Wow, I kind of dislike most of these songs and actively hate the remainder.
I don’t think that’s happened in previous years, where there was at least one song I really liked or at the very least found mostly ok.
I can’t recall doing one of these polls where so many songs had zero votes after a full day had passed - but then I’ll agree that most of those ones aren’t very good.
For me it was a tossup between the two Justins. I ended up going with “Love Yourself” because it’s a very clever way to do a dis track and I loved Ed Sheeran’s contribution. (I didn’t even realize Bieber was on it the first few listens.)
Looking at the year-end charts, there’s quite a few songs that didn’t quite make #1 that I would’ve considered voting for if they’d made it;
- Twentyone Pilots - “Stressed Out”
- Lukas Graham - “Seven Years”
- Mike Posner - “I Took A Pill In Ibiza”
- DNCE - “Cake By the Ocean”
- Gnash w/ Olivia O’Brian - “I Hate U, I Love U”
- The Weeknd w/ Daft Punk - “Starboy”
- Adele - “When We Were Young” (a better song than “Hello”, IMO)
Only know about half those songs and either dislike or am unmoved by most of the rest. Timberlake’s song is peppy and enjoyable but not a song I’d typically think of as best of the year. Upper mid-level at best in a world where actual musicality was expected in songs. The song I probably enjoy listening to the most is Closer, but again not a song I’d typically think of as good enough to be song of the year. I agree with Shodan that Rihanna is hot and I usually like her stuff quite a lot, but I’m sorry, Work sucks! (Largely because I know damn well she can hold her breath better than that! :D) Adele’s an odd lyricist and talented singer but takes herself too seriously for my taste, plus I’m tired of/over her. And Sia’s a talented singer but that stupid wig is all I think of every time I hear anything she sings.
On preview however I see songs I like quite a bit better. I like I Hate U, I Love You quite a lot, almost as much as Closer, and now that I’ve been reminded of it, Cake By The Ocean easily takes honors as my favorite single of the year.
And whitetho, Ex’s and Oh’s came out in 2014.
Would you believe it still made #63 on 2016’s year-end chart?
That’s interesting. I wonder why. Was it just on the chart that long? I still hear it on the radio fairly often. It may have also gotten a boost from Grace Vanderwaal’s cover which has drawn considerable attention, including a sweet and classy note from Elle King herself.
It was still in the Top 40 as recently as March, and doesn’t seem to have dropped out of the Hot 100 until late spring.
“Uptown Funk” had about the same longevity on the Hot 100 - I’m thinking that once a pop song gets enough crossover appeal to start getting airplay on adult contemporary stations, it doesn’t fall off the charts for a good long time.
Well that’s pretty cool. With such a dearth of good songs these days I’m happy for the few good ones to stick around as long as people are enjoying them. Funny you mentioned Uptown Funk, I almost posted above that if Bruno Mars had released anything it would probably be getting mention as a favorite for 2016. 
Oh, you haven’t heard 24 Karat Magic?
Aside from the ear-grating Auto-Tune intro (which thankfully is absent on the radio version), it’s darn good.
Well, as it turns out echos of this song, which I’ve only heard snippets of and thought was probably a few years old, were what inspired the impulse to almost mention Bruno Mars before. You’re right though, it a really good tune and I’m glad now to have heard all of it and how to find it. Thanks! 
These are the only songs that I knew without hesitation:
Adele - Hello
Justin Bieber - Sorry
I realized, after a quick check on YouTube, that these three are also familiar:
Justin Bieber w/ Ed Sheeran - Love Yourself
Rihanna w/ Drake - Work
Sia - Cheap Thrills
I’ve never heard the other ones.
Pass. Not one really good song in the lot. Hello and Sorry are tolerable, I guess but hardly compelling. Oh and the Rihanna w/ Drake entry is absolutely AWFUL.
Smapti has mentioned The Weeknd w/ Daft Punk’s Starboy and, while and don’t care much for it, I agree that it’s way better than anything on the list.
This is the only song from 2016 that’s worth remembering, in my view (EDIT: video is mildly NSFW).
I didn’t care much for “Stressed Out,” but I really liked “Ride” by Twentyone Pilots. I agree that “When We Were Young” was way better than “Hello,” and so is her most recent one, “Water Under the Bridge.” One other song that I wish had made it higher on the charts: “This Girl” by Kungs vs. Cookin’ on 3 Burners.
Justin Timberlake got my vote, it was a good single. Second place would be Chainsmokers.
Pass. I liked Paul Simon’s single this year, “Wristband,” so that’s my write-in vote.
Old fart.
^^^ Me Too.
Thanks for the opportunity to see what I’ve been missing. Justg listened to them all (or as much as I could stand) and not a single one was even remotely familiar. I haven’t missed a thing. It’s all mind-numbing percussion and an animated cartoon voice. Not one singer can really sing, and the arrangements sound like they’re aimed at an arena/stadium audience during a time-out.
So this is it, after thousands of years of musical evolution.
I like pop music but wow is that a bad crop of songs. Closer is definitely the winner. “Work” might be one of the worst pop songs ever. It sounds like a parody made bad on purpose. She starts to just mumble at one point.
I thought I was going crazy for suggesting it was the best song (even though I didn’t vote for it), but looking now through the music critics’ end-of-year lists, it’s pretty much in the top 10 of every single one. Hell, even the Brits put it at #1.
I haven’t heard the song, but I voted for Desiigner, because I like pandas.
I didn’t vote for it either (went for Sia), but it’s always good to hear Rihanna doing stuff in her native accent.
https://youtu.be/HL1UzIK-flA (link has subtitles on)
I went with Closer. Interesting that I’m familiar with most of the songs this year, although I had to YouTube most of them to remind me. I guess I did spend quite a bit of time at bars playing pop music this year.