The Top 40 Pop Songs Of 2017

Here's a sign of the times for you: We're still a couple weeks away from cleaning up bottles on New Year's Day, and year-end list season has already been in full swing for what feels like forever. The media's annual pop-culture recap ritual progresses, how do you say, muy despacito. Lucky for you, that's what I like! Cataloguing the year's greatest pop singles sets my feelings on fire, and I'd be a bad liar if I told you otherwise. So push me to the edge of the calendar and let's cut to the feeling: It's time to put our rose colored glasses on and turn up our favorite songs from 2017 one more time, just in case these hoes forgot. (Regarding this entire first paragraph: Sorry, I'm not sorry.)

Stereogum's other genre-centric year-end lists have focused on albums, but the single has always been pop's predominant form. Granted, the pop mainstream usually yields a few album-length stunners, and this year it even produced our staff's pick for the best album of 2017. Besides our Lorde and serenader Ella Yellich-O'Connor, several other pop artists came through with compelling LP- or EP-length statements this year. Depending on how far you want to stretch the boundaries of "the pop mainstream" -- more on that in a moment -- a list of the year's best pop albums and mixtapes might include SZA, Kendrick Lamar, Khalid, Calvin Harris, Kesha, Halsey, Drake, Harry Styles, Demi Lovato, Julia Michaels, Lil Uzi Vert, Paramore, Migos, Future, Kehlani, WizKid, Cashmere Cat, Pink, Dua Lipa, Charli XCX, and, yes, Taylor Swift.

But pop music ultimately lives and dies by the single. It is the currency by which household names and treasured memories are made. Pop has historically been sold and experienced one tune at a time, first via 7" records, then MP3s, then a vast network of streaming services, with terrestrial radio blaring hit after hit all the while. And when we look back on the pop music of 2017, as with any other year, those pervasive and magnificent individual tracks are what we'll remember most. So as in 2014, 2015, and 2016, I'm closing out this column for the year with a list of its finest pop singles.

A word about my methodology: subjective. A few more words about it: This list represents an extremely loose and personal concept of what constitutes pop music. I'm erring on the side of mainstream ubiquity, but as discussed earlier, it's hard to say what even qualifies as mainstream anymore. I'll have more on that ongoing metamorphosis in January when I publish my annual State Of Pop Address. In the meantime, for this list's purposes, anything that was a staple on top-40 radio is automatically eligible. So is anything that got close to the top of the Billboard Hot 100 and songs that were huge on Spotify, Apple Music, et al -- all of which leaves a lot of leeway for rap and R&B.

Country, which mostly seems to exist in its own vacuum-sealed universe, barely factored into this column this year, so I left it off this list. I also left out "indie" pop, partially because aside from St. Vincent I can't think of too many worthy contenders in that field this year. As for mainstream-adjacent figures like Lana Del Rey and Frank Ocean, I included them when I felt like it, arbitrarily yet somehow also with exact correctness. Ultimately, you know pop when you hear it, which is why Kendrick Lamar's #1-charting "HUMBLE." cracked this list while the arguably superior #4-charting "DNA." did not. I also made room for songs that were technically released in 2016 but made a big impact this year.

The resulting list is a time capsule of 2017 pop, curated for good taste's sake -- the inescapable minus the insufferable. You'll encounter a lot of the year's defining tracks, but many massive hits are excluded, sometimes at the expense of stellar deep cuts or brilliant singles that never really caught on. The point I'm trying to drive home is that you should understand this list as an organized splatter of the songs that made pop music feel like a worthwhile pursuit this year, from the perspective of a person who beheld the medium's highs and lows on a weekly basis. It's not meant to be a comprehensive portrait of pop music in 2017. Like Lorde's own personal memory reel, it's just a supercut.

40. Katy Perry - "Chained To The Rhythm"

Katy Perry was undone this year by trying too hard, and some might argue the failure extends to her album’s lead single, a chillwave-meets-dancehall social conscience anthem that seems to be critiquing itself. But the confused self-conscious wokeness that sunk Witness can’t derail this tune’s compulsive keyboard undercurrent and sneakily persistent hook. It's a case of the pop songwriting machine generating a single that's both weird and good.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=Um7pMggPnug

39. Chris Jeday - "Ahora Dice" (J. Balvin, Ozuna, & Arcángel)

A billion views and counting on this Latin pop posse cut extraordinaire, and it's easy to see why. This is the same sort of dazed, melancholy trap-pop that has made Post Malone one of the biggest stars in music, except executed with a vivacious flair Post rarely demonstrates on the mic. The way each vocalist floats across those subtle electronic pulses is hypnotic.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=c73Cu3TQnlg

