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“Alright” by Kendrick Lamar is the best song of the 2010s in this editorial ranking, followed by Beyoncé’s “Formation,” Lorde’s “Royals,” and Robyn’s “Dancing On My Own.” The full list measures more than chart success: it considers craft, innovation, cultural influence, durability, and how well each song represents the decade’s collision of pop, hip-hop, R&B, indie, dance, Latin music, Afrobeats, and country.
The best song of the 2010s is “Alright” by Kendrick Lamar—not because it was the decade’s biggest hit, but because it combines extraordinary writing, performance, production, emotional force, and cultural meaning. Beyoncé’s “Formation,” Lorde’s “Royals,” Robyn’s “Dancing On My Own,” and 96 other songs follow in a ranking built around craft, influence, durability, and range.
How this ranking works
The 2010s ran from January 1, 2010, through December 31, 2019. They were not defined by one sound. The decade moved from downloads, radio, and maximalist electro-pop toward on-demand streaming, playlist discovery, short-form virality, global pop, trap, intimate R&B, Latin crossovers, Afrobeats, and genre-fluid production.
That makes “best” different from “biggest.” A decade-end sales or streaming chart can show which songs were most popular, but it cannot by itself measure songwriting, innovation, emotional endurance, political meaning, or how a song changed the musical conversation. This is an editorial ranking, not an official Billboard, Grammy, Rolling Stone, TIME, or Official Charts list.
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#1 Best Overall
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The candidate pool contained duplicate placeholders for “Royals” and “Call Me Maybe.” Each appears only once here. “Party in the U.S.A.” also appears only once. The replacement selections are “Bad Kingdom,” “On Hold,” and “Nobody.” A few late-2000s releases that remained central to early-2010s listening are marked as exceptions in the annotations; a strictly release-date-only list would remove them.
The 10 best songs of the 2010s
- “Alright” — Kendrick Lamar
Produced with a strange mixture of jazz looseness, hard rap precision, and an instantly memorable refrain, “Alright” became both a personal survival song and a public anthem. Its optimism is not naïve: the song’s power comes from placing hope inside a portrait of fear, exhaustion, racism, and structural violence. It is the clearest example on this list of a hit becoming part of the language of a decade. - “Formation” — Beyoncé
“Formation” makes Black Southern identity, beauty, wealth, history, and resistance inseparable from its sound. Its clipped, bass-heavy production is as controlled as Beyoncé’s vocal performance, while its video and Super Bowl presentation expanded the song into a major cultural statement. Few pop singles of the decade were so self-possessed or so deliberately political. - “Royals” — Lorde
Lorde’s breakthrough rejected the luxury imagery and vocal excess that had dominated much mainstream pop. The spare beat, low-register delivery, and sharply observed writing made minimalism feel enormous and helped announce a new streaming-era appetite for unusual voices and uncluttered production. - “Dancing On My Own” — Robyn
Robyn turned loneliness into kinetic release. The song’s bright synth-pop surface and devastating emotional premise create the defining contradiction: the body keeps moving while the narrator watches someone else leave. Its influence can be heard in the decade’s renewed interest in emotionally direct dance music. - “Rolling in the Deep” — Adele
Adele’s performance is the event, but the record is more than a vocal showcase. Its stomp, handclaps, blues and gospel references, and escalating arrangement give the song physical force before the chorus arrives. It brought old-fashioned vocal drama into the center of modern pop without sounding like a museum piece. - “Thinkin Bout You” — Frank Ocean
Frank Ocean makes romantic uncertainty feel architectural. The song moves from intimate confession to an almost weightless falsetto climax, using repetition and open space rather than conventional spectacle. It helped establish the decade’s taste for vulnerable, album-minded R&B that could be both highly personal and widely accessible. - “Uptown Funk!” — Mark Ronson featuring Bruno Mars
“Uptown Funk!” is a meticulously engineered celebration of funk, disco, and party-band swagger. Its precision is disguised as looseness: every horn stab, vocal aside, and rhythmic break is placed for maximum momentum. The result was a rare retro record that felt less like imitation than a fully functioning pop machine. - “Cranes in the Sky” — Solange
Solange’s song treats emotional pain with restraint rather than melodrama. The layered harmonies, gently shifting rhythm, and calm vocal leave room for the listener to recognize the many distractions people use to avoid grief. Its quietness is part of its radicalism. - “Blinding Lights” — The Weeknd
Released in 2019, “Blinding Lights” belongs to the decade by release date even though much of its enormous afterlife arrived later. Its synthwave palette, relentless pulse, and bright-yet-lonely melody turn 1980s references into a modern streaming-era anthem and make it a bridge between two pop decades. - “Runaway” — Kanye West featuring Pusha T
“Runaway” expands a pop-rap single into a study of self-sabotage. Its sparse piano, abrasive electronic textures, extended coda, and deliberately uncomfortable repetition give the song the scale of an art piece while keeping its central melody unforgettable. It represents the 2010s at their most ambitious, divisive, and formally adventurous.
