21st century
Showing 642 songs from the 21st century
Lose Yourself
Written between takes on a film set, delivered like a man with exactly one shot at everything.
Seven Nation Army
A guitar pitched down to fake a bass, and the seven-note riff every stadium on earth now sings.
Crazy in Love
Rich Harrison looped a Chi-Lites horn fanfare; Jay-Z turned up at three in the morning and improvised his verse.
Bad Romance
Written on a tour bus in Norway and premiered at Alexander McQueen's last show, all nonsense syllables and appetite.
Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)
Beyonce found Bob Fosse's Mexican Breakfast on YouTube; three Grammys and a decade of wedding receptions followed.
Hurt
Rubin handed Cash a Nine Inch Nails song, and Reznor watched the video and said it was no longer his.
Get Ur Freak On
Timbaland set a tumbi melody over tabla and left Elliott acres of empty space to fill.
Toxic
Minogue passed on it; Bloodshy and Avant hung a Bollywood string sample over surf guitar for Spears's only Grammy.
99 Problems
Rick Rubin's first rap production in years, a Billy Squier drum break, and a second verse about a traffic stop.
Work It
Timbaland's beat under a hook Elliott had reversed, a Run-DMC sample, and ten weeks parked at number two.
In Da Club
Dre's beat was offered to D12 and Rakim before 50 Cent wrote to it and held number one nine weeks.
Jesus Walks
A marching ARC Choir sample, Rhymefest's co-write, and a label convinced nobody would play a rap record about God.
Back to Black
Ronson cut it at Daptone with the Dap-Kings, sixties girl-group machinery rebuilt around a voice in ruins.
Rehab
Cut live to tape at Daptone in Brooklyn with the Dap-Kings, and it took Record and Song of the Year.
Paper Planes
Gunshots and a cash register over a Clash loop, with Brixton kids singing a hook about immigrant stereotypes.
Gasolina
A dembow riddim from Luny Tunes, an uncredited hook from Glory, and a place in the National Recording Registry.
M.A.A.D City
Sounwave and THC build the first half, Terrace Martin the second, and MC Eiht walks in from Compton's own past.
Last Nite
Built on the bones of Tom Petty's American Girl, which Petty confirmed without complaint, and recorded in Gordon Raphael's basement.
Stronger
West cleared the Daft Punk sample through their manager, had Timbaland reprogram the kick drums, and hit number one.
Gold Digger
Foxx sang the Ray Charles hook fresh from his Oscar for playing him, and it held number one ten weeks.
Crazy (Gnarls Barkley)
Cee-Lo cut the vocal in one take over a 1968 spaghetti western sample. Nine weeks at UK number one.
Feel Good Inc.
Maseo's cackle, Danger Mouse at the desk, and a song Albarn dreamed up driving past California windmills toward Coachella.
International Player's Anthem (I Choose You)
A Willie Hutch loop left alone at the top, and Andre 3000's verse reportedly returned with the drums stripped off.
Niggas in Paris
Hit-Boy's beat, a Blades of Glory sample, and twelve straight encores of it one night in Paris.
Mr. Brightside
Flowers wrote it after a bad night at a Vegas bar; Britain has kept it charting past 500 weeks.
Drop It Like It's Hot
The Neptunes built it from tongue clicks and almost nothing else, and it gave Snoop his first number one.
Get Lucky
Rodgers' guitar, Pharrell's vocal, Nathan East on bass, and disco walked back onto the radio wearing robot helmets.
Harder Better Faster Stronger
Edwin Birdsong's Cola Bottle Baby, found in a record bin, vocoded into a mantra Kanye West later borrowed wholesale.
Money Trees
DJ Dahi slowed Beach House's guitar intro and ran it backwards, and Jay Rock's verse steals the whole record.
Since U Been Gone
Pink passed on it and Duff couldn't hit the notes, so Clarkson asked for heavier guitars and won a Grammy.
Blank Space
Swift plays her own tabloid caricature, a clicking pen for percussion, and she replaced herself at number one.
Midnight City
Gonzalez built that shrieking hook from his own distorted voice, then let James King's saxophone close the record.
Poker Face
RedOne produced it at Record Plant, Gaga's mum-mum-mum-mah hook nodding to Boney M, and 2009's best-selling single worldwide.
Rolling in the Deep
Written with Paul Epworth in one afternoon after a breakup, and the credits list stiletto heels as percussion.
Thinkin Bout You
Ocean wrote it for Bridget Kelly's album, kept it instead, and the falsetto he reaches for does the rest.
Someone Like You
Dan Wilson of Semisonic at the piano, Adele singing, nothing else added; five weeks at number one.
Do I Wanna Know?
A stomping riff, a desert studio in Joshua Tree, and the band's first single to reach the Billboard Hot 100.
Royals
Sixteen years old, the lyrics done in half an hour, the title from a 1976 photo of George Brett.
