I'm still currently making my best list and I don't know if I can finish it in January, so I'm just gonna make a quick Top 20 Ranking using the week before Bad Bunny gate-crashed the chart with Debi Tirar Mas Fotos (no I'm not gonna use the lettering) which are filled with songs that are lightweight and easy to talk to I guess. So let's just get on with it.
20. Who by Jimin
Yup still the worst song from this list but it did get some stiff competition. I don't know man this song has shrunk on me and that's in part thanks to Jimin vocal like holy shit. It's still like 1/5 which goes to show how strong the chart still is, but there are some other meh songs that will be here and I think one of them isn't the Gracie Abrams one but that's for the other places here.
19. Blue by Yung Kai
You know when I was at my writing rut back in like 2021-23 I have so many ideas on what I should make for this blog or even a YouTube channel. One of those ideas are ranking the Indonesian Spotify chart. So I tried listen to most of the songs from the chart but I legit got bored. I'm so sorry but this is why I don't really listen to most Indonesian songs. While it's very tasteful...maybe too tasteful, the sound of the songs are very much pleasant to the point of no edge and I honestly don't want to listen to that. That's why I am also don't like this song as well. This song is quaint and all but when that guitar entered in I was like done. Like no ill will to him but this song is just not for me. Sorry.
18. It's the beginning of the year and the Christmas glutton are out in favor of the real hits. So what did we get this time around? Well BRAZIL CARALHO!!!
18. Ultima Noite by Leo Foguete
So from the previous rankings and posts I've always say that because there's no US presence in this chart, I can talk about songs from other countries that fill in the gaps for more American centric songs. Welp 2024 might be a great year but it was one of the few times where I'm kinda bummed that the global audience have shared interest with American popular music scene. Well at least for this week we have a lot of songs that aren't from America and I really can't wait to talk about it here. Now this is probably the "worst" one but it's only like 4/10 because I'm not familiar with this genre as a whole. It's called forro and it's a genre that came from farms and plantation all over Northeast Brazil. That's like the basic of the genre and yes I'm not Brazilian but I do appreciate that this type of songs could become big enough in Brazil alone to be charting high enough for me to talk about even though it didn't gripped me as much.
17. Toxic Till The End by Rose
Spare a thought for Lisa because she really tried so hard to breakthrough the US market or just the western market as a whole and yet her bandmate Rose beat her to it, now we will talk more about that juggernaut later but we will talk about the less interesting singles from her and yeah it exist. I'm sorry but these type of monogenre pop song is just something I really have no patient for except if it's well written and this break up song is literally written like a Halsey song circa Manic and not a good one. It's probably the most middle of the road song of this list and even more middling than the big Gracie Abrams song.
16. That's So True by Gracie Abrams
Honestly the only reason why this song didn't scored lower on the list is because of the productions which I would say is very immaculate. I love the drum fill in the bridge and this is probably the most energetic performance that she ever gave. Everything else about this song is just very stagnant I'd say. The guitar is kinda too plucky, her performance is beyond basic and kinda annoying, and the lyrics are full of these self agrandizing winging that would get you laughed at slam poetry competition. Look I believe that even if you are a nepo baby and have a lot of connections you can still make good songs, but I don't know I'm just not impressed with her as the supposed heir for Taylor Swift.
15. Que Pasaria by Rauw Alejandro ft. Bad Bunny
It's kinda amusing that both Rauw Alejandron songs made this ranking considering what's about to come by the guy featured in this song. Anyways it's just your average reggaeton hook up jam with probably the most atmospheric sound I've heard. I think latin music is gonna have a good 2025 with things are going and thank god because I want anything to detox myself from Morgan Wallen.
14. Rosones by Tito Double P
One thing that's interesting about this pretty decent corridos tumbados song is that apparently there's two songs with the same title. This one and the one from Fuerza Regida and honestly I am not well verse in this and most of the infos are in Spanish so clearly I need to dust up duolingo for this one. Oh by the way speaking of Fuerza Regida.
13. Tu Boda by Oscar Maydon ft. Fuerza Regida
Yeah I quite like this song. What I love about this song is how subdue this sound, Which is perfect for the subject matter which is just Marry Me by Thomas Rhett but kinda more juvenile. But hey I think there are place for these type of songs especially with the emotional motives of "yeah I'm an idiot that think you're the devil for not with me but hey good luck with the marriage". Also this song has probably the most expensive productions for this genre since it's very clean and smooth and definitely not rugged.
