Decade songs - 80 to 71

Featuring an Oscar winner, two viral hits, a flagrant misuse of a consonant as a vowel and the decade songs equivalent of giving someone an Oscar for something underwhelming because what's been regarded as their best work was previously overlooked...

80. Billie Eilish - Bad Guy
YouTube // Spotify
Track length: 3:14
UK release date: 29th March 2019
UK chart position: 2
Last decade's chart: N/A
Listens as at 8th October: 6
Gigs this decade: 0

Good old William Eyelash. Previously written off as a fad that I was too old for (and I'm not convinced I'm wrong about that), her song "You Should See Me In A Crown" being the theme for the NXT Takeover wrestling show we attended, and subsequently being played at every chance while we were there, led me to give her a chance and actually listen to her music. This is definitely the high point of the album, and is much filthier than you'd realise from a cursory listen, but as a signpost of the direction that pop music might be taking over the next ten years we're in for some great songs!

79. JJAMZ - Never Enough
YouTube // Spotify
Track length: 3:31
UK release date: 10th July 2012
UK chart position: N/A
Last decade's chart: N/A
Listens as at 8th October: 4
Gigs this decade: 0

I've seen three quarters of this band live over the last 15 years, as it features the drummer from Rilo Kiley, the lead guitarist from The Like, and the lead singer from Phantom Planet, but it's through the latter's partner that I discovered this song and video, as he's been dating Brie Larson since 2013. I'm fairly certain that's why she's appearing in the video for this track! Given the above credentials, you can pretty much guess how the song's going to sound and it won't disappoint you in that respect, but that doesn't make it any less lovely a listen.

78. Bebe Rexha - Last Hurrah
YouTube // Spotify
Track length: 2:30
UK release date: 15th February 2019
UK chart position: 50
Last decade's chart: N/A
Listens as at 8th October: 21
Gigs this decade: 0

One of those songs that the Spotify algorithm bludgeoned me with until I accepted that it's actually pretty catchy and fun. A consequence of mostly listening to the Daily Mix 1 playlist which featured all my favourite pop girls, with some suggestions from Spotify thrown in the mix. Leaving aside Bebe's habit of stretching out "hurrah" into eight syllables, the song doesn't overstay its welcome, ending abruptly enough to leave you wanting more. It remains to be seen whether she'll break through and have the career she's good enough to have - maybe not Swift/Beyonce/Grande tier, but definitely Ora/Lipa level.

77. Rebecca Black - Friday
YouTube // Spotify
Track length: 3:30
UK release date: 14th March 2011
UK chart position: 60
Last decade's chart: N/A
Listens as at 8th October: 1
Gigs this decade: 0

Ok listen shut up a minute. This isn't purely the best 100 songs from the 2010s in this list, it's also ones that encapsulate the decade, or had a big impact, and this certainly has the latter. This was everywhere online in early 2011, and even leaking out into real life (I realised how much when I heard someone whistling it at King's Cross tube station), a meme before we'd properly defined what memes were. Yes, it's not the greatest of songs, but if you asked 100 people to sing a line from each song on this list, this would definitely have more people able to sing than a large majority. Much like Poppy, she's also evolved her style over her career, albeit without the metal influences.

76. Astrid S - Emotion
YouTube // Spotify
Track length: 3:10
UK release date: 12th October 2018
UK chart position: N/A
Last decade's chart: N/A
Listens as at 8th October: 22
Gigs this decade: 0

Until a few years ago, Scandinavia's main export to me was cheap but decent players on Football Manager. After joining the Reddit subreddit Popheads and being exposed to smaller artists, I've realised the region is also a hotbed of pop bangers. Not just Nils Sjoberg or Max Martin's work, but others we'll meet later on. Astrid S is one that I found out about from the sub, a Norwegian with a habit of including lush sonic soundscapes in her work. 

75. Liam Payne & Rita Ora - For You
YouTube // Spotify
Track length: 4:05
UK release date: 5th January 2018
UK chart position: 8
Last decade's chart: N/A
Listens as at 8th October: 15
Gigs this decade: 0

The Fifty Shades saga is a series of films with soundtracks faaaaaar better than the films that they accompany. Owing to me being obsessed with a track from one of them, Spotify decided that I would clearly also like this song as well. Despite it having several no-nos (a male vocalist on a pop song?! From a boy band?!) they were right. It grew on me, it's a big sounding song, the epic sounding synth line provides a nice bit of consistency throughout and both Liam and Rita have believable chemistry.

74. Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros - Home
YouTube // Spotify
Track length: 5:06
UK release date: 28th July 2013
UK chart position: 50
Last decade's chart: N/A
Listens as at 8th October: 9
Gigs this decade: 0

I have no idea who this band are. I don't know if Edward Sharpe is a real person or not, what he looks like, how many band members there are, how magnetic they are, or the effect they have on compasses. What I do know is that I've heard this song on both Glee and Gossip Girl, and had it stuck in my head for weeks after both. It's catchy, and it's nice. It's a pure, pleasant song, the aural equivalent of watching a Robert Linklater film.

73. Emily Browning - Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This)
YouTube // Spotify
Track length: 5:18
UK release date: 22nd March 2011
UK chart position: N/A
Last decade's chart: N/A
Listens as at 8th October: 69 (nice)
Gigs this decade: 0

Oh look, this decade's first cover! Possibly one of the last too, I had a much longer list to choose from this time round (helped by starting to prepare in 2016). Sucker Punch is similar to the 80s flick Streets Of Fire - a much maligned film with a heavily praised soundtrack. I like the film, but can see where its detractors are coming from. However, it did make me aware of the lovely Emily Browning, an Australian actress who refuses point blank to follow in Kylie's footsteps and have a dual singing/acting career. She does grace us with plenty of songs for the soundtracks of films she appears in though, and it is off these scraps that we feed. 

72. Britney Spears - Clumsy
YouTube // Spotify
Track length: 3:02
UK release date: 11th August 2016
UK chart position: N/A
Last decade's chart: N/A
Listens as at 8th October: 8
Gigs this decade: 2

Look, we all make mistakes. While I didn't have a rundown for the 90s (although that gives me a cracking idea), not including "Oops!... I Did It Again" in the 00s chart was a travesty. I was young, foolish, and thought I was too good for pop music. This track isn't as good as Oops (but very few songs can come close) but it's the best one she's released in the qualifying period, from the 2016 album Ben, and was a definite highlight of her live sets when we saw her in 2018! It's difficult to listen to her output from this period, with the conservatorship situation hanging over her (basically she can't do anything fun without risking losing custody of her kids - read more here) so hopefully when I stick one of her five number ones from the next decade in the 2020s list, I can provide a happier update.

71. PVRIS - My House
YouTube // Spotify
Track length: 4:02
UK release date: 23rd September 2014
UK chart position: N/A
Last decade's chart: N/A
Listens as at 8th October: 36
Gigs this decade: 1

It's pronounced the same way as the French capital, if you're wondering. Another band I discovered via Alice, and there's another connection to number 83 as well - both Blake and Sierra from VersaEmerge contributed to the song writing. While I went for the first promotional single from the album White Noise, really I could've stuck a pin in the tracklist and any song would've done - they're all consistently bangers. It's a shame the second album never clicked with me, but if/when I get round to writing up an albums of the decade list, I can see White Noise sneaking on!

Next time...three separate female vocalists who have also been the first credit on different CW TV shows, a healthy chunk of rock acts and the first - but not the last - song in a different language.