The Top 20 Best Hit Songs Of 2014 - Part 1 (20-11)

Hey everyone, Drake known online as Urtar Reviews here and today I'm finally bringing you my list of my favorite hit songs of 2014. As I said in my worst list, 2014 is considered by most in this community to be a pretty bad year for the hot 100, one of the worst of the 2010s. And I wildly disagree. While there was a few songs I hated, there weren't that many and the year both had a large number of songs I love, but also had some really high highs. 2014 gives 2013 competition as far as my favorite year of the 2010s for pop music goes. Also expect to see a lot of uncommon picks or common picks for worst lists in this community here as 2014 is a year I have a lot of unpopular opinions for. 

As usual songs have to have debuted on the Jan-Dec 2014 Year End chart or make the Billboard 2014 Year End Hot 100 and not have made any Jan-Dec Year End chart to be eligible. And this is all my opinion, music is totally subjective and you are totally free to disagree with me. 

Without further ado, let's get into my picks for the top 20 best hit songs of 2014!

As I said on my worst list, in 2014 coming after the success of Imagine Dragons in 2013 with hits like Demons and Radioactive, both of which also carried over into 2014, since Imagine Dragons didn't release anything new until the end of the year with I Bet My Life, some similar bands got massive crossover hits in 2014 to fill that void. And this could be a good thing or a bad thing. I mean I still hate Best Day Of My Life. But on the other hand, there's this...

20. Am I Wrong - Nico And Vinz (Peak #4, Billboard YE: #14, Jan-Dec: #12)

If you ask me this song is very underrated. Not in general, it was a massive hit in 2014, in the top 20 of the year end list. No in this community. I don't think I've ever seen this song even mentioned on a 2014 best list. So I'm changing that because I love this song. This is a song inspired by a conversation the band had with childhood friends who kept asking him what he would do if his music career didn't take off and how he would probably be wasting time, effort, and money on something that wouldn't work. And his response is " Am I wrong for thinking that we could be something for real?" "Am I wrong for trying to reach the things I can't see". This is a song where the members ignore the naysayers and still try for and achieve their dream, and it worked for them with this song becoming such a massive hit worldwide. It works well as an inspirational song. And I also love how it sounds. Nico And Vinz have good, deep voices and they ride this instrument pretty well. I love the "yeah yeah yeah yeah"s in the background. And I love the middle eastern (I think) inspired drums, horns, trumpets etc it makes this song have a real fun groove. 

You know that feeling when an album is so good that one of the worst songs on it is pushed as a big single and that song is still good enough to make your top 20 of the year? And that album isnt even the artist's best album?

19. Shake It Off - Taylor Swift (Peak #1, Billboard YE: #13, Jan-Dec: #10)

This is one of the worst songs on Taylor Swift's late 2014 album 1989, an album I would genuinely give a 10/10 to. But just because its one of the weakest songs on a masterpiece album doesn't mean it isn't a fantastic song in its own right. Now loving this song is a pretty unpopular take in this community as many consider it one of Taylor’s worst ever songs because "if she was really shaking it off she wouldn't need to write a song about it". Which is if I'm being honest, a really fucking stupid critique of a song. Like this is just a song about her shaking the hate off and not letting it get to her. She's not writing it because the hate is secretly getting to her, she's writing it to have an inspirational message of a song to her fans and also because she can make a fun banger about it. Taking this song too seriously is doing it wrong if you ask me. It's just a really fun pop song about her not letting the hate get to her. And it does so very well. I love the synth pop production, has a really fun banging groove, and I love the wild, manic energy and charisma Taylor brings to it, especially during the rap bridge which, hot take, I actually love. 

Have you ever had the experience of seeing most people praise the hell out of a song for it's lyrics, not really understand what they mean as much as you try, and yet still love the song anyway because they sound badass and the song slaps?

18. Pompeii - Bastille (Peak #5, Billboard YE: #12, Jan-Dec: #13)

All I really know about this song lyrically is that it's about two corpses who watched Pompeii fall, and that it's trying for some political message I think but I'm not really sure what, the lyrics kinda confuse me a bit. But the meaning is not why this song is here, it's here because, one, the lyrics sound so kickass that I don't care, and two, it's just a banger. The "eh ohs" create a very anthemic feel that the instrumental and vocals fit into very well, and this song has one hell of a hook. 

2014 as a year was dominated by a few artists for more than one song, Iggy Azalea, DJ Mustard (although behind the scenes), Taylor Swift, and of course, Ariana Grande, coming after debuting in 2013 with only having one year end hit, to having three songs by my rules eligible for this list. And I love all of them so, yeah artist tie!

