Top Ten Songs of 2014 According to Rolling Stone

For those not familiar with the concept: I am in the middle of retrospectively compiling my top ten songs of each year of the 2010s. Afterwards, I compare it to the top ten picks of three very different publications: Rolling Stone, laut.de and Complex. Rolling Stone is probably the biggest music magazine worldwide and focuses on mainstream opinions, laut.de is a well known German music critic website who claims to have a good taste in music, and Complex is a former magazine, now website, who focuses on youth culture and music, and writes their lists subjectively.

So, what is to say about what Rolling Stone picked for their 2014 list?

Okay, that selection is... disappointing. I really have nothing against these artists, and not even against the songs, but what they chose as their top tracks are mostly... just solid. Those are tracks that are a fun listen of you are into this kind of music, but nothing that is mind blowingly outstanding. These are the types of songs that in case I enjoy them I'd include somewhere in the places 50 to 40, but definitely not in the top ten (unless it is such a massive earworm that I keep repeating it throughout the year). While always commercially interested, they usually at least picked the better mainstrean songs for their highest positions, those that left some sort of landmark in the decade's pop culture.

Numbers one and ten are justified to be in the top ten from their point of view, although I doubt that their first place really was the greatest American mainstream song of the year. About numbers 3 and 7... I am happy for these artists. They have influenced music history in the past and left a legacy of milestones and great songs. So yeah, their greatest time may be over, but they still are good.

My problem with this list is not so much that I don't think these songs are fine. It's more that I know exactly how much I enjoyed to retrospectively listen through my 2014 music library to pick my ten favorites, and what a tough choice it was for me to decide which ones I had to kick out - and how uninteresting this list is. I don't even expect them to dig deep into foreign markets or niche music. But at least pick the most memorable mainstream songs. For example: Linkin Park, Miranda Lambert and Maroon 5 had commercially and critically successful albums in the US, all of which had something outstanding to offer. Linkin Park were intensely emotional, Miranda Lambert was cheeky and wild, and Maroon 5 offered the catchiest earworms of this year. Why aren't they in the top ten? The latter two had a track at number 29 and 32, respectively, the first one not at all.

Source: https://www.rollingstone.com/music/lists/50-best-songs-of-2014-20141203, Created on 2/7/2018

The Top Ten

1 Drunk in Love - Beyoncé & Jay-Z