11–50: the decade’s essential songs
- “Get Lucky” — Daft Punk featuring Pharrell Williams and Nile Rodgers — A polished meeting of French electronic music, disco guitar, and Pharrell’s relaxed vocal; its warmth made craft feel effortless.
- “Bad Guy” — Billie Eilish — Minimal bass, negative space, and a deliberately mannered performance turned understatement into pop spectacle.
- “We Found Love” — Rihanna featuring Calvin Harris — The emotional directness of Rihanna’s vocal gives a huge EDM drop a bruised, human center.
- “The Suburbs” — Arcade Fire — A widescreen meditation on growing up, memory, and suburban sameness that lets nostalgia become unsettling.
- “HUMBLE.” — Kendrick Lamar — Its blunt command, shape-shifting beat, and unforgettable video made technical rap feel immediate and unavoidable.
- “Love on the Brain” — Rihanna — A dramatic, rasping soul performance that turns romantic dependence into something physically felt.
- “Hotline Bling” — Drake — Its sparse, strange production and instantly recognizable visual language helped make conversational rap-pop the decade’s default crossover mode.
- “Lean On” — Major Lazer and DJ Snake featuring MØ — A global dance record whose restrained drop and international vocal identity anticipated borderless playlist pop.
- “Somebody Else” — The 1975 — Glossy soft-rock and electronic textures frame a particularly modern kind of breakup: jealousy filtered through distance and screens.
- “The Less I Know the Better” — Tame Impala — A sleek psychedelic groove carries a simple, painfully effective story of romantic defeat.
- “Take Me to Church” — Hozier — Blues, gospel, and alternative rock become a forceful rejection of religious hypocrisy and the policing of desire.
- “All Too Well” — Taylor Swift — Specific memory, narrative pacing, and conversational detail show how a breakup song can achieve the density of short fiction.
- “Call Me Maybe” — Carly Rae Jepsen — An apparently weightless pop song with extraordinary melodic economy; every section arrives exactly when it should.
- “Pumped Up Kicks” — Foster the People — Its sunny indie-pop surface and disturbing narrative made the contrast impossible to ignore.
- “Video Games” — Lana Del Rey — Slow, cinematic, and knowingly old-fashioned, it introduced a form of sad glamour that shaped 2010s pop aesthetics.
- “The Mother We Share” — CHVRCHES — Bright synths and a huge chorus make vulnerability sound communal rather than fragile.
- “This Is America” — Childish Gambino — A restless collision of gospel, trap, satire, and visual symbolism that refuses to let entertainment stay politically neutral.
- “Despacito” — Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee featuring Justin Bieber — More than a crossover novelty, it showed how Spanish-language music could occupy the center of global pop without abandoning its identity.
- “Old Town Road” — Lil Nas X featuring Billy Ray Cyrus — A compact, internet-native country-rap hybrid that exposed the instability of genre boundaries and the power of meme-driven discovery.
- “Truth Hurts” — Lizzo — Lizzo’s vocal confidence and quotable writing transform post-breakup self-respect into communal celebration.
- “God’s Plan” — Drake — Melodic rap, intimate confession, and a charitable visual campaign made the song feel both personal and socially expansive.