17. Ariana Grande 

Let's go through her four eligible songs from my least favorite to my favorite, starting with:

17a. Problem - Ariana Grande, Iggy Azalea (Peak #2, Billboard YE: #9, Jan-Dec: #11)

Ariana's biggest hit of 2014, and while it's my least favorite of the three, it's still amazing. This is just a really fun pop smash about how she shouldn't want to be with this guy, but she does that makes great use of the "Whisper Song technique" and great horns. And Iggy  absolutely spits iconic quotable lines in her verse absolutely owning it. 

17b. Bang Bang - Jessie J, Ariana Grande, Nicki Minaj (Peak: #4, Billboard YE: #27, Jan-Dec: #16)

Apparently loving this song is a hot take since at least a few people in this community hate it from what I've seen, and I mean I get why, but I love it. I get hating it because 1. It's a wild, chaotic and obnoxious song and 2. It's a steal your girl song in a similar way to Girlfriend by Avril Lavigne (a song I love by the way). And I mean, I agree that it's obnoxious, and that's the main reason it works if you ask me. Similar to the aforementioned Girlfriend, the in your face obnoxiousness is what makes me love this song. It's catty in a way that's incredibly fun to listen to, and just makes you feel their cattiness and damn if it isn't infectious. And all three artists have the charisma and vocal presence to absolutely deliver this. Nicki in particular stole the show with a phenomenal guest verse. I also love the bombastic production, with the infectious horns and absolutely perfectly placed gang vocals that add so much force to this song, they just make it bang!

16c. Love Me Harder - Ariana Grande, The Weeknd (Peak #7, Billboard YE: N/A Jan-Dec: #95)

This is possibly the most acclaimed song of Ariana Grande's career in this community, and if not it's definitely up there, and I understand why, even if it wasn't even my favorite hit of hers from this year, let alone from other years. But yeah, this is just an incredibly warm and comfortable sex song that just puts you into the warmth each of them is getting from each other. And the two of them have so much chemistry and their harmonies are incredible. But my favorite thing about it comes with The Weeknd, how he's normally the kind of guy who makes mistakes in relationships and causes girls to leave him, you know like in his big hit from the year after, The Hills. But here he's found a girl who accepts him for who he is and will love him even if he makes mistakes and he's absolutely thrilled and you can just hear that in his performance. Amazing song even if it isn't quite my favorite Ariana Grande hit of 2014. You know what is?

17d. Break Free - Ariana Grande, Zedd (Peak #4, Billboard YE: #37, Jan-Dec: #35)

Yes this is my favorite Ariana Grande hit of the year. There was a time where this was no joke, one of my favorite hits of the entire 2010s. It's of course cooled on me since then, but still has some magic for me. I've praised Zedd as a producer before on this blog, and this won't be the last time. Zedd at his worst still produces decent to good instrumentals, and at his best makes some of the best EDM production I've ever heard. And while his production here isn't some of his absolute best, it's still fantastic gives this song a ton of force and power for Ariana to just show off her vocal chops and finally break free from this asshole who is abusing her and sound proud as hell about it. It's just so cathartic and the song is just an absolute banger as well. 

Shoutout to my man https://rateyourmusic.com/~JosiahDBoss.

16. Maps - Maroon 5 (Peak #6, Billboard YE: #29, Jan-Dec: #27)

Yet another hot take (expect to see even more as the list goes one, there's a bunch more left). A lot of people hate this song, and I mean I get it. I get why someone would hate the vocals. But also, I absolutely adore them. Adam Levine has rarely sounded better if you ask me, just absolutely USING his upper range and just sends this across the line of quality just through his performance. The way he says "following" is just ear candy to me. I get why someone would be bothered by the lyrics about him following the maps that lead to this girl, but I honestly don't mind them and this song is just a bop. 

You see what I mean?

15. This Is How We Roll - Florida Georgia Line, Luke Bryan (Peak #15, Billboard YE: #49, Jan-Dec: #51) 

If you're surprised by this pick at this point, you are pretty obviously new to my blog, in which case, welcome, and you should probably know that I am a huge bro country defender. Sure it's got it's share of bad stuff like Sam Hunt or Bottoms Up by Brantley Gilbert, but most of it is just dumb fun. Sure it's cheesy and lame, but that's it's charm and as long as I don't take it seriously I can get a lot of dumb fun from it. And this song fits all those boxes. It's just a dumb song about their country lifestyle but it has a charm to it and damn if it isn't fun. Yes it's not even remotely deep, but if you're expecting it from Florida Georgia Line and Luke Bryan you are doing it wrong. It's just a really fun banger and bro country continues to be so overhated in my opinion. 

If you remember, I called Telepatia by Kali Uchis one of my Top 20 Best Hit Songs of 2021. It's an immcaulate piece of music and I'm very glad that Latin music has had a bigger mainstream US presence lately.