12. Ma Meilleure Ennemie by Stromae ft. Pomme
I wish I can like this song more than I do because the fact that Stromae got his first entry on Hot 100 should be celebrated. One problem is that it tied in with Arcane the show that I haven't finished yet oops. Anyways I do think this song is decent but the fact that I almost missed this song to be ranked tells you a lot to be honest.
11. Die With A Smile by Bruno Mars & Lady Gaga
Yeah overplay kinda killed this song for me. Don't get me wrong all of the songs from here and out are good to great, but yeah this has got slightly worse for me. Mainly because this song could've been better. It really missed more soaring guitar solo and an outro to make it sound like those yacth rock from Steely Dan or something like that. But hey I still like this song and I really can't wait to see what other genre Bruno will d- wait he's doing a sex jam with Sexyy Red called Fat Juicy and Wet? Interesting.
10. Khe? by Rauw Alejandro ft. Romeo Santos
I feel like with the rise of regional mexican and the success of Bad Bunny, more latin artists who usually make reggaeton songs are trying to make songs from other genres or mixing their sound palette to fit within reggaeton. And this is a prime example of that. This song while have the basis of reggaeton with the percussion pattern, have some clear influence in RnB and bachata especially with the sandy sound of percussion, the jazzy saxophone, the liquid guitar, and hints of piano. While I need to hear more of it to grow on me, I can say that this song is good and probably the best thing Rauw Alejandro has released since Todo De Ti.
9. HOME SWEET HOME by G-Dragon, Taeyang, & Daesung
This is basically Bigbang reunion but without T.O.P (because of Squid Game 2 probably) and he who shall not be named. But yeah discount those two this sounded like what Bigbang would've made if y'know that, and this one has more of a pop rock production which I will appreciate. I think I'm just glad that G-Dragon is doing well especially what happened at the end of 2010s and yeah that will take a toll on you. Honestly this song is still good but I still wish it was more y'know. Ahh well let's move on to a Brazilian funk song then.
8. Oh Garota Eu Quero Você Só Pra Mim by Dj Lc da Roça, MC K9, mc pl alves, Mc Rodrigo do CN, MC Tuto, Oruam, Zé Felipe
Yeah finally we are talking about Brazilian Funk aka one of the few genres that I can't really critique because whenever I'm trying to my brain will turned to mush. You have one of those genres that you just listen to it to turn your brain off after a long day and for some reason Brazilian Funk worked for me. I think what made this song worked for me is that underlying synth lingering between these blocky and metallic productions that you know and love from the genre. Trust me Brazilian Funk can be wild with their drop and this one is tamer than most. Definitely try to listen to Brazilian Funk sometimes but please don't listen to the Phonk version I think y'all be losing your mind because of that.
7. Timeless by The Weeknd ft. Playboi Carti
I'm currently writing this after The Weeknd's "last album" under this nickname released and honestly in context of the album, it just gotten better. It really fit the dark and brooding atmosphere of what essentially The Weeknd persona dying and repeating the cycle again, basically an ouroborus. Though even with that I do think that this is probably the most languid The Weeknd has sounded. I'm actually surprised at how catchy this song is (thanks to Pharrell). That synth line will always stuck in my head for so long. I'm also surprised Playboi Carti also being good in this. He mixed his voice so well in this song it's probably his best performance post Fein. There are other singles that I do think is better but none can be very distinct and yet evoke so much of his mixtape days than this one.
6. APT. by ROSE ft. Bruno Mars
So a lot of people hate this song and I get it. Honestly I really love the tiktok about children loving this song at the expense of their parents and all of them are hilarious. For me I just love these kinds of campy, catchy to the point of annoyance, and novel songs that usually part of the early 80s new wave and pop lexicon and this is definitely a close approximation. Another thing I love about this song is how Rose inserted something about Korean lifestyle that I don't know of, I'm of course talking about the Korean drinking game. It's something that I really love about covering this chart in general. Learning about other cultures and genres of popular music from other countries are always gonna be great for the gnoggin if you know you know. But yeah this was a fun one and I'm glad that this became probably the biggest song right now.
5. Taste by Sabrina Carpenter
Yeah this one is still great and I really love how funny this song can be while also be very heavy as well. What this reminded me of is definitely Kelly Clarkson mixed with P!nk humor which could get really jarring, but Sabrina blends them well. This song can be very insufferable real quick but she did a one trick that I love, which is a proper setup. This song is basically Sabrina telling the new girlfriend from her ex that everything he said and and done for the new girlfriend is basically from her. This could've been insufferable where you nagging on your ex to comeback to them like say "Thinkin Bout Me" by Morgan Wallen or anything from Drake for the past decade. But, her humor and lack of seriousness from Sabrina really diffused that and making this song very tongue and cheek and lowkey kinda gay? Like I can see some people say that this is heteronormative as hell and yeah I could see that, but also I can see the greatness of this song so yeah.
