Robin Thicke’s “Blurred Lines” is the song of the summer. Let’s start there. Not to get all Hov on ya — cliché alert! — but men lie, women lie, numbers don’t.
Since the track was released in March, “Blurred Lines” has been the number one song in the country for 12 weeks, which is just absurd.
However, there’s a difference between a track being the song of the summer and a song being the best of the summer.
And, we’ll just say it now, “Blurred Lines” is not the best song of summer.
So what is?
We took a look at the 13 pop songs that dominated the 2013 summer months and ranked them below.
You disagree? Leave a comment and tell us why.
13. “Beat It” Sean Kingston, Chris Brown & Wiz Khalifa
“Beat It” has a breezy, effortless feeling. Nothing about this song feels forced — which is how collaborations are supposed to be. There’s also a good melody here. It’s a shame the lyrics on the chorus are generic as shit; we would have ranked it higher.
12. “Come & Get It” Selena Gomez
While Justin Bieber was off somewhere just being a dick, his on-again, off-again girlfriend was crafting a smash. “Come and Get it” stands out because of the exotic feel: Selena’s vocals have a reggae-twang to them, while Stargate’s beat is clearly inspired by music from Asia (think of all the cool shit Timbaland used to do with Nelly Furtado and Missy Elliott).
11. “I Need Your Love” Calvin Harris & Ellie Goulding
YO, is Calvin Harris going to eat off of this 18 Months album for the rest of his life? Shit, it seems like it. “I Need Your Love” is the seventh single to drop off that album and it might be his biggest yet. (OK, so it’s probably not bigger than “Feel So Close”). Elle Goulding is what makes this track shine: her unusual voice adds some character to a pretty standard club hit.
10. “Can’t Hold Us” Macklemore & Ryan Lewis
Out of the three The Heist singles, “Can’t Hold Us” works the best, compared to the corny “Thrift Shop” and the schmaltzy “Same Love.” “Can’t Hold Us” is big sounding track, a song that can move 50,000 people. It’s not surprising it became a hit: Kanye West has made a good living off of tracks like this.
9. “Versace (Remix)” Migos & Drake
Maan, shouts to Drake for always showing love. The A-list rapper didn’t have to jump on Migos’ underground street anthem, but he did, tripling the song’s worth. Not only that, but he didn’t come with no bullshit verse either: he snapped on this, rapping braggadocio we probably won’t see a lot of on the new album.
8. “I Love It” Icona Pop & Charli XCX
So this Icona Pop song has been floating around for a while now — it was in the damn Need for Speed video game that came out last year — but things didn’t start to pop for the track until GIRLS featured it. (That show is always showing love to indie pop). It only took a couple of days for the track to take off on the carts. Listen, we ain’t mad: defiant, angry pop music usually always works, word Queen Bey and “Ring the Alarm.” Oh, and we do hope that Icona Pop sends Lena Dunham a fruit basket, or something.
7. “Blurred Lines” Robin Thicke, T.I. & Pharrell
“Blurred Lines” is proof that music videos still matter. The first time we heard this song was when the video premiered back in March. The song was… eh, but the video was gold, featuring pop stars acting goofier than they should be around a bunch of half-naked models. The video doesn’t get old, the song, however, is still…eh. There’s just nothing here to justify the song being the hit it became (we’re still trying to figure out what the actual chorus is).
6. “The Way” Ariana Grande & Mac Miller
While all the other ex-child stars are trying to ratchet up their music, Ariana Grande kept things Clorox clean with her big single, something we could appreciate. She also made some other unusual, but key moves with her single: she steered away from electronic music, going for a classic ’90s inspired sound and she took a rap verse from the capable, but B-list Mac Miller, instead of going the regular 2 Chainz route.
5. “We Can’t Stop” Miley Cyrus
It’s hard defending Miley Cyrus after her whole VMAs fiasco, but here we go: “We Can’t Stop” is a really strong pop song. We like it because it’s actually unusually sad: the song has a slower tempo than most pop cuts, there are lyrics about drug use and she sings the hook in a droning kind of way.
4. “Power Trip” J. Cole
“Power Trip” is the sole reason why Born Sinner, J. Cole’s sophomore album, sold more than Kanye West’s Yeezus LP. The song is a smash and it deserved to be: it’s easily the best song of J. Cole’s catalogue. Cole is pretty whatever here (“Now typically I kick game like East Bay…” ugh) but it’s Miguel who shines, with a chorus that’s instantly special.
3. “Mirrors” Justin Timberlake
Justin Timberlake’s The 20/20 Experience wasn’t the all-time great album fans might have expected, but there were great moments, like “Mirrors,” JT’s ode to his wife, Jessica Biel. The song might be a shade too sweet, but the songwriting is sharp for a pop record.
Over the last couple of weeks, people have been talking about Kendrick Lamar, his verse on Big Sean’s “Control” and his competitive sprit. But don’t forget about Drake’s competitiveness. Months after Kendrick dropped a masterpiece, with his good kid, m.A.A.d city LP, Drake came out with a certified banger (maybe the liveliest of his career) with “Started From the Bottom.” The song doesn’t sound like a Drake record, which is just one of many reasons why it’s great.
When word came out that Daft Punk was making a new album, no one could have guessed that the duo would ditch the samples, synths and robotic sounds of the future and go for a sound of the past. Well, Random Access Memories, their fourth studio album, saw the French superstars embrace the disco era like no other album out. The funky, fantastic Pharrell-featured “Get Lucky” is a fair representation of what the album sounds like. We’re going to be playing this one for years to come, we think.
