Into Pieces

December 2, 2016 8:40 AM

It's here! It's December which means it's time for the yearly DJ Earworm: United State of Pop 2016.

Song Source List:

Bruno Mars - 24K Magic
Calvin Harris and Rihanna - This Is What You Came For
D.R.A.M. and Lil Yachty - Broccoli
Desiigner - Panda
DJ Snake and Justin Bieber - Let Me Love You
DNCE - Cake By The Ocean
Drake featuring Wizkid and Kyla - One Dance
Fifth Harmony and Ty Dolla $ign - Work From Home
Flo Rida - My House
Justin Bieber - Love Yourself
Justin Timberlake - Can't Stop The Feeling!
Lukas Graham - 7 Years
Major Lazer featuring Justin Bieber and MØ - Cold Water
Mike Posner - I Took A Pill In Ibiza
Rae Sremmurd - Black Beatles
Rihanna - Needed Me
Rihanna and Drake - Work
Sia - Cheap Thrills
The Chainsmokers and Daya - Don't Let Me Down
The Chainsmokers and Halsey - Closer
The Weeknd and Daft Punk - Starboy
Twenty One Pilots - Stressed Out
Twenty One Pilots - Heathens
Twenty One Pilots - Ride
Zayn - Pillowtalk

posted by Talez (29 comments total)

I was struggling with thinking of any radio pop songs I remembered from this year, and most of the ones I know off this are from late 2015 (everything except "This is What You Came For").

(Not "I don't listen to radio snobbery, I just happened to miss this year; if Taylor had released an album I'd have a dozen pop songs I knew from this year)
posted by Bulgaroktonos at 8:48 AM on December 2, 2016

Samples I recognized: zero.
My lawn: get off it.
posted by adamrice at 8:54 AM on December 2, 2016 [15 favorites]

Oh, man, that's a pretty hefty representation of 21 Pilots. Ergh...
posted by codacorolla at 8:56 AM on December 2, 2016

adamrice: I had the same experience. And I feel like I listen to new pop music? I like Rihanna and Taylor Swift. I'm hip. But I've never heard a single one of these songs other than 'Work.'
posted by 256 at 9:18 AM on December 2, 2016

I really loved One Dance and I hope that Nigerian pop gets more tightly integrated into US pop music. Wizkid is super fun, and there are folks like Yemi Alade, Iyanya, P-Square... so danceable!
posted by ChuraChura at 9:26 AM on December 2, 2016

I also did not recognise any of that.
posted by mary8nne at 9:38 AM on December 2, 2016

I don't understand, where's all the real music like Pink Floyd and Brahms and that caveman screaming from History of the World Part I.
posted by griphus at 9:40 AM on December 2, 2016 [6 favorites]

I listen to all kinds of music including top-40 pop and yet the one song I expected to be on here, Chet Baker's Let's Get Lost, apparently didn't even merit consideration
posted by beerperson at 9:43 AM on December 2, 2016 [3 favorites]

All right, then, I'll be the one guy who says that between radios in Ubers and the fact that my gym plays lots of top 40 I recognize most of these. It was actually a pretty strong year for pop.

(2009's USoP remains the best one)
posted by Itaxpica at 9:56 AM on December 2, 2016 [2 favorites]

Am I so out of touch? No, it's the children who are wrong.
posted by Sangermaine at 10:10 AM on December 2, 2016 [8 favorites]

I have no shame. I adore "Cheap Thrills."
posted by thivaia at 10:14 AM on December 2, 2016 [2 favorites]

I've been consistently listening to "Cheap Thrills" in the morning and then getting mad because it's stuck in my head all day as if I have no idea how it got there.
posted by griphus at 10:17 AM on December 2, 2016 [2 favorites]

My takeaway from the video:

- Maddie Ziegler is amazing
- Justin Timberlake is shrinking in relevancy
- I really thought Cake By The Ocean and Stressed Out charted in 2015, but was wrong.
posted by grumpybear69 at 10:20 AM on December 2, 2016

- I really thought Cake By The Ocean and Stressed Out charted in 2015, but was wrong.

Similarly "My House" has that Flo Rida vibe that kind of makes it sound like all his other songs so I also thought that was older.

And for having three 21 Pilots songs on the list I feel like they maybe got 6 seconds in this mashup but maybe they got autotuned past my ability to recognize them over a different beat.

Am I so out of touch? No, it's the children who are wrong.

I'm too lazy to even tell kids to get off my lawn. Off! *waves lazily from armchair*
posted by GuyZero at 10:33 AM on December 2, 2016

Also you may like to compare and contrast to Summermash '16
posted by GuyZero at 10:36 AM on December 2, 2016

I've been consistently listening to "Cheap Thrills" in the morning and then getting mad because it's stuck in my head all day as if I have no idea how it got there.


