is to date Dean Lewis's final hit anywhere in the world, likely due to the Aussie folk singer failing to compete with all of the streaming juggernauts in the new decade with his later material. Indeed, this was a hit twice here in Australia as it was released as the second advanced single from his debut album and rebounded once the album was released soon after.
Miley was on a roll during the second half of the decade here in Australia, or at least she was if you considered how well she did on our digital charts given how this psychedelia revival track managed to be a massive success on that format as was her other two entries from the second half of the decade we've looked at. Indeed, she seems to have taken the positive traits of her weird experimentation from earlier in the decade and used it for this phase of her career.
This was the one and only hit from former reality show contestant Alexis Jordan, it was a surprise hit here in Australia and throughout Europe despite it being a massive flop in her native America. I'm guessing it was because her fellow Americans had forgotten about her appearance on America's got talent in 2006 and was somehow able to connect with the rest of the world with this love song.
Illy was one of the more popular rappers from Australia throughout this decade, this was his biggest hit which featured the vocals of fellow Aussie Vera Blue who was quite popular in our indie sphere even though this was the closest thing to a hit she was able to achieve in our mainstream.
This is yet another song that made it big this decade that was widely mocked by the general public, in this case it was due to Charlie Puth comparing himself to superman in a song that was about how he would always be there for the person he's singing to. I guess enough people found this romantic to make it a genuine hit, however it's largely known these days as a "nice guy" anthem.
I was surprised that this was only a hit through digital downloads considering how much attention this cover received back in the day, granted it was negative attention as this came out around the time Dolores O'Reidon from the Cranberries tragically passed way, leading to fans of the originally creating theories about this cover that I won't repeat on this site.
This is the only hit to date to come from Scottish singer/songwriter Tom Walker, it's a song about how he'll always be there for a friend of his who is suffering from a drug problem whenever that person needs kinship in their lives. It touched the hearts of many listeners in the real world which allowed it to become a massive success here in Australia albeit only on our digital charts.
From what I can gather, Dan and Shay were a country duo who were big on the country scene in their native America who were looking for a pop crossover which they got by collaborating with Justin Bieber just as the decade was coming to an end. This is the latest obituary I've written for this list as the pair have yet to have another hit following this collaboration with the Canadian superstar.
This second single from Overexposed more or less confirmed the direction that Maroon 5 were heading in which many of their detractors will tell you is little more than a solo project for Adam Levine without him having the courtesy of making it as such. This song is also infamous for keeping "Gangnam style" from earlier on this list from the number one spot in America, which prompted Billboard to change how they calculated their charts.
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 cover of the Bon Iver track from 2008 was originally released in 2011 to deafening silence for English singer Birdy, I'm guessing because the original was well known in the indie sphere despite that also being a flop for the American folk band. It was given a new life in 2012 in Australia when it was covered by a contestant in X factor Australia that year as were many indie tracks throughout the decade.
This is the other new entry that the Imagine Dragons had on this list compared to my official list, it was the lead single to their fourth album which was only a modest success for the band given how they were unable to compete on streaming services with the big names during the last stretch of the decade.
I guess we Aussies were bigger Nickelodeon fans that I otherwise would've thought as this duo comprised of two of its former child stars who released an album before calling it quits due to it flopping in their native America. We were definitely able to connect with this track that seems to be an anthem for those that the system has screwed over, however that wasn't the case on the Billboard charts.
Here we are with a song that trapped Mike Posner in the one hit wonder bin for six years before his earlier entry on this list got him out of it, it's a song about him calling out this person he's trying to hit on after they shot him down. It's another song on this list that's been widely mocked for its lyrics, in fact I get the feeling a lot of these songs were popular because of the internet's negative reaction to them.
This is the biggest hit to come from Little mix, in fact it's second only to the Spice girls "Wannabe" as the biggest hit of all time from a British girl group which should give you an idea of how inescapable this song was in their native UK. As you'd expect, this is a song dedicated to all of the boys that the members of the group had dated, one of them being Zayn which makes this another song about a 1D member being a bad boyfriend.