4. Messy by Lola Young
Every year ther has to be one artist from UK that doing blues rock or rnb or something like that to be big in America at one point. I thought that 2024 won't have that even when the pop music scenes were this diverse and good, but at the end of the year we got one with Messy and yeah it sounds like Gen Z Adele. But, Adele is good at making relationship drama songs and this one is great. I love how the production didn't shy away from going rougher especially with the guitar solo in the bridge and that really worked well with the content of the song. Now from what I read about the song it's about someone with ADHD in a relationship that's not working. And yeah you can hear it from all the contradictory things she said. But that's really how a lot of people with neurodivergency operate as someone who might be on the spectrum (pending). Yes we have done things that we said we are not, that doesn't mean that we are less valid with our emotions. I'm glad that this became a hit because we need songs like this to chart just because of its importance for the neurodivergent community.
3. Whiplash by aespa
Aespa really surprised my last year with Supernova, spoiler it will appeared on my best list so fair warned here. They're probably one of the few KPop band in general that really want to delved deep and focused on dance music especially with the hyperpop style produced Supernova. Now this song isn't better than Supernova but it continued the trend for this group in general. It's sleek and modern but also very elegant as well. I love how this song really blends house and parts of hyperpop very well especially with the clanking buzzing synth and also the progression or the structure of the song can be very wonky but it's perfect for this. It's just a good dance song to play at your next ballroom dance session and I love that.
2. Sailor Song by Gigi Perez
Again got a lot to say about this song on my best list so I'll just give you one observation about this song and popular music in general. What I like about pop music is always going against the grain and nothing could be a great example of this than in 2024. 2023 was such a miserable year to talk about music because a lot of it (at least in America) are actually going with the grain or at least giving to the status quo. Sure that Jason Aldean song was shocking but is it shocking now that Trump is the president? I don't think so. It's just a continuation and a culmination of everything that happened in conservative music space. 2024 on the other hand seems to be the fuck you we needed to the status quo. We got rap beefs that was lost by established artists that overstayed their welcome, Another country song with hip-hop elements became the longest staying #1 song tied with Old Town Road, and most delightfully of all queer people taking over the chart in a year so hostile for them. And it's really cool to hear this song about basically lesbian yearning and loving just became out of nowhere TikTok smash hit. The possibilities are endless here.
1. Luther by Kendrick Lamar ft. SZA
Currently writing this days before Super Bowl so I still don't know what the setlist gonna be containing (though I heard Not Like Us was given the go). But, if there's no showing of Luther in the show when you have SZA that would be a bummer because this song is fantastic. I will not saying much about this song y'know see myself at the end of the year, But it's fantastic to see these two collaborating because that also broke Drake's arguments about SZA in general and Kendrick Lamar making pop stuff. This is definitely the most accessible Kendrick song even with a Luther Vandross samples. But that's really its strength because of the languid and lush productions. SZA here being the heart of the song also works because this is what SZA is good at and also another stab at Drake. At the end of the day...it's night, but also how the song and the album as a whole are celebrations of black culture and black music (specifically west coast). I can't wait to talk about this song more at the end of the year.
Now let's recommend some songs that just missed the cut that do deserve some recognitions.
HM. 1: Otonoke by Creepy Nuts
Creepy Nuts back again with another banger anime opening this time it's for Dandadan, an romance anime about two conspiracy theorists falling in love while also doing supernatural and alien shit that became real for them. It's a bonkers anime with bonkers opening sampling ragtime 1915 recordings from Billy Murray. Why haven't rappers sampled a lot of free domain songs.
HM. 2: El Lokeron by Tito Double P
Another song that really tickled my brain that I know is kinda shit. But that production is very dense that it became very fun.
HM. 3: Mantra by Jennie
This song is a ton of fun and definitely feeding the 2000s throwback with the Neptunes style production. She's also fierce too and there are a lot of quotable lines here.
HM. 4: TV Off by Kendrick Lamar
MUSTAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARD
HM. 5: Sao Paulo by The Weeknd ft. Anitta
Out of all the singles from The Weeknd's Hurry Up Tomorrow. this one is probably the best one and yes it's because of the Brazilian funk influence. But also this song was one of the turning points of the album where The Weeknd did a concert in Sao Paulo and he felt really alone and that sadness juxtapose with the Brazilian Funk production is really potent.
That's all from me. Thank you all from reading and see you all probably at my best list or another
