The 20 Best Pop Radio Hits of 2019
Although Top 40 radio has been consistently uptempo and averse to ballads for most of the decade since the rise of Gaga and Guetta, there are more ballads on pop radio right now than there have been for a long time -- Lewis Capaldi's "Someone You Loved," Maroon 5's "Memories," Selena Gomez's "Lose You To Love Me," Taylor Swift's "Lover"....I hate it, bring back the beats.
Here's the Spotify playlist of these songs, and the lists I made in 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, and 2018. Here are the rap, rock/alternative, and country lists, will be wrapping up soon with the R&B list.
1. Sam Smith and Normani - "Dancing With A Stranger"
#2 Mainstream Top 40, #7 Hot 100
There's obviously not much convincing romantic chemistry in this duet, but Sam Smith and Normani both have these sultry pouty voices that complement each other really nicely. Obviously Max Martin's two decades of U.S. chart hits loom large over contemporary pop, but I think Stargate don't get enough credit for their last 14 years of smoothing out R&B and EDM and pure pop into one big shiny surface.
2. Post Malone f/ Swae Lee - "Sunflower"
#4 R&B/Hip-Hop Aiplay, #1 Hot 100
I don't think we've really reckoned yet with how enormously popular Post Malone is -- for the last couple years he's been as big as anyone in the past decade save for maybe Taylor Swift and Drake. It's absolutely embarrassing for American popular music, that this half-assed white rap balladeer has become such an incredible cultural force while being closer to Meat Loaf than Eminem. It speaks volumes, however, that I have nothing nice to say about Post Malone but still have positive things to say about every 3rd single he releases. "Sunflower" is absolutely a product of Swae Lee's genius, but Post Malone's back half of the song is still pleasant enough that I'm comfortable crediting it as the best thing he's ever done.
3. Shawn Mendes - "If I Can't Have You"
#4 Mainstream Top 40, #2 Hot 100
Shawn Mendes released one of the best songs of his career in May, and then released one of the worst songs of his career in June. The crap one, "Senorita," was the far bigger hit, but I was pleased that it didn't completely steal the chart momentum away from from "If I Can't Have You," which still ended up doing pretty well in its own right.
4. Katy Perry - "Never Really Over"
#11 Mainstream Top 40, #15 Hot 100
#11 Mainstream Top 40, #15 Hot 100
5. Dua Lipa - "Don't Start Now"
#18 Mainstream Top 40, #30 Hot 100
I was getting really impatient waiting for Dua Lipa to return, and I'm glad that she's staying right there in her sweet spot of danceable songs about heartbreak. The little flourish that has really grown on me is that little cowbell triplet that pops up in the chorus.
6. Ariana Grande - "Break Up With Your Girlfriend, I'm Bored"
6. Ariana Grande - "Break Up With Your Girlfriend, I'm Bored"
#3 Mainstream Top 40, #3 Hot 100
The two huge #1 singles from Thank U, Next are, I have to admit, just about my least favorite songs on the album. So the slightly less ubiquitous third single with the funny trifling-ass title was the one for me.
7. Zara Larsson - "Ruin My Life"
#18 Mainstream Top 40, #76 Hot 100
Zara Larsson has had half a dozen songs on US pop radio to varying degrees over the last few years without really becoming too well known here, and I hope she's kind of gradually sliding into this quietly ubiquitous niche like Ellie Goulding, her stuff is really pretty consistently excellent.
Zara Larsson has had half a dozen songs on US pop radio to varying degrees over the last few years without really becoming too well known here, and I hope she's kind of gradually sliding into this quietly ubiquitous niche like Ellie Goulding, her stuff is really pretty consistently excellent.
8. Jonas Brothers - "Sucker"
#1 Mainstream Top 40, #1 Hot 100
When I first heard "Sucker," I didn't think it was necessarily any better than "Pom Poms," the flop single from the Jonas Brothers' short-lived 2013 attempt at a comeback, so I was a little surprised that it raced to the top of the charts and became the biggest song of their career. But this thing has a lot of little hooks buried in it.
When I first heard "Sucker," I didn't think it was necessarily any better than "Pom Poms," the flop single from the Jonas Brothers' short-lived 2013 attempt at a comeback, so I was a little surprised that it raced to the top of the charts and became the biggest song of their career. But this thing has a lot of little hooks buried in it.
