ILM's Top 100 Tracks of the 2010s

Voted for the Dua, Mitski, and Katy Perry tracks. "Teenage Dream" is the high point of the Dr. Luke/Max Martin maximalist radio pop run that included Sugababes, Kelly Clarkson, Kesha, Britney, and others. Lifted the electric guitar from "Since U Been Gone," folded in the enormous EDM backbeats of the 2010s, and ran it through the Max Martin songwriting formula (literally at 120 bpm) to create something that at once sounds like every other song and totally its own. Who can deny "You! Make! Me!"? Owen Pallett wrote a good music theory piece on it years ago:

https://slate.com/culture/2014/03/katy-perrys-teenage-dream-explaining-the-hit-using-music-theory.html

I Love It couldn't be older than 2010s because CXCX is on it.

But I guess it does kinda feel like she's been around forever too.

this is an extremely… white start to the rollout. sounds of blackness are sorely missing, or is “Uptown Funk” supposed to be a stand-in for those?

― big movers, hot steppers + long shaker intros (breastcrawl), Monday, August 15, 2022 2:24 PM (thirty minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

Goon crew has either left the site or doesn't really fw polls like this. Really only leaves pop perverts and imago.

I don't get the appeal of the Tove Lo and Tove Stryke songs, both are pleasant enough songs i wouldn't turn off if they came on the ten spot on a long satellite radio drive but they seem really lacking in immediacy compared to the Icona Pop or Katy Perry or Jack U songs for example.

I also think Bruno did better songs for sure, Locked Out of Heaven is way better than Uptown Funk and I should have voted for it.

i voted for a bunch of rap songs that will not sniff the top 100 :/

Don't Blame Me I Voted For Lex Luger

xp the Toves deliver a little more sophisticated take on pop that's admittedly not immediate like Icona Pop or Katy Perry, but rewards closer listening with regard to arrangement, construction, chord progressions, etc.

My challops today is that there are at least five other Katy Perry tracks from the 2010s that I find more immediate (and better) than Teenage Dream.

The weird thing about people thinking "I Love It" as being older than 2012, is that it was actually in 2013 when the song really blew up in the mainstream public consciousness.

I remember hearing it on Girls, which also feels older than it actually is.

For some reason I though it was used in trailer for the Jonah Hill film, "The Sitter", but that came out in 2011. So I suppose I'm probably confusing it with something else.

about 1/3 of my tracks ballot is rap

Woooo PSB was my #5! That Purcell DNA...the unabashed simplicity...the soul of England! Also love that the self-important petulance at the heart of the lyrics; very relatable. Still listening and dancing to this on like a weekly basis.

Some of the songs which I hadn’t heard in years are sounding better than I remember:

Andromeda, Feel You and Slow Burn

I completely forgot about that Tove Styrke. I'd likely have thrown it a vote if I'd have had the time to re-listen to everything.

"If I Could Change Your Mind" also placed at #56 in the 2014 Tracks Poll.

oops, missed this, completely forgot it was a single in 2014

Goon crew has either left the site or doesn't really fw polls like this. Really only leaves pop perverts and imago.

yeah this change in userbase is pretty obvious from the results generally (and has been in the EOY polls for like 5 years now) but this is about the only stretch that's so white

& a lot of the most interesting placements are in the 200-102 range

"pop perverts"

gtfo

might as well get this out of the way im not exactly thrilled by what some of you have deemed amongst the top 50 songs of the 2010s

More of what I voted for has shown up today than I expected - Chromatics, Katy Perry, Haim (Falling), Bicep, Selena Gomez

I voted for "Bad Liar"... will be happy if a small handful of my votes end up placing.

Sorry I missed today's rollout but "I Love It" was my #2, was worried that the whole rest of ILM had forgotten about it, glad to see it place even if too low. Absolute high-water mark of the kind of blown-out ridiculous just-go-for-it pop that it is. I am not in general a guy who shakes my fists in the air but I shake my fists in the air for "I Love It."

Three of my votes in the first 20! Wow. Four if I voted for "Uptown Funk," which I can imagine myself having done, but don't think I did. "I Love It," "Bad Liar," and "Snow is Falling In Manhattan." The Purple Mountains is the one I'm surprised more people didn't join me in.