The same exact thing happened to me yesterday with "All-Star."
posted by grumpybear69 at 10:39 AM on December 2, 2016 [1 favorite]

I also did not recognize a single clip, but I thought the song as a whole was pretty good.
It's got a good beat and you can dance to it.
posted by MtDewd at 11:00 AM on December 2, 2016

And for having three 21 Pilots songs on the list I feel like they maybe got 6 seconds in this mashup but maybe they got autotuned past my ability to recognize them over a different beat.

Six seconds too much, but it makes me more likely to listen to it. I think it was a good year for pop, to be honest.
posted by codacorolla at 11:09 AM on December 2, 2016

I'm glad to know I'm not the only one in the dark here. I enjoy listening to pop music, and the only thing I recognized were the Rihanna songs. These are big names too, Bruno Mars, Drake, etc., but the songs are so mediocre that they never made it onto my radar.
posted by tofu_crouton at 11:10 AM on December 2, 2016

I've heard most of these ambiently through merely existing in the world. Maybe yall need to get out more!

I think "Black Beatles" is real good and I expect to see it on a few top 10 track lists this year. Just don't go looking on Youtube for white people doing acoustic r&b covers of it, if you value your sanity.
posted by naju at 11:12 AM on December 2, 2016

I was complaining about not knowing most of the songs eight years ago, you all are just catching up to me.
posted by octothorpe at 12:09 PM on December 2, 2016 [1 favorite]

My lawn: get off it.

I knew Jordan back at the University of Illinois. If I told you his real age you wouldn't believe me.

Rock on, Earworm.
posted by JoeZydeco at 12:18 PM on December 2, 2016

I'm fucking relieved beyond belief that the only thing I recognised there was Sia.
posted by New England Cultist at 2:06 PM on December 2, 2016

No Beyonce?
posted by OHenryPacey at 3:47 PM on December 2, 2016 [1 favorite]

I mean, I don't know. Shouldn't a 2016-themed mashup really just be a sequence of remixed incoherent screaming and sobbing?
posted by ilana at 9:13 PM on December 2, 2016 [5 favorites]

This one actually flows really well. And I recognized more of the songs than I thought I would.
posted by SisterHavana at 1:43 AM on December 3, 2016

Yay! I'm pretty sure it was Metafilter that got me onto DJ Earworm in the first place. (Some of the mixes are more "miss" than "hit," but it's all good.)
posted by iffthen at 5:32 AM on December 3, 2016

When it comes to DJ Earworm, I always look at the song as a thing of its own rather than "ooo, do I recognize the samples?" And when it comes to this song as a piece of work, on first listen I like it as much as 2010 or 2009, and I suspect after a couple of listens it may become my favorite. It's got a melancholy element to it that fits this year perfectly, and yet in the midst of that it manages to drop in some elements of hope.

It's not just about "were the top songs sampled?," it's about what he chooses to sample from them and how he assembles it. The song starts by acknowledging through several musicians that this year was hard ("the whole year put you in the worst mood" and "through the darkest of days"), and then brings in an element of love and hope ("welcome to my house / welcome to my city / welcome to my home / make it feel like the good old days / when we sing our song"). There's notes of desperation in it ("Look what you've done / I need a miracle / something magical / I need a miracle") as well as acknowledgement of the division and fear that's rising ("My enemy / you might be one of us"). Our year, in a nutshell, with a catchy beat.

This was exactly the thing I needed to hear right now.
posted by rednikki at 8:34 AM on December 3, 2016 [1 favorite]

That list of sources again, this time with links:

Bruno Mars - 24K Magic
Calvin Harris and Rihanna - This Is What You Came For
D.R.A.M. and Lil Yachty - Broccoli
Desiigner - Panda
DJ Snake and Justin Bieber - Let Me Love You
DNCE - Cake By The Ocean
Drake featuring Wizkid and Kyla - One Dance (Spotify link; no official YouTube video found)
Fifth Harmony and Ty Dolla $ign - Work From Home
Flo Rida - My House
Justin Bieber - Love Yourself
Justin Timberlake - Can't Stop The Feeling!
Lukas Graham - 7 Years
Major Lazer featuring Justin Bieber and MØ - Cold Water
Mike Posner - I Took A Pill In Ibiza
Rae Sremmurd - Black Beatles
Rihanna - Needed Me
Rihanna and Drake - Work
Sia - Cheap Thrills
The Chainsmokers and Daya - Don't Let Me Down
The Chainsmokers and Halsey - Closer
The Weeknd and Daft Punk - Starboy
Twenty One Pilots - Stressed Out
Twenty One Pilots - Heathens
Twenty One Pilots - Ride
Zayn - Pillowtalk
posted by Shmuel510 at 3:26 PM on December 6, 2016