- “212” — Azealia Banks featuring Lazy Jay — Its rapid-fire flow, abrasive house beat, and fearless attitude remain among the decade’s sharpest examples of rap meeting club music.
- “Bad and Boujee” — Migos featuring Lil Uzi Vert — Triplet flow and ad-lib-driven structure moved from regional rap vocabulary into the mainstream.
- “Bodak Yellow” — Cardi B — A commanding performance and memorable cadence made Cardi B’s arrival feel like a change in the center of gravity for pop rap.
- “Black Skinhead” — Kanye West — Industrial percussion and a confrontational vocal create one of the decade’s most physically aggressive rap records.
- “The Story of O.J.” — Jay-Z — A deceptively simple soul sample supports a dense examination of race, money, property, and generational wealth.
- “Love Galore” — SZA featuring Travis Scott — Its elastic vocal lines and unsettled groove capture desire, resentment, and self-protection without resolving them.
- “Supercut” — Lorde — A dazzling pop rush about editing a failed relationship into its best moments.
- “Green Light” — Lorde — Piano-house energy and emotional disorientation turn recovery into something messy, physical, and exhilarating.
- “Chandelier” — Sia — The song’s enormous chorus and Sia’s acrobatic vocal make self-destruction sound both glamorous and frightening.
- “Elastic Heart” — Sia — A tense, resilient pop performance built around emotional contradiction rather than easy catharsis.
- “Shake It Out” — Florence + the Machine — Cathedral-scale drums and Florence Welch’s vocal give the act of leaving the past behind a ritualistic grandeur.
- “Dog Days Are Over” — Florence + the Machine (2008 release; included as an early-2010s impact exception) — Its accelerating percussion and ecstatic chorus became a defining festival and streaming-era release.
- “Some Nights” — fun. — A theatrical, choir-backed pop-rock song that makes uncertainty sound enormous.
- “We Are Young” — fun. featuring Janelle Monáe — A communal piano-rock anthem whose imperfections are part of its mass appeal.
- “Midnight City” — M83 — Its saxophone climax and neon synth architecture turned nostalgic electronic pop into a vivid cinematic language.
- “Ribs” — Lorde — A hushed, anxious meditation on aging that captures the fear of watching youth become memory.
- “Team” — Lorde — A low-slung, communal pop song about belonging without surrendering individuality.
- “The Wire” — HAIM — Crisp rhythm guitar, dry humor, and a perfectly economical chorus make the awkwardness of ending things sound effortless.
- “A-Punk” — Vampire Weekend (2008 release; included as a 2010s afterlife exception) — Its clipped guitar, unusual percussion, and compact arrangement remained a key indie-pop reference throughout the decade.
51–100: the essential second half
- “Diane Young” — Vampire Weekend — A frantic, polished burst of art-pop that compresses global influences into barely three minutes.
- “Holocene” — Bon Iver — Spacious acoustic production and fragile imagery make humility feel expansive.
- “Skinny Love” — Bon Iver (2007 release; included as a 2010s cultural-impact exception) — Its raw falsetto and stripped arrangement became a template for the decade’s confessional indie sound.
- “No Church in the Wild” — Jay-Z and Kanye West featuring Frank Ocean and The-Dream — Heavy percussion, philosophical tension, and Ocean’s searching hook create a grand opening statement.
- “Nights” — Frank Ocean — Its mid-song structural turn is one of the decade’s most memorable examples of a song using form to depict a divided life.
- “Pyramids” — Frank Ocean — An ambitious two-part composition that moves between historical fantasy, eroticism, and modern heartbreak.
- “Adorn” — Miguel — Warm analog textures and a tender vocal make classic soul feel contemporary rather than retro.
- “Untitled (How Does It Feel)” — D’Angelo and the Vanguard (2000 release; included as an explicitly labeled legacy exception) — Its influence remained central to the decade’s renewed appreciation for intimate, rhythmically complex soul.
- “Don’t Touch My Hair” — Solange featuring Sampha — A graceful statement of bodily autonomy, cultural identity, and self-definition.