9. NOTD and Felix Jaehn f/ Captain Cuts and Georgia Ku - "So Close"
#30 Mainstream Top 40
EDM's impact on American pop radio isn't what it was a few years ago, but there's a pretty long tail on this stuff, still a couple of big hits at any given moment, usually by Marshmello or Zedd. A cluster of hitmakers including Felix Jaehn, the German DJ who remixed OMI's "Cheerleader" into a worldwide smash, and Captain Cuts, the production team behind Walk The Moon's "Shut Up And Dance," made this sugary little confection called "So Close," and I wish it had broken through to become one of the year's big dance pop songs.
EDM's impact on American pop radio isn't what it was a few years ago, but there's a pretty long tail on this stuff, still a couple of big hits at any given moment, usually by Marshmello or Zedd. A cluster of hitmakers including Felix Jaehn, the German DJ who remixed OMI's "Cheerleader" into a worldwide smash, and Captain Cuts, the production team behind Walk The Moon's "Shut Up And Dance," made this sugary little confection called "So Close," and I wish it had broken through to become one of the year's big dance pop songs.
10. Kygo & Whitney Houston - "Higher Love"
#29 Mainstream Top 40, #63 Hot 100
Dance producers have been scoring hits by throwing a new beat under an old vocal by a pop icon of yesteryear since Junkie XL and Elvis Presley way back in 2002. But the novelty of Norwegian producer Kygo's "Higher Love" is that we had never heard Whitney Houston sing Steve Winwood's "Higher Love" before, it was just something she recorded as a bonus track for the Japanese release of I'm Your Baby Tonight. So we get that weird moment of a classic '80s pop voice singing a classic '80s pop song we didn't know she ever sang, over big shameless modern production, and it really works.
#29 Mainstream Top 40, #63 Hot 100
Dance producers have been scoring hits by throwing a new beat under an old vocal by a pop icon of yesteryear since Junkie XL and Elvis Presley way back in 2002. But the novelty of Norwegian producer Kygo's "Higher Love" is that we had never heard Whitney Houston sing Steve Winwood's "Higher Love" before, it was just something she recorded as a bonus track for the Japanese release of I'm Your Baby Tonight. So we get that weird moment of a classic '80s pop voice singing a classic '80s pop song we didn't know she ever sang, over big shameless modern production, and it really works.
11. Normani - "Motivation"
#15 Mainstream Top 40, #33 Hot 100
In 2014, a typical Top 40 radio playlist might include Ciara, Beyonce, Alicia Keys, Kelis, or Christina Milian, among others. 15 years later, Normani and Lizzo broke through into a pop radio landscape that had become almost entirely absent of black women unless Rihanna had something new out or Beyonce had a duet with Ed Sheeran. That's not to say that R&B-leaning pop had disappeared, which is why I think it was a great use of Ariana Grande's superstar clout that she co-wrote Normani's first full-on solo single and helped her put a dent in the overwhelming whiteness of post-EDM pop radio.
12. Benny Blanco f/ Halsey and Khalid - "Eastside"
13. Niall Horan - "Nice To Meet Ya"
12. Benny Blanco f/ Halsey and Khalid - "Eastside"
#1 Mainstream Top 40, #9 Hot 100
People who had any knowledge of Hollertronix hipster rap horseshit circa 2007 probably think of this record cover when they hear the name Benny Blanco. But he's been a quietly ubiquitous hitmaker for the past decade, co-producing blockbusters like "California Gurls" and "Moves Like Jagger." This year, he released his first single of his own featuring two new school superstars, and it really grew on me, particularly after Halsey's performance of it on "Saturday Night Live." 
13. Niall Horan - "Nice To Meet Ya"
#21 Mainstream Top 40, #63 Hot 100
Harry, Liam and Louis all have albums either out or about to come out in December and January, but so far Niall has had the biggest radio single from this latest cycle of One Direction solo projects. "Nice To Meet Ya" isn't as good as "Slow Hands," but few things are, and it's kind of charmingly bombastic and self-assured, reminds me of something Robbie Williams might have released in the '90s.
14. Mabel - "Don't Call Me Up"
#16 Mainstream Top 40, #66 Hot 100
Mabel Alabama-Pearl McVey is a second generation pop star, the daughter of Neneh Cherry (and step-granddaughter of Don Cherry). And like her mom, she's much bigger in the U.K., where she's had 8 or 9 chart hits in the last 3 years. In the U.S., though, she's only moderately well known for this energetic little fake Rihanna song.
