Now that we are into the halfway point into 2026 (Well for Billboard we have way past that but I digress), Let's grade the ins and outs of what's happening with popular music. The consensus seems to be that this year has been lousy so far — that it's either the continuation of 2025 bad year or even worse. I can't say I won't really blamed them per say but there's a nuance to this year. Let's look at every genres and see if there's a consensus or not. Pop was slow at first but it really picked up a lot with Olivia Rodrigo. RnB is still good but I can see some cracks that are showing, Kpop is actually having a busy and better than average year. And we even got some crossover rock and country songs here to a mixed results. I think the genres that have actual bad year on the chart were Hip-hop, EDM, and Latin Pop. Hip-hop is having generational bad year that made 2023 look quaint. EDM is still on their AI bullshit. And Latin Pop basically just held up by Bad Bunny.
All of that tally up to be a very unremarkable year all things considered. I get the sense that 2026 is like 2023, but at least the Global chart provided a great insulator through all the bullshit in the US chart. This year however it's like reverse where the Global chart has been lousy and all the interesting shit are on the US chart. The fact that a song from Weezer's album that was released in 2014 charted in the US is more enough reason to pay attention to the Hot 100 more. But we gotta make do with what we got and we got a weird one this season. A little bit of PSA but we are in the Olivia Rodrigo album bomb, so I'm only gonna count the highest debut, the singles that still charting, and the best and "the worst" song that I could consider. So after all of that and also not counting old hits (that appeared on Hot 100 Year-End lists) we have to go down into the top 50...joy. Let's start off with the crappiest song here and oh boy it's gonna be a lot.
20. Self Aware - Temper City
So remember when the Ellisons acquired American TikTok and how its algorithm might be tinkered a bit. Well after that acquisition, this song became viral on TikTok...an indie rock song from this year which is a debut single...from an American-Israeli band. Okay let's get one thing straight here, I don't think being Israeli alone will make a song bad. I mean duh as much as a lot of Israelis are very unhinged on social media and their music can be...a lot, There are also some Israelis that don't fuck with a lot of what's going on in Palestine and there's actually an anti-zionist punk scenes there. Bottom line is that I don't hate this song because it's Israeli, I hate it because it's a commercial core percussion over melody filtered indie rock that The Neigbourhood usually make and it just sounds outdated. Like maybe the rock revival that's been happening not need to go back to this sound and more like what Sombr is doing. Though we are not done with the controversy just yet...
19. ICONIC BY MISTAKE - LE SSERAFIM, ILLIT, & KATSEYE
Honestly this gave me more headache than the Israeli one like at least with that one it's like done and dusted. This one I think could set bad precedent for K-pop as a whole. First off this song sounds ugly. Is this part the "Mistake"? — with the blown out mix that even too much as someone who like some blown out production — Did the producers just fell asleep here? Also with this being a posse cut of all the current charting HYBE girl groups, this is by far the worst thing all of them did this year. Yes even within KATSEYE as well and they released some heinous songs this year. Let's start off with the fact that they're iconic by mistake. Like what part of all of these bands were iconic by mistake. Maybe with virality sure but they're all being bankrolled by HYBE and that alone really making this song feels calculated. But the worst part is the inclusion of ILLIT whom they're reminded me of Dream in that they're very experimental sometimes but they don't really have any chemistry. Them being here is kinda sad and honestly why this one is lower than some of the other songs here.
18. Babydoll - Dominic Fike
Okay I'm getting a bit annoyed now. Let's not mince words here the new class of 2026 kinda sucks and the success of Dominic Fike is the poster child of it. He didn't even released new music this year and yet apparently because of the hype of Euphoria finale is enough for the general audience to have few of his songs went viral. Djo was a fluke to me because most of the times artists turned singers are always kinda dookie. We will have the big examples of the contrary later one, but with Dominic Fike his songs are always very braying and filled with douchy energy that I just can't get behind. This song is just too short for me as well to vibe with so yeah still in the bottom tier.
