Kendrick Lamar proved that he was a rapper, not like every other.
Beyoncé and Shaboozey blurred the colour strains in nation music, and Ariana Grande, Billie Eilish and Sabrina Carpenter gave us pop diva fever.
Listed below are the highest 10 tracks that rocked our world in 2024. And for the worst, go right here.
For extra from the Put up, see one of the best and worst motion pictures of the 12 months — and one of the best and worst of TV.
1. Kendrick Lamar, “Not Like Us”
What began as a Drake diss monitor in rap’s greatest beef of 2024 turned one thing greater after all of the mud from their dustup settled (in Ok-Dot’s favor). Hitting No. 1 in Could after which once more in July, “Not Like Us” turned a hip-hop anthem for the ages — a rousing rallying name even performed in the course of the Democratic Nationwide Conference. Whereas Lamar advised us to be “Humble” on his 2017 chart-topper, that is the fiercest of flexes from the 2025 Tremendous Bowl halftime present headliner.
2. Ariana Grande, “We Can’t Be Friends (Wait for Your Love)”
Sure, a bit of movie known as “Wicked” put the Grammy-winning diva within the Oscar dialog. However she additionally dropped one of many 12 months’s finest LPs in “Eternal Sunshine,” a cloud-busting breakup album. Better of all was her ninth No. 1 single: A gently throbbing goodbye — with Grande’s ethereal vocal bringing actual coronary heart to the electro-pop beats — it’s bittersweet bliss.
3. Billie Eilish, “Birds of a Feather”
After approaching laborious with the lustful “Lunch” — the primary single off her stellar third studio album, “Hit Me Hard and Soft” — Eilish killed us softly with “Birds of a Feather,” a flight of fancy that glides by the airiest of grooves and by no means appears to the touch the bottom.
4. Bruno Mars & Girl Gaga, “Die With a Smile”
Overlook the catastrophe that was “Joker: Folie à Deux” — Girl Gaga and Bruno had been the dynamic duo that we didn’t know we wanted on “Die with a Smile.” This celebrity assertion begins as a guitar-strumming “Shallow” ditty — rapidly making you neglect all about Bradley Cooper — and turns into a balls-to-the-wall wailer, with nice singers bringing it on an awesome tune.
5. Teddy Swims, “Lose Control”
Technically, the soul-crushing smash from this Georgia troubadour’s debut album, “I’ve Tried Everything But Therapy (Part 1),” got here out means again in 2023. But it surely didn’t hit the Prime 10 of the Billboard Scorching 100 till January 2024 — the place it remained for 45(!) weeks this 12 months, together with a March stint at No. 1. Swims — and his uncooked, unbridled ardour — had been unsinkable.
6. The Treatment, “I Can Never Say Goodbye”
The goth gods — who had been left for (strolling) lifeless after not releasing a brand new studio LP since 2008’s “4:13 Dream” — staged the unlikeliest of revivals with one of the best rock album of 2024: “Songs of a Lost World,” an enrapturing reflection on loss. And this haunting, heartbreaking ode to Robert Smith’s late brother, Richard, is the grief-ridden soul of all of it.
7. Sabrina Carpenter, “Espresso”
Setting off Carpenter’s summer season to recollect in spring, “Espresso” was the triple shot that gave her profession a much-needed jolt. A frothy, creamy confection that goes down extra like a Mocha Frappuccino — sprinkled with pure sunshine — it finds the 25-year-old songbird cooing the immortal phrases “I’m working late, ’cause I’m a singer” with a wink and an attractive shimmy.
8. Beyoncé, “Bodyguard”
“Texas Hold ’Em” was the tune that two-stepped to historic heights, topping each the pop and nation charts, with Queen B turning into the primary black girl to rule the latter. However there was an abundance of rustic riches on her groundbreaking “Cowboy Carter” opus, together with this breezy bop — a shoulda-been smash that’s the sort of seamless mixture of nation, pop and rock that you just would possibly anticipate extra from, say, Sheryl Crow or Kacey Musgraves. However but, it’s nonetheless Bey all day.
9. Shaboozey, “A Bar Song (Tipsy)”
First, Shaboozey was one of many black nation artists showcased on Bey’s “Cowboy Carter.” Then, the Nigerian-American breakout succeeded “Texas Hold ’Em” on the high of the nation charts along with his personal hand-clapping hoedown. Notching a record-tying 19 weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Scorching 100, it by no means did not get our giddy up.
10. Chappell Roan, “Good Luck, Babe!”
After releasing her debut album, “The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess,” final 12 months, Roan emerged as new pop royalty because of the sleeper success of her slow-burning single “Hot to Go!” and this even sweeter synth-pop delight. Regardless of all of her points with fame, this hit sealed her stardom.