15. Fletcher - "Undrunk"
16. Lizzo - "Good As Hell"
Mabel Alabama-Pearl McVey is a second generation pop star, the daughter of Neneh Cherry (and step-granddaughter of Don Cherry). And like her mom, she's much bigger in the U.K., where she's had 8 or 9 chart hits in the last 3 years. In the U.S., though, she's only moderately well known for this energetic little fake Rihanna song.
15. Fletcher - "Undrunk"
#16 Mainstream Top 40, #61 Hot 100
Cari Elise Fletcher has kicked around the entertainment industry for a decade, acting and competing in the American version of "The X Factor." This year, she became one of those streaming era sad starlets with the short catchy breakup song "Undrunk," and I really would've preferred if this had been ubiquitous instead of those Camila Cabello songs.
16. Lizzo - "Good As Hell"
#1 Mainstream Top 40, #3 Hot 100
If you watched any middling studio comedies in the last 4 years, you already knew "Good As Hell" before its recent rise up the pop charts, because it had been featured in Barbershop: The Next Cut, A Bad Moms Christmas, I Feel Pretty, and Blockers. And "Good As Hell" was perfectly fine in those contexts, surely the perfect musical equivalent to A Bad Moms Christmas, but it feels like sweet relief on the radio it takes the place of "Truth Hurts," a song I can't fucking stand.
17. Pink - "Walk Me Home"
#26 Mainstream Top 40, #49 Hot 100
Pink turned 40 this year, and it's been interesting to see someone who once exuded so much bratty adolescent energy age gracefully into pop's cool mom. I still kind of wish she was belting out anthems, but the sneakily complex time signature of the modified waltz on "Walk Me Home" made it one of the more interesting things on pop radio this year.
18. Sam Smith - "How Do You Sleep?"
20. Arizona Zervas - "Roxanne"
#24 Mainstream Top 40, #5 Hot 100
Pink turned 40 this year, and it's been interesting to see someone who once exuded so much bratty adolescent energy age gracefully into pop's cool mom. I still kind of wish she was belting out anthems, but the sneakily complex time signature of the modified waltz on "Walk Me Home" made it one of the more interesting things on pop radio this year.
18. Sam Smith - "How Do You Sleep?"
#9 Mainstream Top 40, #24 Hot 100
I never thought I'd find myself rooting for Sam Smith, but they've really come into their own lately with the sad sultry dance songs, really looking forward to the next album.
19. BTS f/ Halsey - "Boy With Luv"
I never thought I'd find myself rooting for Sam Smith, but they've really come into their own lately with the sad sultry dance songs, really looking forward to the next album.
19. BTS f/ Halsey - "Boy With Luv"
#22 Mainstream Top 40, #8 Hot 100
I think I'd be a lot more interested in K-Pop if there was more singing and less rapping, I don't like Black Eyed Peas enough to want to hear BEP-style pop rap in a different language. But it's still interesting to see BTS make inroads to U.S. chart acceptance like few foreign language acts ever have before, and having Halsey do a sugary '80s pop hook on one of their songs certainly made it more palatable for me.
I think I'd be a lot more interested in K-Pop if there was more singing and less rapping, I don't like Black Eyed Peas enough to want to hear BEP-style pop rap in a different language. But it's still interesting to see BTS make inroads to U.S. chart acceptance like few foreign language acts ever have before, and having Halsey do a sugary '80s pop hook on one of their songs certainly made it more palatable for me.
20. Arizona Zervas - "Roxanne"
#24 Mainstream Top 40, #5 Hot 100
TikTok's latest chart sensation is a post-Post Malone white rapper from Hagerstown, Maryland, which makes perfect sense to me the same way it made perfect sense that Logic was from Gaithersburg. This song is ridiculous, I hope he gets UTFO or Roxanne Shante for the remix and we get a new wave of Roxanne wars.
The 10 Worst Pop Radio Hits of 2019:
1. Ava Max - "Sweet But Psycho"
2. Lizzo - "Truth Hurts"
3. Taylor Swift f/ Brendon Urie - "ME!"
4. Taylor Swift - "You Need To Calm Down"
5. Taylor Swift - "Lover"
6. Selena Gomez - "Lose You To Love Me"
7. Ariana Grande, Miley Cyrus, and Lana Del Rey - "Don't Call Me Angel (Charlie's Angels)"
8. Lewis Capaldi - "Someone You Loved"
9. blackbear - "Hot Girl Bummer"
10. Shawn Mendes & Camila Cabello - "Senorita"
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on Saturday, December 07, 2019 at 12:40 PM.
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