Theatrical emo balladry. Frisky K-pop. Pissed-off protest country-folk. Sentimental duet country-folk. Molasses-slow hip-hop B. Viral pop-rap. Songs from four years ago, seven years ago, 65 years ago. And those were just the No. 1s. It was pretty much chaos in the chart-pop world of 2023.
With hip-hop no longer dominating the Hot 100 like it had in the late ’10s and earliest ’20s — we didn’t even get a rap No. 1 until September — there was more open real estate on the chart than there’d been in a long time for genres like pop-rock, country and R B. Regional Mexican made its presence felt, as did songs from all over the musical spectrum steeped in Jersey club and New York drill. Latin pop and K-pop hitmakers new and old had major impact. And of course, there was always Taylor Swift, who was never more than a new remix, a new rarity, a revived old song or a re-recorded classic album away from storming the chart anew.
It was a wild year in pop, but a fruitful one. Returning stars gave us some of their biggest (and sometimes best) hits yet. Still-rising stars confirmed their longevity. And newly minted hitmakers — some of whom we’ve had our eyes on for a long time now, others of whom we’d never heard of before 2023 — kept making things interesting. Our list of the best songs of 2023 (songs that either came out in 2023 or peaked on the Hot 100 in 2023) takes stock of all of these, as well as songs by favorites who still haven’t grown to chartbreaking status, but who we hope will provide the “where did they come from??” stories of the next few years. (No “Cruel Summer,” though, we covered that back in 2019.)