So what started this wave of success for Latin music? Well...

14. Bailando - Enrique Iglesias, Descemer Bueno, Gente De Zona (Peak #12, Billboard YE: #38, Jan-Dec: #39

Everyone always points to Despacito as the song that launched music from Latin America, in Spanish into the American mainstream, and while that song's massive success in 2017 defintely played a part, what people don't bring up is that this song played a big part as well. This was the first song entirely in Spanish to make a Billboard Year End list since The Macarena in the 90s if I'm not mistaken, and unlike The Macarena which was a novelty song, this became a hit because people just loved it as a song, and also because of a remix in English which adds Sean Paul, although from what I can see the Spanish version was much bigger of a hit. It spent 41 weeks at the top of the Billboard Latin Songs chart, which was a new record, and it held the record until Despacito. If you ask me, if this song had never had mainstream attention, we may have never had Despacito become as massive as it did. But anyway outside of how influential this song was, it's just an absolute banger. I love the Latin inspired percussion, the incredibly catchy hook, and especially just the way the three singers harmonize, just like bouncing off of each other so well, which just adds to the feeling of a dance captured through the sound. This song just radiates a party and of a good time and it's very infectious. 

One of the biggest hits of both 2013 and 2014 was Royals by Lorde, a song with an anti-materialistic message rebelling against out our materialistic society and the big pop songs about the good side of life of the early 2010s and is often considered the song that marked the switch in music trends from the upbeat sugar pop and club smashes of the early 2010s to the more dark and downbeat sounds of the late 2010s. While I do appreciate the anti-materialistic message of Royals, it's never really clicked with me on a musical level that much, and it's a song I respect more than I love. But, Lorde did get two follow up singles in 2014 to chart, one of which was Tennis Court which is just phenomenal, but unfortunately didn't get itself a year end spot so it couldn't make this list (it would have been really high if it had made the Year End). However, the other song did take off very big and it has all the anti-materialism of Royals, but with musicality that does work a lot more for me. 

13. Team - Lorde (Peak #6, Billboard YE: #18, Jan-Dec: #18)

As I said, this song has a very similar message to Royals but just clicks with me a lot more on a musical level. I love the opening pitchshifted vocals that sound like something out of a fantasy movie, the synths are a lot more well mixed than on Royals, and I just love how Lorde sings, she delivers the song a lot better than she did on Royals and just makes this song feel more hopeful than Royals ever was. I see Royals. It's a more optimistic song than Royals and that makes it work a lot better on a lyrical level than Royals did for me. 

So what did I put above a song with an important message like Team? 

A song about having sex with Katy Perry. Yes, I'm serious.

12. Birthday - Katy Perry (Peak #17, Billboard YE: #80, Jan-Dec: #84)

I know a lot of people in this community hate this song and consider it one of Katy Perry's worst ever singles. And I mean, I understand where they're coming from, but also I just love it. Yes it's a song about sex that uses cake and birthday metaphors and I mean I understand why someone would find that disgusting or whatever, unlike with a CERTAIN OTHER song that uses birthday cake as a sex metaphor, it doesn't bother me at all. And this song is just one hell of a pop banger. If I'm being honest this is better at being a dumb fun pop song than some of the Teenage Dream singles. And I say this as someone who considers Teenage Dream the album to be a mid to strong 8/10 (Prism is also a mid to strong 8/10 for the record). Despite not actually being about a birthday, the song just has the atmosphere of a birthday party and it's so much fun. I'm an absolute sucker for this kind of synth production and it's no different here, Katy sounds amazing, and this song has one of the catchiest hooks of 2014. 

So uh, the day I am writing this is my brother's birthday. You know what's coming. 

11. Hey Brother - Avicii (Peak #16, Billboard YE: #60, Jan-Dec: #62)

Need to start off saying RIP Avicii, you were a legend and your music will be remembered for decades to come. And while not AS LEGENDARY as his previous hit Wake Me Up (which also had longevity into 2014 by the way) which is one of my favorite songs of all time, Hey Brother is still damn exceptional in it's own right. The song is about how much the singer, Dan Tyminski loves his brother, and the bond they have with each other, how they will do anything for each other, and it's honestly so heart warming espicially since I have two brothers myself and as much as we may tease each other and argue sometimes, we have a bond together and I would do most things to save them. I'm an absolute sucker for songs about familial bonds, and this song is a fine example of that. I also just love how this song combines country/bluesgrass with EDM and does it perfectly with one of the best drops I've ever heard in an EDM song (and yet somehow not the best EDM drop on a song on this list, we'll get to that one). 

So yeah that was part 1 of my list of the best hit songs of 2014 in my opinion! Part 2 coming soon hopefully, thanks for reading!

Urtar Reviews signing out! I'll see you next time!