Bops and Flops Milton’s Decade Wrapped
Image courtesy of Billboard
By GRACIE DENEEN ‘21
This decade created some killer music. In the last ten years, the world was exposed to Frank Ocean’s beautiful melodies in 2010, One Direction’s “What Makes You Beautiful” in 2011, Billie Eilish’s lulling voice in 2016, and most importantly, PSY’s classic “Gangnam Style” back in 2012. This musical prowess begs the question: What was the best music of this decade? Who made the biggest influence on this decade’s music? Who paved the way for music in the future? In order to answer these questions, let’s take a closer look into the music of the 2010s.
According to a survey emailed to the upper school, students loved the music of this decade! Out of the 41 responses, the most popular (39% of students) choice was “AMAZING,” while only 2.4% of students said the music was “terrible.” When asked about the top 3 most “important” (up for interpretation) artists of the decade, Drake most commonly earned the #1 spot on the list. 13 out of the 35 responses mentioned Drake on their top 3 list, and of those responses, 8 people had him as the first name on their list. However, Drake’s popularity shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone; many of his songs of the past decade including One Dance, Hotline Bling, and God’s Plan, appeared in the top 10 of Billboard’s top 100. Additionally, Drake was named Spotify’s most streamed artist of the decade with his album “Scorpion,” the first album to gain 1 billion global streams in only one week, according to the Washington Post.
Billie Eilish and Beyoncé tied for second place, with 7 votes each. After Billie Eilish’s first song in 2016, she was named the first artist born in the 21st century to top the Billboard 200, according to Vox. In contrast with Billie’s recent fame, Beyoncé has ruled the music industry since 1997, when she sang with the group “Destiny’s Child”. Beyoncé’s career needs no explanation; she’s created numerous hits, stunned countless audiences, and influenced the entire world of music. Though neither Billie nor Beyoncé appeared on Spotify’s end-of-decade top artists charts, they both proved themselves to be influential artists. Spotify’s end-of-decade charts listed the most streamed artists as Drake, Ed Sheeran, Post Malone, Ariana Grande, and Eminem. Billboard has yet to release their end-of-decade statistics, but they’re due for publication on April 29th during the Billboard Music Awards.
Milton students had varying opinions regarding the best and worst songs. The most popular song, according to the survey, was Uptown Funk by Bruno Mars, which had earned the #1 spot on Billboard’s top 100 of the decade. Interestingly, “Call Me Maybe” by Carly Rae Jepsen received two votes as the best song of the decade, three votes as the worst song of the decade, and sits at the 13th spot on the chart. Two people said that “anything by Eminem” was the worst song. “Somebody that I Used to Know” by Gotye got a vote for worst song, even though it sits at the 8th spot on the chart. The overlap between popularity and infamy is very apparent through these statistics.
This decade was full of both great and terrible music. We supported old icons, discovered new ones, loved songs, hated songs, and created love-hate relationships with the same song. Let’s see who keeps their popularity, who loses it, and who ultimately emerges as the top artist of the 2020s.