Stars of ten years ago, like the Jonas Brothers and Lady Gaga, have been rubbing elbows not only with modern-day marquee names like Ariana Grande and Post Malone, but with breakout artists like Billie Eilish and Lil Nas X, who may end up setting the pace for pop's next decade. It's all combined to make this final year of the s one of the least-predictable pre-summer seasons we've had in a long time. Check out our 50 favorites from so far below. The members of K-pop's reigning girl group don't just transcend language barriers with their highest-charting U. But when a song comes out with this many guns blazing -- literally, their choreography involves a move that resembles a bazooka firing -- how could they take the energy any higher? Snow, "Con Calma" Remix. Koffee, "Rapture".
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When talking about so far at Billboard , it's hard to avoid the fact that the chart year has only had 24 editions of the Hot , and Drake has been No. It's the most that any one artist has dominated the listing's top spot in a year's first six months this decade -- though shout-out to Macklemore and Ryan Lewis' combined 11 weeks on top in the first half of -- and it essentially leaves the non-Drake part of the field wide open when it comes to discussing the year's best and biggest singles. But that's fine. Beyond the Drakening, has been a year of pleasant surprises on the charts: All-Star teamups we didn't see coming, previously unknown artists coming out with left-field hits, and a handful of big-name comebacks taking us to unexpected new places, all of which made the predictability at pop's highest level forgivable. And besides, those two Drake songs are pretty great too: You'll see them both below as we recount our 50 favorite songs of so far, with a Spotify playlist of all 50 at the bottom. The moment fans have been waiting for since Timberlake and Stapleton collaborated at the CMA Awards finally came in , and it's as special as that instant-classic performance. Not only did the song take JT and Chris' bromance to the next level, it made it very clear that their CMA team-up was no fluke. Jade Bird, "Lottery". Singer-songwriter Jade Bird's brilliance lies in her ability to mesh her British roots with Americana style to create a unique genre Britana? Snail Mail, "Pristine".
Pop music's best wasted no time getting into formation this year, with major releases from a galaxy of our brightest stars cluttering the calendar's opening months. But even with so many established huge names taking up space on the marquee, what really made the last twelve months in pop special was how they also found room for the lesser-known little guys; a Desiigner for every Drake, a Kiiara for every Kanye. Soundtracking a period of seemingly limitless real-world disagreement and strife, these artists big and small provided us with rare moments of much-needed unity, ones we all would've actually wanted to freeze time on.
The past and the future combined in , a year of satisfying comebacks from veteran artists and exciting breakouts from newer ones. Read the list below, with a Spotify playlist of all at the bottom. An unlikely combination of three very different alt-leaning acts, "I've Been Waiting" is far more seamless than it has any right to be, finding common ground in the artists' shared pop sensibilities. As it toggles between vocals from all three, it's impossible to tell where the verses stop and the chorus starts -- it's all hooks, really, a song where every part feels like That Part. In a more just world , this would've been the song to get the late Lil Peep his first Hot top 40 hit. Now please, get off his lawn. There are a lot of "what ifs" when a relationship ends, but the title of Lady Antebellum's latest heart-wrenching hit has to be one of the scariest. The song -- which recalls the same yearning tone as the country trio's breakout single "Need You Now" -- perfectly captures that fear of the unknown, thanks to Hillary Scott and Charles Kelley's hopeless harmonies.
