Decade Songs - 50 to 41

Featuring three Buffy fans, more actresses turned singers, an artist acting while singing, and a Grammy winner...

Also, just a heads up here - most of the videos linked to feature attractive people wearing very little, so just be careful where you watch them.

50. Meg Myers - Sorry
YouTube // Spotify
Track length: 3:56
UK release date: 3rd March 2015
UK chart position: N/A
Last decade's chart: N/A
Listens as at 8th October: 22
Gigs this decade: 0

Meg is one of those artists who I know I'll never see live, without visiting their home country for the specific purpose of seeing them, but it won't stop me hoping. For a period she became a channel for frustration at work I didn't realise I had until reflecting on it - her early EP and debut album were frequently listened to on the walk to work to psych myself up for another day in the office, or to decompress on the walk home. It's angry music, but relatably so.

(Also try: Desire, Monster, but you might not want to watch them at work. They're not explicit but you might get a frown)

49. Mean Girls cast - Apex Predator
YouTube // Spotify
Track length: 3:14
UK release date: 18th May 2018
UK chart position: N/A
Last decade's chart: N/A
Listens as at 8th October: 6
Gigs this decade: 1

My first Broadway show! Not having enough limbs to pay for a Hamilton ticket, we decided to go to a musical re-imagining of the best teen film since Clueless and before Easy A. This was a standout highlight of the soundtrack when I listened to it in preparation of our trip, and the staging lived up to my expectations - the only thing that came close was introducing Regina George with a Bond-villain esque score! This track introduces the conflict you know is coming from the film, while subtly foreshadowing Cady's arc as well.

48. Kylie - All The Lovers
YouTube // Spotify
Track length: 3:20
UK release date: 11th June 2010
UK chart position: 3
Last decade's chart: 95
Listens as at 8th October: 12
Gigs this decade: 2

Another music video you probably shouldn't watch in an open plan office. Kylie is my test to see just how much social networks and search engines know about me - if the first result is the lesser Jenner sister, then they've not got a handle on me yet. Ms Minogue is probably my first crush, back when she was the sassy mechanic Charlene in Neighbours, an acting career she transitioned into a music career with some success in the UK. This is her highest charting single of the decade, and at time of writing (literally, if this paragraph takes me longer than 15 minutes I'll have to deduct one from the total) she has four more chart announcements to get a number one and prevent the 2010s being the first decade since the 70s in which she's not topped the UK singles chart at least once. That alone should demonstrate her longevity. She's the princess of pop for good reason. Have I elevated her in this chart because I'm ashamed of how low she was for Can't Get You Out Of My Head last time around? Perhaps. Or perhaps it's because of how she's a cultural institution in the UK, because of how she's adapted her output over the last four decades to keep up with the times without losing her style, because I saw her live over the last two years and realised what I'd missed out on, or because she's Kylie goddamn Minogue.

(Also try: Your Disco Needs You. It's from January 2001, but you need to listen to it.)

47. The Pretty Reckless - Make Me Wanna Die
YouTube // Spotify
Track length: 3:55
UK release date: 14th April 2010
UK chart position: 16
Last decade's chart: N/A
Listens as at 8th October: 106
Gigs this decade: 4

A band who - indirectly - got me listening to podcasts regularly! While surfing music channels at home I came across this chugging riff, before a blonde frontwoman picked up the vocals. I was intrigued. A hair metal sounding band, with a female lead singer? That's my catnip, why hadn't I heard of them before? I put out a tweet about them while googling the singer, Taylor Momsen, and got several responses referring to "Little J".

This just lead to further questions, as I couldn't see whom the initial "J" referred to. After much befuddlement I was gently pointed in the direction of Gossip Girl and realised that Taylor played Jenny Humphrey on the show. This discovery, coinciding with seeing Dana every weekend and her watching the show, led me to watching season 4 (weekly, with her) and the earlier seasons (to catch up on the scandalous lives of Manhattan's elite) in between playing the album, which helpfully was released about a month after I first heard this track. They became my 4th most listened to artist of 2010, which isn't bad considering I didn't know about them until late July. I've kept up with the band ever since, eagerly awaiting each release as they neatly fill the Donnas shaped hole in my life!

