The 17 Best Pop Songs of 2017
Joy was elusive in 2017, in everything from politics to Hollywood to the isolated cultural bubbles where most Americans now look for shelter. The one exception? Pop music.
In 2017, pop established a true counter-narrative: cross-pollinating,
democratic, and often as buoyantly unbothered as it has ever has
been. Genres melded and sometimes combusted completely. An
almost entirely Spanish language reggaeton track by two relative
unknowns was the year’s biggest hit. And with Spotify and YouTube
further entrenched at the center of music consumption, the year’s best
and biggest songs underscored a new kind of egalitarianism, allowing
the public to directly drive the conversation and charts, and giving the
artists room to take risks.
This year in pop can ultimately be boiled down to one emblematic moment
, when a stripper-turned-Instagram-star-turned-reality-star-turned-hip-hop
princess dethroned the biggest major label superstar of her generation at No.1,
with nothing but a freestyle rap and a whole bunch of streaming clicks.
So with that spirit of radical inclusivity in mind, here’s a sampling of some of the
best songs of 2017. Like great pop should, these songs united, delighted, made
us feel, think, and sometimes provided hope, even if just for four minutes while
rapping “Bodak Yellow” with 100 strangers at 3 A.M. Let’s dive in.
Cardi B’s “Bodak Yellow (Money Moves)
While “Bodak Yellow” was the most surprising hit of 2017,
its ascension now seems inevitable for how effortlessly it
distilled Cardi B’s iconic, irreverent, and irrepressibly
charming Instagram persona into a bombastic trap jewel.
As with her famous social-media riffs, nearly every line of “
Bodak” is quotable. Just to recap: our heroine gets paid to
party, her nether regions are gold-plated, and bank tellers are
completely exhausted by her frequent deposits. But even if your
rhymes haven’t made you wealthy or made your privates shimmer
, you’re powerless against Cardi’s exceptional knack for conveying
authenticity. “Bodak” ’s rapturous celebration of self-actualization
—and the fact that it knocked Taylor Swift’s most self-indulgent single
to date off the top of the charts—made it the most universal song of the year.
Demi Lovato’s “Daddy Issues”
Demi Lovato always seemed like a workhorse pop star, diligent but never
quite expanding past middle management. That changed this year on he
r sixth album, the excellent Tell Me You Love Me, and its crowning achievement,
“Daddy Issues.” “Issues” obliterates the very concept of lyrical subtly as Demi
explores the cross-section of her challenging relationship with her father and
her destructive romantic choices. “Lucky for you” blares the chorus, “I’ve got all
these daddy issues!” That the track does psychodrama atop triumphant synthetic
horns, shimmering major-key melodies and palpable delight at one’s shortcomings
makes what could have been a maudlin overshare feel ebullient instead.
Sampha’s “No One Knows Me (Like the Piano)”
Sampha’s spare ode to the powers of family and music as salvation suggests
that the simplest experience—returning to your childhood home and picking
up the instrument through which you first expressed your feelings—can pack a
gut-wrenching punch. His celestial voice doesn’t hurt either.
Charlie Puth’s “How Long”
In what may have been 2017’s most unsuspecting about-face, Charlie Puth
charged from guy-whose-name-no-one-can-pronounce-and-sung-the-hook
-on-that-Paul-Walker-in-memoriam-song-and-also-some-other-stuff right to
the head of the overcrowded male pop starlets pack. This was evident on his
very good hit single “Attention,” but it’s the self-produced “How Long”—a devilishly
slinky slice of blue-eyed funk—that solidifies Puth as a true contender and is, simply
put, the best Maroon 5 song of the decade.
Paramore’s “Forgiveness
Paramore excels at big, brash, emotional calls to arms. “Forgiveness,”
with it’s dreamy guitar loop and delicate rebuke of a partner who’s finally
messed up for good, takes the opposite tack. Stripped back, tender, and
ultimately tragic, the push and pull between singer Hayley Williams’s desire
to absolve and the knowledge that she can’t is as beguiling as it is heartbreaking.
Lorde’s “Homemade Dynamite”
The wide-eyed debauchery of “Homemade Dynamite” serves not only as a thematic
centerpiece of Lorde’s superb second album, Melodrama. This clattering cacophony
also captures both the adventure and impending regret of night out with a new lover
as only Lorde, pop’s ultimate millennial savant, can. “Our rules, our dreams, we’re blind,
” she pants, “Our friends, our drinks, we get inspired.” For the 21-year-old, parties and
flings are electrifying and novel but also menaced by an imminent emptiness usually
registered by revelers well beyond her years.
DJ Khaled’s “Wild Thoughts,” Future’s “Selfish,” Kendrick Lamar’s “Loyalty,” and N.E.R.D.’s “Lemon,” all featuring Rihanna
Rihanna didn’t release any new music of her own this year, but like most years, she didn’t let that stop her from owning radio anyway. Her scene-stealing features culminated with “Lemon,” where she raps with the best of them about blunts, Bugatti Veyrons, and, inexplicably, the Fonz. It’s a verse that gleams with the ice-cold passivity that only Rihanna can make pass for elation.
Selena Gomez’s “Bad Liar”
An unexpectedly quirky single, “Bad Liar” marries the bassline of the Talking Head’s “Psycho Killer,” conversational vocals that recall Britney’s most adventurous work, and lyrics that equate the sometimes unsettling rumblings of lust and the Battle of Troy. It’s Gomez’s deft use of her relatively thin voice that’s the revelation here—an alluring murmur that hints at a slightly more left-of-center pop career than one might expect from a former Disney star.