17. Janice STFU - Drake
The state of hip-hop in 2026 has been nothing but awful. The fact that before "ICEMAN", the biggest hip-hop release of this year was from Don Toliver...it's not healthy year for mainstream rap. Once Drake released three albums behemoth it's becoming clear that rap needed Drake — and how that's a bad thing for the genre as a whole. It's so funny how once again UK had the more interesting year in rap and that scene has been imploded for years. Anyways so this song is the one that sticks around after the album bomb...and seriously? This is what y'all want? A buzzing detuned synth and stock beat with Drake being half asleep for most of the song? Guess people still want the beef because this is only here — on the Global Excluding US chart — because of that second verse taking shots at Kendrick. Those shots are still kinda bad but hey it's something right? I'm scared that hip-hop in the mainstream will become what rock was in the 2000s and it's almost gonna be like that. Sad state indeed.
16. Swim - BTS
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I feel like BTS comeback shouldn't happened. All the individual members have made more interesting and even better material than BTS these days. The only reason why BTS comeback happened at all it's probably because HYBE is bleeding money and they really need a big win at this point. Heck I'd rather have most of the sellout nu-disco shit than Swim — one of the most boring BTS song I've heard. The melody and the percussion here felt very calculated and that's my real problem with this song. Not a surprised that Ryan Tedder cowrite this song because apparently he's gonna be the main pop producers of this decade and I'm conflicted. Sure he still have Sports Car but more often than not, he'll make the most boring song or the most grating song. Also why are most of the song drenched in reverb? Are they drowning? Well too bad because...
15. Come Over - BTS
I'm glad that this song is a bonus track because wow this sounds very slapdashed. There's this messy goopy synth on the hook that I can't shake around ane became annoying real fast. The drums with the humming sound is also way too much for this type of pop rap slop. This one is actually have two notable producers, Cirkut and...SUGA. Again my problem is still their productions which is ashamed because that vocal line is actually kinda good. In any case, I'm hoping that this is the last BTS album because I really don't want the growth of individual members be stunted because of this. There's gonna be one more BTS song coming up, but yeah just everything felt very forced these days. Speaking of forced.
14. I Knew it, I Knew You - Taylor Swift
And here I thought that Taylor would've taken a break because of her wedding, but we got a new singles from her — and it's a country pop song...Yeah after listening to this song, this is likely either a Fearless leftover that didn't even make it to the From The Vault series or is this because Disney paid both Taylor and Jack Antonoff boatload of cash and maybe some pile of cocaine to them it's either or. Sure this song sounds better than most of her latest offerings, but as a pop country song it's just a mess. I don't hate Jack Antonoff pop productions like a lot of people do because he understands melody and how tight pop grooves are — he shouldn't do country type production again. The harmonica and the trumpets clashed with each others pretty badly here and any cohesion in the chorus only being saved by the harmonies. I think that's my main issue of the song because the lyrics are good and Taylor really sounds good here. Gave the production job to Dave Cobb or even Jay Joyce would've been better even if the bass mixing can be total crapshoot. If Taylor wants to come back to country I will say that not even bringing up Ella Langley is kinda weird when you hyping up sombr (even if I do like him).
13. Chicago - Michael Jackson
Posthumous releases can be very dicey in a lot of times. You can go with the Queen route where they already got a lot of songs recorded with Freddy Mercury and created a better send off than the movie that shall not be named. Or you can go to the XXXTentacion route of just scrapping all the demos that he had and stitched together with mercenaries that dared to make that song. Sadly Michael Jackson was the latter where his 2014 posthumous release XSCAPE used a lot of scraps from other sessions especially the Paul Anka one with the 2014 hit "Love Never Felt So Good" featuring Justin Timberlake. This song is the other scraps mainly from the Invincibles session where it got revived by a friend of Justin Timberlake, Timbaland. And you can tell this is a scrapped project because his vocals is just too reserve while on the chorus it got layered with his more forceful vocals and it just clashed badly. Sure the productions is very neat and I do like the synth, but we have heard songs like this before from Michael. Honestly if it wasn't for the virality plus the biopic movie that I have mixed opinions on this song would've been left to dust. But, this has become one of the most streamed songs of his career post mortem.
12. Earrings - Malcolm Todd
The success of Malcolm Todd still mystified me even more than Dominic Fike because he at least got some hits in EU and UK. This is his biggest hit and I do kinda like it but there are a lot of problems with this song. Starting with the fact that his singing voice is just not it. He sounds like one of those AI filters of Steve Lacy and doing it badly. The productions here is nice especially the guitar and the synth, but there's a lot of that indie RnB that people have made better. The subject matter is what I can't stand from him because this song is about someone losing their earrings on their way home but can't get it because he has communication issues. That might be AJR level of immaturity that I can't even comprehend someone would operate like him. Is he popular because he looks like a twink? Is that what it is?