38. Dua Lipa - "New Rules"

This British #1 hit cemented the stardom of a promising new pop star by making sober, sound advice feel like brazen, irresponsible fun.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=k2qgadSvNyU

37. French Montana - "Unforgettable" (Feat. Swae Lee)

Bet against the sun coming up tomorrow before you bet against French Montana's streak of appearing on magnificent songs on which he is by far the worst part.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=CTFtOOh47oo

36. Tove Lo - "Disco Tits"

Blue Lips was a surprising downer, but at least we'll always have this druggy disco-house bacchanal from another dimension.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=Ez38iBxBW8g

35. Luis Fonsi & Daddy Yankee - "Despacito" (Feat. Justin Bieber)

There are statistical arguments for "Despacito," which dominated the summer and tied the record for most weeks at #1 on Billboard's Hot 100. And there is a sentimental case for recognizing a Spanish-language success story at a time when our current administration seems set on antagonizing that population. But really the only metric you need to appreciate this gleefully explicit reggaeton love ballad is the sonic pleasure its every downbeat induces.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=72UO0v5ESUo

34. SZA - "Love Galore" (Feat. Travis Scott)

There was no better vocal performance this year than SZA's voice spiraling across these dissipating keyboard clouds.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=hHXfCOjb3fk

33. Khalid - "Location"

When "Location" first dropped in September 2016, it was not clear what a powerhouse Khalid would become -- that he'd be one of the most in-demand collaborators in pop, that his debut album would linger in the top 10 for months, that he'd snag a Grammy nomination for Best New Artist and actually deserve it. This much was clear, though: His voice was imbued with strength and wisdom beyond his years. His approach defied genre with a fluidity fit for this day and age. And he was bringing a classic songwriter's touch to the reference points of a new generation in gorgeous and understated fashion.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=by3yRdlQvzs

32. Camila Cabello - "Havana" (Feat. Young Thug)

In a year when Latin pop broke through to an English-speaking audience for the first time in a while, one of the English-speaking pop universe's rising stars scored her signature hit by leaning hard into her Cuban heritage. The sizzling, swaying "Havana" was a winner even before it got an instant-classic music video. It's also an extremely weird backdoor way to get Young Thug a #2 hit single.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=HCjNJDNzw8Y

31. Camila Cabello - "OMG" (Feat. Quavo)

On the same day Cabello released "Havana" she shared "OMG," a trap-pop behemoth that should have become just as big a hit. It made better use of Quavo than almost any non-Migos track of 2017, and the electric way both singers exclaim "Oh my God!" reminds me how exhilarating budding infatuation can be.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=C6CNvG89FcQ

30. Harry Styles - "Sign Of The Times"

Named after a Prince opus and inspired by Bowie classics, Harry Styles' debut solo single was a grandiose rock 'n' roll piano ballad that absolutely soared.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=qN4ooNx77u0

29. Julia Michaels - "Issues"

Against a background so spare and featherweight it barely exists, songwriter extraordinaire Julia Michaels properly launched her career as a performer by singing insightfully and evocatively about the insecurity that threatens to undermine a romance. It's fragile and catchy and brutally real.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=9Ke4480MicU

28. J Balvin & Willy William - "Mi Gente (Remix)" (Feat. Beyoncé)

Beyoncé is impressive here, rapping in three separate languages and all, but don't lose sight of Willy William's insane drill-noodle rhythm bomb or J Balvin demonstrating the talent and charisma that made him one of the biggest pop stars in the world.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=APHgDFRpCi0

27. Taylor Swift - "...Ready For It?"

Even after months of normalization, the crushing bass bombs and problematic faux-Caribbean rapping are still a weird look for Taylor Swift. That chorus, though! And that bridge! Even if the best pop songs feel natural, as if an entire impeccable production just materialized out of nothing, sometimes trying extremely hard gets you somewhere too.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=T62maKYX9tU

26. Taylor Swift - "New Year's Day"

The Old Taylor lives, and thank God!
https://youtube.com/watch?v=JEmcVL1WJgk

25. Halsey - "100 Letters"

It's practically impossible to follow the narrative on Halsey's Hopeless Fountain Kingdom, but for three and a half minutes I'm entirely swept up in the world she's created and emotionally invested in its protagonist. "100 Letters" is a stirring opening statement with a solid-gold chorus that might just become her first solo #1 if she ever gets around to releasing it as a single.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=bP4Yr8bGuDQ

24. Bruno Mars - "That’s What I Like"

Any song off 2016's joyous and immaculate 24K Magic would be a lock for this list if it had much of an imprint in 2017. The bouncing, snapping "That's What I Like" is just the one that happened to hit #1 this year.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=PMivT7MJ41M

23. Selena Gomez - "Bad Liar"