Uptown Funk
Six studios, eighty-two takes at the guitar part, Ronson collapsing in the studio, and fourteen weeks at number one.
Ether
Ron Browz's beat, handed over before he knew its target, and a release date set on Jay-Z's birthday.
Can't Get You Out of My Head
Dennis and Davis wrote it in three and a half hours, and Minogue committed after twenty seconds of the demo.
Take Me Out
Two songs welded together, the tempo dropping a minute in, and a sniper film lending Kapranos his double-edged title.
Heartless
Auto-Tune, a TR-808, No I.D. co-producing, and Kid Cudi writing the hook: rap learned to sing from this.
Swimming Pools (Drank)
T-Minus made the beat for Trey Songz, who passed; Lamar turned the rejected demo into a study of addiction.
Wake Up
A wordless chorus half of indie rock then copied, and Bowie sang it onstage with the band in 2005.
Chandelier
Written first for Rihanna, kept by Sia instead, and given a video where an eleven-year-old dancer did the acting.
Clint Eastwood
Albarn built it on a melodica and an Omnichord's first preset; Del cut his verses in half an hour.
In The End
Shinoda's piano figure under Bennington's chorus took nu metal to number two, and the RIAA finally certified it diamond.
Pyramids
Cleopatra dragged into the present, two halves hinged on a midpoint beat switch, and John Mayer's uncredited closing solo.
Love Story
Swift wrote it in twenty minutes on her bedroom floor, gave Romeo and Juliet a happy ending, banjo included.
Float On
Brock wrote it in the final days of tracking, fed up with darkness, and built indie rock's warmest chorus.
All of the Lights
Rihanna sings the hook, Elton John plays piano, and West spent two years stacking fourteen singers behind the horns.
All Falls Down
Denied the Lauryn Hill sample, West had Syleena Johnson sing the part, and got his first solo top ten.
Maps
Zinner's looped riff, twenty minutes of writing from Karen O, and a video where the tears are real.
Izzo (H.O.V.A.)
A Jackson 5 chop, an arena chant, and Jay-Z's first solo top ten, courtesy of a young Kanye West.
Ignition (Remix)
A remix that swallowed its own original: number two in America five weeks, four at Britain's top.
Drunk in Love
Detail's beat was called "Drunk" before Beyoncé heard it; she and Jay-Z freestyled their verses in Manhattan.
Empire State of Mind
Two songwriters homesick in London started it; Keys and a Moments piano loop made Jay-Z's first lead-artist number one.
We Found Love
Calvin Harris wrote and produced it alone, and Rihanna rode ten weeks at number one, 2011's longest run.
Jesus, Etc.
Reprise rejected the album, Wilco streamed it free, and a sister Warner label put out these swooning strings instead.
Clocks
A piano riff Martin nearly saved for the next album, rescued by their manager, then Record of the Year.
We Belong Together
Fourteen weeks at number one, two soul interpolations underneath, and Carey singing softly rather than belting.
Style
Ali Payami and guitarist Niklas Ljungfelt built the track; Swift turned an on-off romance into a fashion metaphor.
Viva La Vida
Eno producing, Davide Rossi's looping strings, a deposed king narrating, and Coldplay's first number one in Britain and America.
Cry Me A River
Storch's clavinet, Timbaland's beat, and a breakup Timberlake spent years declining to explain; the Grammy arrived anyway.
Hold On, We're Going Home
Drake wanted a record that weddings would still play in ten years, and Majid Jordan's synths delivered exactly that.
Fallin'
Two chords, one piano, and Keys writing and producing her own debut single straight to Song of the Year.
The Way You Move
Eight weeks stuck at number two behind Hey Ya!, then Big Boi's live Atlanta horns finally took the top.
SexyBack
Timberlake sang it in a distorted low register borrowed from Prince, and it held number one for seven weeks.
Day 'n' Nite
Cut in Dot da Genius's home studio in East New York, using a Geto Boys favorite as its blueprint.
Wicked Games
Doc McKinney and Illangelo built the guitar figure and the fog; Tesfaye gave away House of Balloons for free.
Dirt Off Your Shoulder
Timbaland's beat is all snap and space, and in 2008 a presidential candidate borrowed the shoulder-brush on a Raleigh stage.
Skinny Love
Vernon cut it alone in his father's Wisconsin hunting cabin over a winter, and the falsetto still sounds snowbound.
I Am Trying to Break Your Heart
O'Rourke mixed this one song as an audition, won the whole album, and Wilco made it the opening track.
Can't Tell Me Nothing
DJ Toomp built the beat and bassline, West layered the strings, and Zach Galifianakis lip-synced it on a tractor.
My Girls
An arpeggio out of Chicago house, a sample from the Cassini Saturn probe, Lennox wanting only a home.
Irreplaceable
Ne-Yo pitched it as country, written with Shania Twain in mind; Beyoncé turned it into ten weeks at number one.