11. Dai Dai - Shakira ft. Burna Boy
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You know things are bad that we are on #11 and I still have lukewarm feelings about the song. Anyways after FIFA got some backlash from footy fans with the inclusion of Jelly Roll in the World Cup song (as they should why would you want to make commercialcore country the World Cup anthem?), they decided to pulled the Shakira ripcord and have this song be the real World Cup anthem. I hate to say it but this song is just okay and definitely not better than even the 2014 one with Pitbulla and JLo. I think the problem here is there are no chemistry between Shakira and Burna Boy. The productions here is very lumpy approximation between afrobeats and latin pop that I could described as Spain vs Cape Verde if you catch my drift. At least it's better than the 2022 and 2018 World Cup song?
10. Pile - Mauvais Djo
This is actually the ranking series' first as I'm talking about French rap. I actually have one French rap song that I listened to a lot in 2018 and it's Desaccorde by Vald. But this is different than that white rapper doing desaturated trap rap. This French rap is like a mixing between afrobeats and the sense of European thing if you know what I mean. Less on the beat and more of a vibe and this song is a vibe. Definitely check out the Gospel version that one is actually great whereas this one is just decent.
9. LEMONADE - Aespa
If you have followed me you know that I really love the direction that Aespa has gone down so far with their flirtation to house and more queer coded electronic stuff. So why I am not vibing with this one? Don't get me wrong, I like this song but there are a sense of emptiness that wasn't on either Supernova nor Whiplash. I think it's probably the hook is kinda terrible and clashed with the beat annoyingly. I might need to simmer with this one more because the backbone of a great song is still there. Hope this grew on me more...as does this song.
8. hate that i made you love me - Ariana Grande
I'm not here to talk about Ariana Grande situation about eating disorder here and frankly you shouldn't if you don't have any good thing to say about that ongoing situation. So how about the music being this is the lead off singles of her new album and produced by Max Martin whom I'm on thin ice with. My verdict now is that this song is good but could have a room for improvement. Mainly because of the productions. Sure this is probably Max Martin's best productions in a while. But, there aren't any explosive moment that the song about maturing and realizing that her love actually hurt people could've soared. As is I need to listen to more of this song to see if this is growing on me yet again. But you know what song that did grew on me?
7. Body to Body - BTS
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Finally a song that's the closest to being very cohesive on the record. This is easily the best song on the album objectively and it really set up high expectations for the album before it got crushed Hooligan the worst song on the album (I'll get to that one at the end of the year). The flow here is better and the lyrics aren't as embarrassing as the other songs here. The production here also deserved some praise especially the breakdown end where there's a Korean traditional singing it seems like and it fits the name of the album better than most of these songs. Sure this does mean I have to congratulate Diplo and that fact alone knocked this song down on this list. Don't look up the news section on Diplo google search result if you want a sense of sanity.
6. Drop Dead - Olivia Rodrigo
And here it is the girl of the hour Olivia Rodrigo and honestly I know this song is the start of the album, but a bit of a misfire to start your album rollout with this one. But still on the context of the album it's great. This song is pegged as the start of the narrative of this girl being so in love with this guy to dangerous degree I might add — but there's an undercurrent of unhappiness in her that she will explored on the rest of the album. This song did do numbers because it's Olivia and it's a new material in three years, but you can tell that this song isn't the favorites from everyone on the album because I do think it's kinda basic great song. Anyways from this point on I think all of these songs are great and let's start with the controversial picks.
5. It's Me - ILLIT
Poor ILLIT literally being dropped during the worst time for HYBE and to their credit they have done well. This song is still out of left field from them but it works actually. A song about self indulgent of being someone's bias is kinda done to death. But, the manic energy with how this song is leaning into more techno vibe is kinda unique I will say. Nothing left to say really other than this song is great to me and my weird taste.