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.
This was the introduction to two artists that deserved so much better in the mainstream, the first was Zara Larsson who scored a second hit after this with "Lush life" as well as a hit with Clean bandit before fading into obscurity. The second was MNEK who remained a one hit wonder with this collaboration even in his native UK until he was featured on the Joel Corry track "Head and heart" five years after its release.
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.
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.
If you're confused as to why this Irish trio decided to collaborate with Will I am of all people, that's because him and lead singer Danny O'Donoghue were judges on the Voice UK and that they were trying to build up buzz for the show the same way that Maroon 5 and Christina Aguilera did the year prior. It paid off as the show and the song were both massive hits for everyone involved.
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?
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 the song that helped Sheppard escape the one hit wonder bin here in Australia that their earlier entry threatened to trap them in four years prior, although once again, this was only due to strong digital sales which nonetheless accurately reflect on how popular this song was upon its initial release given how it too has been used in every commercial you can think of.
This was obviously meant to be a self-empowerment anthem from Meghan Trainor given how she no doubt felt that everyone wanted to be just like her (not gonna comment about that) instead the song was widely mocked online for how narcissistic everyone (me included) finds not just the song but Meghan herself which resulted in her popularity falling off a cliff after this became a success.
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.
Bet you didn't know that the daughter of Rob Schneider had a music career, did you? Well, she does even though it took forever in a day for her debut single to make it big likely due to her father's connections preventing audiences from taking it seriously. Admittedly it is a raunchy number where she brags about being such a player with men throughout the track, however people eventually realised there was nothing wrong with that.
Following the success of their breakthrough album Blurryface, Twenty Øne Piløts were commissioned by the makers of Suicide squad to make a theme song for their critically divided film about the comic book antihero squad. The song was a massive success as was the film despite critics finding it to be a meandering mess, although this would be the last hit that the duo would have in the mainstream.
This would've been Guy Sebastian's last hit here in Australia had he not scored a massive comeback later in the decade with "Choir," even then that song wouldn't come out for six years after this made it big which suggested that his popularity had finally runout once this dropped off the charts.
Although it was mostly seen as a disaster, JT's fourth album solo album Man of the woods did spawn at least one genuine hit in the form of this second single which is a duet between country star Chris Stapleton albeit on our digital charts here in Australia. It remains the final hit of the former teen heartthrob's career given how he was all but cancelled in 2018 due to a terrible Superbowl performance.
Well, here's the nice guy anthem to end all nice guy anthems, never mind how widely ridiculed this song is for the performance that Shawn gives on the track, the fact that it's written the way it is (by a then closeted trans woman mind you) was enough to make people think twice about the intention's others have when telling them that they're in a bad relationship. It was a hit, but one that did far more harm than good.
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 was one of many EDM tracks to make it big during the final stretch of the decade, it comes to us from the Italian group Meduza who has this amazing gimmick of their music coming out of a statue that resembles the Greek god they're named after and even having the hair animated in the official audio on YouTube. Who knows what the future holds for the group given how unique their image is.
This was the final hit to come from 1989, it's among her better received songs even though the video did receive criticism for glorifying colonialism as it was filmed in Africa and set during the 50's and featured few if any African people in the video. I'm not going to talk about if this is cultural appropriation or not as this isn't the place for it, however it's clear that the video had little impact on the song's success.
I always found Fifth harmony to be the 2010's equivalent of the Pussycat dolls, a group of attractive young women (although in this case we're talking about teenage girls) being as sexually provocative as possible in order to titillate their audience who find them attractive. Here they go the extra mile by having them imagine themselves in a relationship with them and convincing them to quit their job to make out with them.
This is a song that really tells you everything you need to know from the cover alone, normally I'd advise against judging a book (or music in this case) by its cover, however you'll likely get exactly what you expected with this entry if you've somehow never heard this second single from Kesha. Even back then, it was panned by critics and audiences for being annoying and obnoxious, although it was enjoyed ironically as well.
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.
