Every winter since 2008, DJ Earworm has combined the top 25 songs of the year into a single, catchy mashup. The United State of Pop is only ever as good as the raw material Earworm has to work with; fortunately, this year’s lineup was pretty solid.
2016’s charts were hip-hop first, with crucial entries from Drake, Rae Sremmurd, Ty Dolla $ign, Desiigner, D.R.A.M. and Lil Yachty. Justins Bieber and Timberlake deliver the crooning, and DNCE’s “Cake By The Ocean” provides a return to late 2000’s Swedish pop. Sure, there were three entries by Twenty One Pilots, but overall the list is solid and well-balanced.
And what did Earworm do with it? “Into Pieces” sounds like a Weeknd song with dozens of different vocalists and an actual hook. Funny, because 2015 was the year with three Weeknd tracks in the top 25.
Overall, 2016 is neither the best (2010) nor the worst (2014) of these mashups. At this point, let’s take what we can get.