- “Weary” — Solange — Layered harmonies and a measured arrangement make exhaustion sound both private and collective.
- “The Weekend” — SZA — An unstable, emotionally intelligent portrait of desire that helped define alternative R&B’s mainstream moment.
- “Girl Like You” — Blood Orange — Dreamy synths and fluid vocals create a soft, intimate atmosphere with a strong sense of place.
- “Retrograde” — James Blake — Sparse electronic production and a monumental chorus turn uncertainty into physical pressure.
- “Oblivion” — Grimes — Bright, alien pop disguises a complicated song about vulnerability and threat.
- “Genesis” — Grimes — Its digital textures and off-center vocal production helped define the decade’s internet-shaped art-pop.
- “Everything Is Embarrassing” — Sky Ferreira — A pristine, melancholy pop song about the humiliation and intensity of wanting someone.
- “Hard Feelings/Loveless” — Lorde — Two connected moods capture the movement from grief to emotional numbness.
- “New Rules” — Dua Lipa — A clean, rhythmic pop framework turns boundaries and self-discipline into a singalong.
- “One Kiss” — Calvin Harris and Dua Lipa — A restrained house groove and cool vocal delivery show how little a dance-pop hit needs when its fundamentals are right.
- “Into You” — Ariana Grande — A tightly wound, high-energy pop construction with one of the decade’s most forceful choruses.
- “Thank U, Next” — Ariana Grande — Direct, concise, and self-aware, it transforms personal transition into a generous public ritual.
- “Problem” — Ariana Grande featuring Iggy Azalea — Its whispered hook, brass accents, and bright pop architecture capture mid-decade radio at full efficiency.
- “Blank Space” — Taylor Swift — Swift turns the media caricature of the unstable lover into a sharply controlled piece of pop theater.
- “Style” — Taylor Swift — New-wave guitars and immaculate pacing give the song a sleek, durable sense of motion.
- “The Man” — Taylor Swift — A pointed examination of the double standards surrounding ambition, power, and public image.
- “Teenage Dream” — Katy Perry — Its rush of melody and uncomplicated romantic scale make it one of the decade’s great pure-pop constructions.
- “Bad Kingdom” — Moderat — Dark electronic atmosphere and an anxious vocal bring club music’s tension into an art-rock frame.
- “Firework” — Katy Perry — A maximalist empowerment anthem whose carefully rising arrangement makes the chorus feel physically uplifting.
- “On Hold” — The xx — A sample-driven, bittersweet dance track that finds movement inside emotional hesitation.
- “Wrecking Ball” — Miley Cyrus — Cyrus commits completely to the song’s melodrama, making the exposed vocal performance more memorable than the spectacle around it.
- “Party in the U.S.A.” — Miley Cyrus (2009 release; included as an explicitly labeled early-2010s impact exception) — Its simple, instantly recognizable pop-country formula made it a lasting cultural singalong.
- “Tik Tok” — Kesha (2009 release; included as an early-2010s impact exception) — Auto-Tuned irreverence, a pounding beat, and carefree excess helped open the decade’s party-pop era.
- “Poker Face” — Lady Gaga (2008 release; included as a late-2000s/early-2010s impact exception) — Its icy vocal hook and precise electronic production helped establish Gaga’s new-pop maximalism.
- “Bad Romance” — Lady Gaga (2009 release; included as an early-2010s impact exception) — Operatic drama, fashion-world imagery, and an instantly recognizable refrain made it an enduring pop landmark.
- “Somebody That I Used to Know” — Gotye featuring Kimbra — A stark duet about incompatible memories, built around a percussive hook that sounds unlike conventional pop.
- “Can’t Hold Us” — Macklemore & Ryan Lewis featuring Ray Dalton — A high-velocity, brass-driven rap crossover that turns ambition into communal momentum.
- “Thrift Shop” — Macklemore & Ryan Lewis featuring Wanz — Its humor, vintage-shopping premise, and instantly repeatable hook made non-luxury fashion a pop-rap subject.
- “Rockstar” — Post Malone featuring 21 Savage — Melodic trap and detached celebrity imagery capture the decade’s blurred line between rap and pop.