It turns out this was the theme to a straight to video film known as Mac and Devlin go to high school, a film that happens to star both Snoop Dogg and Wiz Khalifa as high school students, the former being held back for many years to get around how old he was to be in high school while the latter being a valedictorian of the school. Naturally the song is the only thing people feel is worth remembering about the film.
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.
No this isn't named after the Bobby McFerrin track of the same name; this is instead an original track from Guy Sebastian he released as the first advanced single to his biggest album Armageddon.
This was another song that was a hit twice due to it being a hit upon its initial release as well as when the album it came from was released, in this case it was the lead single to the Aussie hip hop trio's (to date) latest album which was such a success that it even spawned a second minor hit with "Exit sign" (which won't be appearing on this list.) This is essentially a stoner's anthem given how much they brag about weed on here.
On the surface, this seems like a tribute to the 80's action series of the same name, it would make sense given hot the theatrical adaptation was a commercial success around this time and Mr. T's popularity had resurfaced as well. It turns out that this is actually about a woman being on type A drugs (which is the heavy stuff for the uninitiated) and how this makes Ed concerned for her wellbeing.
This was originally released in 2009 to deafening silence for Taio Cruz here in Australia, this is despite it being a massive hit in his native UK likely due to the Brits wanting him to take the crown of RNB prince from Chris Brown with this track. It was given a second chance worldwide by having a guest verse from Ludacris which allowed this to crossover to Australia at the start of the decade.
This was a song that took forever in a day to reach the upper echelons of the charts here in Australia, I'm guessing because we Aussies had to learn to love this EDM track from the Swedish duo Icona pop who admittedly, are an acquired taste given how abrasive their music can be. This was also the world's introduction to Charli XCX who would go on to have critical acclaim in the indie pop sphere after this.
This was one of only two hits that Christina Perri had in her career, the other being one of the themes to the first Breaking dawn film from the Twilight saga that will come much later on this list. Here we have her score a massive hit with this song about her heartbreak which connected with audiences likely due to it being released around the same time Adele had topped the worldwide charts with "Someone like you."
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.
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.
You know that both artists on this track were inescapable when this collaboration manages to become a hit despite only being a bonus track from a deluxe reissue of one of their albums and said album not doing anything to boost the main albums popularity at the time.
People have claimed this was Macklemore pandering to the LGBT community, those are usually the same people who complain there isn't enough LGBT representation in the media which makes them impossible to please and should be avoided at all costs. Here the rapper makes an earnest ballad about how he supports gay rights due to the stories his gay uncle told him about his issues with homophobia.
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.
There were no signs of Jason Derulo's popularity slowing down in Australia, even though his fellow American's had moved on from him in favour of Chris Brown, he kept scoring hits like this ballad to who I'm sure was his partner at the time down under likely because we Aussies didn't want Chris Brown back in our mainstream.
It had been a while since Mike Posner had a hit anywhere in the world given how "Cooler than me" threatened to trap him in the one hit wonder bin from the start of the decade (that's still to come on this list) indeed the original version of this track was another flop for the American singer/songwriter and required a remix from someone named Seeb in order for it to finally take over around the world.
I guess Bruno Mars didn't want to completely alienate his fans he won on his first album, so he released this song that could've been from Doo wops and hooligans as the second single to his second album to ensure those fans that he hadn't forgotten about them which prompted them and his new fans to make this an instant hit for him.
To date, this is the final hit that Jonas Blue has been able to achieve anywhere in the world, likely because he chose to collaborate with a duo known as Jack and Jack who don't exactly live up to the hype set up by his other collaborators this decade with their vocals. We've got two more hits to look at from the British DJ which were much better than the two songs we've looked at so far.
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.
This was another easy hit for the Hilltop hoods this decade, mainly because it comes from a classical reissue of their two most recent albums (at the time of release of course) which went on to be a massive success for the trio. Here they recruit singers Montaigne and Tom Thum to provide them a chorus to connect their verses together.