4. Stupid Song - Olivia Rodrigo
The big singles from the album and it's 100% an homage to post punk in the best way possible. I love how the beginning is just the piano and how Olivia felt so restless and then it build to a great crescendo about this infactuation about this guy. Then boom the guitar and the vocal harmonies started pummeling and Olivia just captured adolescene love so well in this one with a great guitar solo breakdown that just wonderful. And yet, there's this tension on the song that can be seen as something that could jeopardized the relationship as a whole and that will grow and grow till...well we get into it later. This song deserved to be #1 on the Hot 100, but because Ella Langley domination and the fact that radio is slow yet again on embracing this song — it's just infuriating. Well whatever I'm glad that Olivia will get more songs for me to put on the best list.
3. REDRED - Cortis
And this song is a serious contender for the best list. I'm not kidding when I said this song turned me around on Cortis as a whole. I thought their gimmick of the first trap rap and rage boyband kinda get on my nerve a bit. Sure BTS were starting out as trap rap band but even with the same label — I don't think they'll have a song in them that I would take them seriously. This song changed that in a big hurry because what a hook this one got. This got the closest to the appeal of rage music the most especially the thick haze of synth, the percussion, and the vocal processing. It's big without telling you it's big and that's why I love this song so much. It's one of those guilty pleasure but without the guilt and hey at least they're doing better than whatever Stray Kids are doing nowadays.
2. What's Wrong With Me - Olivia Rodrigo ft. Robert Smith
Only Olivia Rodrigo — the girl who loves 80s and 90s rock and alternative — would have the reputation and clout to have her first featuring spot given to the vocalist of The Cure Robert Smith. And yeah this is one of the best songs on the album no questions asked. This song is the pivotal moment where everything has fallen apart and Olivia just having the real retrospection about her relationship. And the word being uttered are devastating especially paired it with Robert Smith's haunting voice as the added context to what's going on. Yeah the phrase "what's wrong with me" really hit me hard as I do have those feeling sometimes but with a friend. This song is also The Cure homage in the best way but this is not the last time we talk about the cure because...
1. The Cure - Olivia Rodrigo
I've always stated that Olivia Rodrigo's second singles determined if the album is good or not. And this is probably her best second singles ever. The build up, the guitar, the violin, the swell, and just how raw Olivia's performance here is just immaculate. It really harkened back to the sound of 90s rock that we don't see that much often because a lot of grunge and alternative acts have their best materials with guitar ballads and this reached that pantheon. This is the song that I feel being the turning point for Olivia in the lead up to the album. And I will talk more about the song later on but really the fact that people latched onto this more than Drop Dead really speaks volume.
Now for some honorable mentions that didn't make the ranking that deserved all your attentions from both Global 200 and Global Excl US.
Gut Genug - KITSCHKRIEG ft. Blumengarten & Shirin David
This might be the cutest song I've heard and that's primarily because of this guy's falsetto. Feels like whenever there's electronic songs broke through the chart from Germany or Benelux countries they always here because of memes or just plain bonkers and this is one of them. Delightful little tune and I will say that the female rapper here doesn't subtract to the song's quality.
FEVER DREAM - Alex Warren
I honestly wish Alex Warren started out making this type of songs rather than another Ordinary. This is actually very interesting with some bold choices on the productions. The gospel element here is actually earned rather than in Ordinary. Even though this song is basically a rethread of Love Runs Out by OneRepublic — with how bleak the chart is right now — I'll take what I can get.
Go - The Chemical Brothers ft. Q-Tip
And this is just an awesome electronic song from the legendary The Chemical Brothers with great performance by Q-Tip. The synth here is just out of control and really was perfect for such chaotic movie as Apex. Also I really love how you can hear the mid 2010s from the song and yet it sounds just as timely as now.
Be Her - Ella Langley
Jump ship to the US for a minute because they actually more interesting right now and this song really came out of nowhere for me. I don't know about the whole politics of Ella Langley other than maybe she wore that tan for a reason, but this lowkey giving gender euphoria and I don't know how to explain this to people. Can't believe I'm saying this but this song co-written by HARDY really became more potent with a trans reading of the song and I'm juust gonna run that to the sun.
Freakin' Out - Dexter and the Moonrocks
The fact that there's an honest to god rock song on the chart alone is a novelty in and itself. But when that song came from an unknown band who they made this heavy post grunge record to chart high despite not a lot of radio support it's astonishing. Sure this song is probably still middle of the road, but for what its worth I prefer to have more of this and less of interchangable country.
Yeah this is a quick one because oh god am I getting busier as I get this job and 1980 genuinely drained me. But coming up next is very soon and also I might wanna make something for the midyear. So see ya there!
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