(Also try: Just Tonight, House On A Hill)

46. Halsey - Nightmare
YouTube // Spotify
Track length: 3:51
UK release date: 17th May 2019
UK chart position: 26
Last decade's chart: N/A
Listens as at 8th October: 6
Gigs this decade: 1

Having been on Tumblr since mid 2010 (jesus, where does the time go?) I was aware of Halsey when she was being heralded as the electro-pop queen. I drifted from her, preferring more sugary pop, until Dana got us tickets to see her performing at the Electric Ballroom in London (capacity 1,500), so I thought I'd better get caught up - starting with this track, her then most recent single. It was much heavier than I expected, but also far stronger, angrier, and well earned middle finger up from a woman who won't take shit any longer.

45. Anavae - Forever Dancing
YouTube // Spotify
Track length: 4:11
UK release date: 27th October 2017
UK chart position: N/A
Last decade's chart: N/A
Listens as at 8th October: 19
Gigs this decade: 11

A band I was recommended back in 2012, the London duo have slogged through so much this decade (label woes, lazy Paramore comparisons, more label woes) that you'd have every sympathy with them if they just jacked in being musicians and decided to stick to normal careers. Thankfully for us they persevered, and earlier this year released their first album (titled "45" - I had a quick reshuffle of this batch of 10 as soon as the title was announced!) which shows a harder, more resilient edge to them compared to their earlier stuff. It's been great watching the band grow and evolve over the last seven years, and this track - from the Are You Dreaming? EP - would have provided my MSN name for months if I were still using the service. Truly, no higher honour could be bestowed upon it.

(Also try: Shy Girls, Human, Feel Alive)

44. Foxes - Let Go For Tonight
YouTube // Spotify
Track length: 3:58
UK release date: 23rd February 2014
UK chart position: 7
Last decade's chart: N/A
Listens as at 8th October: 105
Gigs this decade: 7

A lot of this chart is going to be artists that aren't as successful as they deserve to be. Foxes is a prime example of this. Her output is the sort of effortless fun that other artists can only dream of attaining, cheerful pop that isn't shallow. Dana discovered her a couple of months before this was released, and we saw Foxes live on the day this charted in the UK top ten. Sadly that turned out to be her peak in terms of chart performance, as later singles have stumbled and after the release of her second album in 2016, she appears to have parted ways with her label - teasing new music in February last year and January of this, with nothing more concrete than that. However at time of writing she's been back in the studio, so hopefully 2020 will finally see some new music!

43. Chvrches - Clearest Blue
YouTube // Spotify
Track length: 3:53
UK release date: 10th September 2015
UK chart position: 195
Last decade's chart: N/A
Listens as at 8th October: 36
Gigs this decade: 1

Had a bit of an odd relationship with Chvrches. Their first album should've been right up my street but didn't click with me, the second one did immensely, and then the third barely made an impact (not helped by the band repeatedly taking swipes at pop stars I'm rather fond of in promo interviews). This was the third single from the second album, Every Open Eye, and hits that sweet spot of "one of those bangers that just builds and builds and builds until it explodes" that I'm weak for! Hearing it live at the Royal Albert Hall was one of my gig highlights of this decade. Still, one of my favourite authors (Chris Brookmyre) is a big fan of theirs, so I'll probably give album 4 a try out of curiosity.

(It's pronounced "Churches".)

42. Aly & AJ - Church
YouTube (NSFW WARNING)// Spotify
Track length: 3:14
UK release date: 29th March 2019
UK chart position: N/A
Last decade's chart: N/A
Listens as at 8th October: 11
Gigs this decade: 1

I've done that thing again where I've given myself ideal segues between songs without realising. The sibling duo we met at number 63 recur, under the act name they're known for - there's some record label shenanigans that we're not party to that have been going on, but luckily for the Michalka sisters it means they can appear here twice! Over the last few years they've been quietly releasing some mature synthy pop songs across two EPs (Ten Years and Sanctuary) and this is the best of a strong bunch, to the point where I've gone back and forth before I finally settled on the video with the butts in, for some reason.

(Also try: Take Me, Sanctuary)

41. Zedd ft. Foxes - Clarity
YouTube // Spotify
Track length: 4:31
UK release date: 14th December 2012
UK chart position: 27
Last decade's chart: N/A
Listens as at 8th October: 19
Gigs this decade: 0

The only song on this list to win a Grammy! (Probably.) Would not have given this a listen were it not for the appearance of the lovely Foxes providing vocals, a genuine delight whenever we've seen her live and deserving of more success than she's had so far. This is a bouncy cheerful tune, a regular on running playlists, and from the sort of genre that I have to check the info box on Wikipedia to identify! Fun fact: In the US, the main artist is known as "Zee".

Next time...two boy bands, two male solo artists, a song first performed in a TV show, and the only use of punctuation in a song title in the entire chart.