This was the only hit to come from the Lumineers in most parts of the world, mainly because it was released during the height of indie scene which spawned the likes of Fun and Imagine dragons right after the end of the club boom. This took a while to crossover internationally from their native America, I'm guessing because it admittedly sounds like something that was tailor made for commercials.
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 came from the soundtrack to the second season of the Secret daughter, while its success came strictly from the digital charts given how Jessica Mauboy had no way of competing with Spotify heavyweights on this list, it was enough of a success to revive her music career which had gone downhill throughout the decade on its own accord.
I don't even want to talk about this track, I'm from the queer community after all, so you can imagine my frustration I have that Taylor would compare her problems to what I and the people in my community go through on a day-to-day basis. I guess she got the approval of several high-profile queer activists, meaning that people felt this was her way of showing support to our community.
There we no signs of Calvin Harris slowing down as he released this song once the album cycle to Motion was complete, it was a carry over to his next album which would see him using tropical house production hence why this is more in line with what was popular in EDM during the midpoint of the decade.
This is one of the first songs to greatly benefit from Billboard incorporating YouTube data onto their charts, indeed this does feel low on the list given how it seemed to be inescapable upon its initial release due to how everyone was talking about it and especially the video where Miley does indeed ride naked on a wrecking ball. I guess the rest of the world made it a hit due to it being an honest look at her love life at the time.
Even though this was a hit through Triple J here in Australia, it's worth noting that this somehow managed to become a success throughout Europe for the Australian duo Yolanda be cool (what is with that name?) which no doubt helped it sustain an audience despite how clearly bizarre this track is. Not since "Doop" from 1994 have we had a song be a success by making a parody of the swing music of the 20's.
This was a massive hit for Rihanna, and one that suggested that she was fine being with a bad boy (or rude boy as she puts it) given how she likes the unpredictability of that type of relationship. Naturally the rude boy in question is Drake who she started dating during the album's production and has had an on again off again relationship with him over the years.
This was the first of four big hits that British DJ Jonas Blue had here in Australia, although it might be his most divisive track as it's an EDM cover of Tracy Chapman's definitive hit from the late 80's. This is a cover that seemed to be tailor made to be divisive as EDM fans have praised it for making the original more lighthearted whilst Tracy Chapman fans have condemned it for ruining the point of the original.
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.
This was Drake's lead single to his album Scorpion, an album that managed to dominate the charts worldwide due to its monopoly on Spotify upon its initial release. Here he chalks up his success to being God's plan, there have been plenty of jokes made about this song for that alone which ironically is likely why it was such a huge success for him.
This was the fourth and final hit that David Guetta had on his breakthrough album worldwide, it was a collaboration with fellow DJ Chris Willis and featured the vocals of Fergie and LMFAO, the latter of which scoring their first big hit anywhere in the world given how this was released around the time their debut album flopped.
This was one of the more successful victory singles to come from Australian idol, likely due to the controversy where although he was born in Australia, Stan Walker managed to win the series despite him being a NZ resident which allowed this to crossover to his homeland following his victory over fan favourite Hayley Warner. This controversy caused the show to be cancelled going into the 2010's.
This was the second of two bonus tracks to come from Katy Perry's reissue of her third album Teenage dream (cleverly titled the Complete confection) it showcases her being wide awake to the fact that her marriage to Russell Brand was doomed from the start and that she was foolish to go through with it (you could even say she "got woke" to what was happening.)
There were a lot of tracks to become popular from the deluxe editions of albums in recent years, here's another one which comes to us from Vance Joy who managed to achieve a massive hit with this ballad around the same time his earlier entry was making it big throughout the rest of the world. Had Spotify not taken over the second half of the decade in the music industry, he would've had two more hits from his second album.
It looked like Florence + the machine would be a one hit wonder with "You've got the love" from the start of the decade, however when this song was featured in a pivotal moment in the popular TV drama Vampire diaries, it connected with us Aussies in a way that made it an instant success for the band despite it failing to do so anywhere else in the world.
