Top Ten Best Hit Songs of 2017 part 2 5-1
5. Slide - Calvin Harris, Frank Ocean, Migos (Peak #25, Billboard Year End: #71, Jan-Dec Year End: #74)
This one doesn't require much explanation, it's just a massive summer bop. Frank Ocean's pitchshifted vocals over calm piano open up the song very well, before we go into a fantastic tropical house drop, then we have the hook from Frank that is really catchy and fun, before a verse from him, and then amazing verses from Quavo and Offset with several quotable lines. Just a really fun song. Heatstroke would be even higher on this list if it had been big by the way.
4. Swang - Rae Sremmurd (Peak #26, Billboard Year End: #64, Jan-Dec Year End: #67)
Okay I know a lot of people in this community hate this song, and I get it. I was once there with you. This song is in a similar vein to a lot of Young Thug songs where they take some getting used to for some people. For others they might not need to, and for others they might never get there. I'm of course talking about the falsetto hook that a lot of people in the community hate. And yeah I was with you for a bit but I did a full 180 on it and it now sounds magical! But also the rest of the song slaps too with a fantastic beat from Mike Will Made It, and a lot of quotable lines in the verses. My favorite being "I could've went to school to be a doctor, I dropped out and chose to be a baller".
While we're talking about songs this community despises that I adore...
Reputation is a 10/10 album and I will hear no words otherwise.
3. Look What You Made Me Do - Taylor Swift (Peak #1, Billboard Year End: #39, Jan-Dec Year End: #35)
This is only like the 5th best song on Reputation lol (the better ones are Delicate, End Game, Getaway Car and Call It What You Want for the record). But it's still a damn exceptional pop song that I will defend with my life. As I mentioned, this song gets a lot of hate from this community, and on a musical level at least, I get it. It's a mess sonically. But it's a good mess in my opinion, it's pure chaos in the best way. I love the buildups from the intro to the verses, from the verses to the prechorus, from the prechorus to the chorus. All the transitions are chaotic in a way I adore. Espicially with the bridge and phone call that a lot of people hate. With the "The old Taylor is dead" part. That part is pure chaos and I adore that. But where I feel people take this song too seriously are the lyrics. This song shows Taylor, just like on Blank Space from a few years earlier, playing into the rumors about her to play an evil, catty, vengeful villain who's out taking names. Key word is PLAYING. People are acting like this song is actually how she's acting or something. She plays the persona very well here and on a few other songs on the album, before shedding the persona with other songs on it including later single Delicate.Shoutout Ashley Jade (If you know you know).
2. All Time Low - Jon Bellion (Peak #16, Billboard Year End: #75, Jan-Dec Year End: N/A)
I listened to the album this song is from recently and it was fantastic. Nothing has topped this from it for me yet though. But that's because this song is phenomenal! This one is also a mess, but in a way that just fits together. It shouldn't, but it just does. Don't know how to describe it. Jon Bellion's voice is phenomenal, he conveys the emotion of depression perfectly. The production works well despite not doing so on paper. The lyrics conveying him being at an all time low hit hard, and especially the bridge where the song slows down and Jon Bellion is the only sound there sounding even more empty than before. The bridge is one of the best pop music moments of the decade, before the final chorus comes in with a bang. Also shoutout to Good Things Fall Apart, a song that would be my favorite hit of 2019 if it became one. So what managed to beat All Time Low?
One of the best hit songs of the year ten years before 2017, 2007, was Runaway Love, a song where Ludacris and Mary J. Blige tell the story of children who are abused or neglected by their parents. What if we took the opposite issue, made it a perfect pop song on a musical level, and made it a duet by a big 2000s artist who hadn't been relevant in over a decade and the woman who made one of the worst hits of the next year. And produced by an artist whose other biggest hit I find overrated.
`1. Rockabye - Clean Bandit, Sean Paul, Anne-Marie (Peak #10, Billboard Year End: #44, Jan-Dec Year End: #47)
This song has Anne Marie and Sean Paul tell the story of single mothers and their struggles to feed their children, having to work multiple jobs they hate to provide for their children so that hopefully they will have better lives than her. A heartbreaking issue, and Anne Marie sells the emotions so well, that it feels like she is the woman described. I'm a sucker for songs about parental love, and this is one of the finest examples. And as I said in the intro I think this song is a perfect pop song. The strings are incredibly beautiful, melodies perfect, singing great, Sean Paul's adlibs bouncing off Anne Marie are so good, hook catchy, this song works both as an upbeat pop song and as a heartbreaking story depending on what you're in the mood for. Unfortunately Anne Marie's follow up to this, 2002, was awful and thankfully didn't take off here in America, although we did get stuck with her collab with Marshmello, but that's another list. Rockabye by Clean Bandit, Sean Paul and Anne Marie! My pick for the best hit song of 2017!
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