It’s that time again! All of my old best of the year polls prior to the move to Discourse have been lost like tears in rain, and maybe this’ll be the year when I run a new retrospective of all of them so we can get the results on record once again, but for now it’s time to pick the best chart-topper of 2022.
It’s been an interesting year in the charts; Mariah Carey’s December run at the top of the charts has reached its fourth consecutive year, a Disney soundtrack song made #1 for the first time in 30 years, Harry Styles had a record-breaking five non-consecutive runs at #1, and Taylor Swift became the first act to ever hold all of the top ten spots in the Hot 100 at once, a feat only ever approached by the Beatles when they held nine out of ten in 1964 at the height of Beatlemania (with the novelty song “We Love You Beatles” coming in at #10 that week).
14 songs made it to #1 on the Hot 100 this year, two of them being carryovers from 2021.
I didn’t listen to much pop radio this year, so I had to go to Youtube to hear most of these, and there’s a definite '80s synth-pop revival sound in quite a few of them that I’m really enjoying. (It didn’t make #1, but Tove Lo put out a single this year that samples Popcorn, of all things.) Pick your favorite, keep your feet on the ground, and keep on reaching for the stars.
Thanks for compiling this. I’ve made playlists of your previous lists in an effort to discover new and popular music or artists that I might enjoy. Sadly, I have not found any.
I was going to post that I’ve given up, but, what the hell, I will try once more. I’ll make a playlist of these tunes, give them a good listen, and possibly report back.
Indeed. I got my factoids mixed up and assumed the Beatles were more successful than Drake.
My vote was for Harry Styles. It breaks my heart to have to vote against Taylor Swift, but his song got the '80s throwback style more on point than hers did.
I’ll have to do a listening session over the next couple days for the songs I don’t recognize.
While you fellow Dopers wait in suspense for my vote, I have a question for you: “Heatwaves” was often praised for its originality, but to me, it sounds just like every other generic pop song on top 40 radio over the last 5 years or so. What am I missing about the song that makes people think it is so unique?
She will be removed from the poll when she either wins it or fails to reach #1 in a calendar year. (If she repeats her annual run this year and next year, she’ll break the current record for most weeks at #1.)