This was the lead single to Taylor Swift's album Red, an album that many regard as her transition from country to pop music given how it has elements of EDM on some of the tracks as well as most of the country elements she was known for up until this point being absent on her songs. I promised I'd be nice to all the entries on this list, so I'll leave my commentary at that.
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.
On the surface, this feels like a Bjork track given how it manages to recapture the bombast that the Icelandic singer was best known for during her heyday in the 90's. It turns out that this was the one and only hit from the British trio Sam and the womp which features vocals from its female member who calls herself Lady OO, that would certainly explain the monkey noises she makes throughout the track.
This was the final single to come from Calvin Harris's album 18 months, this time it was a collaboration with Ellie Goulding who had become the hottest British artist of the moment due to her song "Lights" nearly topping the Billboard charts in 2012 and Calvin wanting to cash in on her popularity with this track. It has a unique music video which was filmed on an iPhone that was passed around by those filming it.
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.
Even though he wouldn't release another album until 2020, that didn't prevent Justin Bieber from being one of the biggest artists of the second half of the 2010's given how he was the featured vocalist for just about every EDM act that was popular throughout the decade. Here he collaborates with Major Lazer which started another trend I noticed of him being the death touch for a collaborator's popularity.
This was meant to be Ariana Grande's way of addressing the criticism she received for her questionable behaviour throughout the decade, it was a compelling enough song that people have long since forgotten her many controversies (although I get the feeling that Manchester concert also helped out with this.) The song is also known for its video which is stuffed with references to popular teen movies.
This was a huge hit for Havana Brown during the height of the club boom here in Australia, although it's worth noting that this was the original version of the track which doesn't have a guest verse from Pitbull like my non-Australian readers would be familiar with. Naturally that version didn't chart here in Australia because he honestly doesn't add much to the track aside from his infamous lines about getting paid.
This was the biggest hit that the Gym class heroes were able to achieve here in Australia, here they recruit the British YouTuber singer Neon Hitch to provide them a chorus which somehow allowed this to got to number one here despite being heavily delayed for some reason.
This was the only hit from the Belgian DJ Lost frequencies, although at least it was a massive hit for him worldwide given how the EDM track managed to make a huge splash on the dance floors upon its initial release. There's not much more I can say about this track as it was a hit that people liked from a one hit wonder.
This will be the only appearance from one of Michael Bublé's singles on this site, although I do remember hearing this on the radio more so than any of his other songs, so I have no problem believing this was a hit when the likes of "Sway" or "Everything" weren't. Naturally his audience was more inclined to buy his albums which is perhaps why even in the age of digital downloads, he hasn't had any other hits.
This is the last hit that Diddy had in any capacity throughout his career, here he's the face of a trio which consists of him and two backup singers similar to what Tony Orlando had with his group Dawn forty years prior. It's also the first-time audiences heard from Skyler Gray who would become an in-demand vocalist for the likes of Macklemore and Nicki Minaj as the decade went on.
This is to date the final hit single from Flo Rida, mainly because it feels more like a car commercial than anything which of course makes it prime fodder for those sorts of ads throughout the decade. The song also had its success delayed here for some reason, although like most songs that were delayed here, it wound up being for the best as it was more successful down under than in most parts of the world.
Hailee Steinfeld first got big at the start of the decade for her Oscar nominated performance in the Coen brothers flick True grit, here we are six years later with her breakthrough single which was a collaboration with not one but three producers as it has German DJ Zedd and the American EDM duo Grey as credited artists. This wasn't the last time the two acts would collaborate as we've seen with their earlier appearance.
I've been known to make a joke about how Taio Cruz should've sobered up before releasing his second album as this lead single to said album is indeed about him having a hangover and little else, it seems like an oddly legitimate criticism as it was also his final hit anywhere in the world even with the appearance of Flo Rida on the track.
DJ Snake is a French DJ who scored three hits this decade, this was his third and final hit which seems fitting given that it was a collaboration he made with Justin Bieber who seems to have killed a lot of careers throughout his time in the music industry given how many people have failed to score another hit after working with the Canadian pop star. It could also be that the production is recycled from "Lean on" from the year prior.