- “Congratulations” — Post Malone featuring Quavo — A surprisingly warm victory lap about making it through doubt and industry skepticism.
- “SICKO MODE” — Travis Scott — Multiple beat changes and shifting perspectives turn structural excess into the song’s central pleasure.
- “Money Trees” — Kendrick Lamar featuring Jay Rock — A beautiful, haunted groove supports one of Kendrick’s most vivid examinations of aspiration and consequence.
- “Power Trip” — J. Cole featuring Miguel — Its reflective verses and soulful hook balance rap confession with polished crossover songwriting.
- “Tennessee Whiskey” — Chris Stapleton — Stapleton’s grainy vocal and the song’s slow-burning country-soul arrangement made traditional feeling sound newly urgent.
- “Essence” — Wizkid featuring Tems — Smooth Afrobeats rhythm, intimate vocals, and relaxed pacing helped make African pop central to global listening.
- “Ye” — Burna Boy — A confident, groove-led song that demonstrates how Afrobeats can be both locally grounded and globally immediate.
- “Bailando” — Enrique Iglesias featuring Descemer Bueno and Gente de Zona — A major Latin-pop crossover whose rhythmic identity remains present even in its international form.
- “Mi Gente” — J Balvin and Willy William — Repetition, percussion, and collective energy turn the song into a global dance-floor language.
- “The Bones” — Maren Morris — A sturdy country-pop metaphor about a relationship surviving surface damage.
- “Springsteen” — Eric Church — Nostalgia becomes a sensory experience through small-town memory, old songs, and the emotional afterlife of youth.
- “Nobody” — Mitski — A disco pulse and a devastatingly direct vocal turn loneliness into something simultaneously catchy, comic, and painful.
What the list says about the decade
Hip-hop became the decade’s central pop language
Kendrick Lamar, Kanye West, Drake, Jay-Z, Cardi B, Migos, Travis Scott, J. Cole, Post Malone, and Childish Gambino represent several distinct developments rather than one unified rap sound. Political rap, trap, melodic rap, art-rap, viral rap, and pop crossover all coexist here. The shift is not simply that rap became more popular; its rhythmic logic, vocal phrasing, production choices, and visual grammar increasingly shaped mainstream music as a whole.
Rank #2
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Pop became more minimal, personal, and genre-fluid
The decade began with the maximalist electro-pop of Lady Gaga, Kesha, Katy Perry, and early EDM crossovers. It then moved toward the negative space of Lorde and Billie Eilish, the intimate detail of Taylor Swift and Ariana Grande, and the hybrid synth-pop of The Weeknd and Dua Lipa. Streaming rewarded songs that could make an immediate impression, but it also allowed unusual moods and unconventional voices to find large audiences.
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R&B favored atmosphere and self-definition
Beyoncé, Frank Ocean, Solange, SZA, Rihanna, Miguel, and related artists made vocal intimacy, unusual structure, and album-level sequencing central to the decade’s most influential R&B. Their work often treats identity as something actively made rather than passively represented. “Formation,” “Cranes in the Sky,” “Thinkin Bout You,” “The Weekend,” and “Love on the Brain” sound very different, but each uses performance as a form of self-definition.
Rank #3
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Indie and alternative music stayed culturally important
A chart-only list would miss the role of Arcade Fire, Bon Iver, M83, Vampire Weekend, The 1975, Tame Impala, CHVRCHES, Mitski, Grimes, James Blake, and The xx. These artists helped define the decade’s emotional vocabulary: anxious nostalgia, bedroom intimacy, synthetic alienation, and the desire to find community without flattening difference.
Global pop stopped being a side category
“Despacito,” “Bailando,” “Mi Gente,” “Lean On,” “Essence,” and “Ye” show how streaming and social discovery made national and regional scenes more visible across borders. Latin music and Afrobeats were not merely added to an existing Anglo-American mainstream; their rhythms, languages, and vocal identities helped reshape what the mainstream sounded like.
