The Songs That Defined the 2010s
Apple Music
No decade in music has seen quite as much fundamental change as the one we just survived—the kind you can hear. The 2010s were post-genre, post-language-barrier, post-album, post-band, Post Malone—a time period that saw sounds and ideas from all eras and corners of the planet become one, often in the space of a single song, usually with some help from Drake or Beyoncé. From the cultural transcendence of “Despacito” to the 21st-century R&B of FKA twigs’ “cellophane” to the sociopolitical urgency of Kendrick’s “Alright” and the constant shape-shifting of Rihanna, Taylor Swift, and Ed Sheeran—these are the songs that defined the decade.