I watched the first episode of Twin Peaks: The Return with a friend visiting from Sweden. She was really impressed by it, and especially by the beauty and the somewhat Nico quality of the Chromatics ending song and credits

Hate "Uptown Funk," should have voted for "I Love It."

I've voted for Selena, Mitski, and Jason Isbell so far. Would have voted for Tove Styrke too, but didn't. I must have just skimmed past it on the list.

i voted for "ego" and "falling" so far

favourite discovery is "operator (dj koze's disco edit)" which i surely heard back in 2016 when it placed but it's fresh to me now

listening to "teenage dream" now and the bridge is so mediocre, a good bridge would have really elevated it from good to great

I’m not into Katy Perry’s music, but I guess “Teenage Dream” is sort of her best song.

I really love the perseveration between the two chords in the verse and the offset between the massive bass and the melody in the chorus, and the thrilling way the treble movie-synths move in to take over

Glad to see Oranssi Pazuzu, Julia Holter, Mitski and Weyes Blood.

Is she supposed to be making pleasant sounds on "Teenage Dream"? I've hiccuped like that after three gin and tonics.

I don’t think “Teenage Dream” has a bridge?

anyone seen it?

“Birthday” is the one that would soar but for its meh bridge

I don’t think “Teenage Dream” has a bridge?

it's not much of one!

is the bridge the "heart racing in my skin tight jeans" section? (if so I'd say that's one of my favourite parts of the song!)

Thee of mine placed so far all females "Falling," "I Love It" and "Habits (Stay High)."

is the bridge the "heart racing in my skin tight jeans" section? (if so I'd say that's one of my favourite parts of the song!)

i think it's underwhelming as a bridge, not much movement or anything

Have I ever publicly admitted Firework is my favorite Katy Perry song? Not sure, but it's out there now I guess.

just catching up on desktop now -- the images are so good. thank you!!

"never really over" is my katy perry pick (though i didn't vote for it)

I know how much people hate the lyrics, and the Skip Marley rap is terrible, but setting those aside (if you can) I think Chained To The Rhythm might be her best single.

my biggest re-discovery of the lower section have been Haim. I was all about their singles in 2013 and I made it as far as the album, but didn’t come back to them at all afterwards, which is why I decided against voting for them - but both “Falling”, which was always my favourite, and “If I Could Change Your Mind” are fantastic still, it turns out. during my short kick this morning I also played “Forever” and “Don’t Save Me”, their other early singles.
one reason they were in my wheelhouse back then, as the rare rock(ish)/guitar(ish) band, are the dance remixes they had made, by people like Duke Dumont, Lindstrøm & Prins Thomas, Dan Lissvik and MK.

Is I Love It the end* of a pop era? It feels like there's a delineation between that/Teenage Dream and the other main pop to place here

*or, given how it features early CXCX, the bridge to the next one...

"pop perverts"

gtfo

Is I Love It the end* of a pop era?

much closer to the start of the EDM wave (roughly, 2011 to 2016?) than the end of it, pretty distinct from "teenage dream" which was just the latest evolution of dr. luke's sound dating back all the way to "since u been gone"

the genius of "i love it" is in how economical it is, just two sections - the chorus with that huge pounding synth riff & then a quick respite to build to the chorus again

yeah, listening to it again yesterday was absolutely bracing, that hook feels way more monstrous now after a few years of softer, more vulnerable sounds in main pop. trampling over billie eilish lol

in its own widescreen-emo way, ybag pulls a similar trick of economy and wish-fulfilment - a slow build-up into a massive chorus, and then, having given us the massive chorus, taking it away only for a second or two before plunging us straight back into the blissful soup of noise

A part of me will never be able to look past the fact that "Shadow" rips off "Wish Fulfillment" by Sonic Youth, but it's been one of my most-listened to tracks since it came out, so you kinda can't argue with those end results. And as pointed out it's indelibly linked with Twin Peaks.

― Chris L, Monday, August 15, 2022 11:08 AM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

never knew/realized this but all otm

several songs i like a lot in this bunch but nothing i voted for

selena gomez and uptown funk are the only ones i was sure i already knew. gomez is fine, uptown funk is not.
in the 5 years or whatever since i last listened to a haim song i still find them (or it if it's the same song i heard previously) relentlessly mediocre. don't really like anything that's placed so far tho tbf i only listened to the first minute of oranssi pazuzu and decided to spare myself the next 16 1/2 mins.

that’s the best minute, before the growling starts