Rank #4
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Country is present, but not comprehensively represented
“The Bones,” “Tennessee Whiskey,” and “Springsteen” provide a meaningful country thread, but they do not constitute a complete account of 2010s country. A dedicated country ranking would need more room for the decade’s competing traditions: radio country-pop, Americana, bluegrass revival, roots music, and country artists working beyond Nashville’s mainstream.
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Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Songs that just missed the top 100
- “The Box” — Roddy Ricch: an unmistakable late-decade trap hit whose cultural afterlife was enormous, but whose long-term durability is still being tested.
- “Praying” — Kesha: a remarkable vocal and emotional turning point that narrowly missed the final ranking.
- “Habits (Stay High)” — Tove Lo: brutally candid electro-pop with one of the decade’s clearest portraits of self-medication after heartbreak.
- “Work” — Rihanna featuring Drake: a major dancehall-pop crossover and an important marker of Caribbean influence in mainstream pop.
- “Closer” — The Chainsmokers featuring Halsey: divisive but undeniably representative of the decade’s conversational electronic-pop formula.
- “Scars to Your Beautiful” — Alessia Cara: a direct body-image and self-acceptance anthem with lasting audience resonance.
- “The Middle” — Zedd, Maren Morris, and Grey: an efficient meeting of EDM-pop production and country-pop vocal warmth.
- “Silence” — Marshmello featuring Khalid: a restrained streaming-era collaboration that captures the decade’s preference for atmosphere and melodic clarity.
- “Electric Feel” — MGMT: excluded from the ranking because it was released in 2007, despite its continued circulation in 2010s playlists and culture.
- “The Chain” — Fleetwood Mac: excluded for the same reason: its enormous later use and influence do not make it a 2010s release.
A listening order for the full 100
Do not listen strictly from number 1 to number 100 if you want to understand the decade’s range. Start with the top 10, then move through contrasting clusters:
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| Cluster | Start with |
|---|---|
| Political and socially conscious rap | “Alright,” “Formation,” “This Is America,” “The Story of O.J.,” “HUMBLE.” |
| Pop evolution | “Royals,” “Bad Guy,” “Blank Space,” “New Rules,” “Blinding Lights” |
| R&B and soul | “Thinkin Bout You,” “Cranes in the Sky,” “Love on the Brain,” “Adorn,” “The Weekend” |
| Indie and alternative | “Dancing On My Own,” “The Suburbs,” “Midnight City,” “Retrograde,” “Nobody” |
| Dance and electronic crossover | “Get Lucky,” “We Found Love,” “Lean On,” “One Kiss,” “On Hold” |
| Latin and global pop | “Despacito,” “Mi Gente,” “Bailando,” “Essence,” “Ye” |
| Country and roots | “Tennessee Whiskey,” “The Bones,” “Springsteen” |
That sequence makes the central story easier to hear: the 2010s were not a single genre’s decade. They were the decade in which pop became a meeting place for rap, R&B, electronic music, indie, country, Latin music, and sounds from around the world.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is this an official ranking?
No. This is an editorial ranking, not an official Billboard, Grammy, Rolling Stone, TIME, or Official Charts list. Commercial performance is one consideration, but the ranking also weighs songwriting, innovation, cultural influence, emotional durability, and genre representation.
How was the 2010s release-date boundary handled?
The decade is defined as January 1, 2010, through December 31, 2019. A small number of late-2000s songs are clearly labeled as exceptions because they had an unusually large early-2010s cultural afterlife. Songs such as “Electric Feel” and “The Chain” are excluded because their original releases fall outside the decade.
The Tool Desk
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What is the difference between the best and biggest songs of the 2010s?
The list treats “best” and “biggest” as different questions. A chart can measure sales and streams, but artistic importance also involves writing, performance, production, influence, emotional endurance, and whether a song represents a meaningful change in the decade’s musical culture.
The Bottom Line
“Alright” is the strongest overall choice for the best song of the 2010s, but the decade’s real musical story is the collision around it: Kendrick Lamar’s political rap, Beyoncé’s cultural command, Lorde’s minimalism, Frank Ocean and Solange’s intimate R&B, global Latin and Afrobeats breakthroughs, and an increasingly borderless pop mainstream.
Quick Recap
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