January 2010 – Lady Gaga, Bad Romance

Other artists may have outsold Lady Gaga at points during the 2010s, but no one shook the foundations of the pop world more thoroughly. From the moment she exploded onto the music scene controversy followed her, centring on everything from her shocking outfits to her boundary-pushing music videos to her deliberately ambiguous gender. According to the US Billboard chart, Bad Romance was the most popular song of January 2010 in America. It also topped the charts in more than 20 countries and sold 12 million copies worldwide.

February 2010 – Ke$ha, Tik Tok

If Lady Gaga was pop music’s avant-garde darling in the 2010s, then Ke$ha was its unapologetic bad girl. Her song Tik Tok courted controversy by unambiguously condoning and glorifying the party lifestyle, even to the point of making throwing up and drinking more to delay the hangover seem aspirational. Of course, Ke$ha would later rail against this false and forcefully constructed persona and begin making music more in line with her actual views and ethos, but for better or for worse, Tik Tok never became any less of an earworm.

March 2010 – The Black Eyed Peas, Imma Be


If the Black Eyed Peas are experts at anything, it’s creating earworms that are catchy almost to the point of being infuriating. Imma Be is the perfect example, as it is basically just one hook on repeat for three minutes, with minimal lyrics and even less story. Nevertheless, the track became the Black Eyed Peas’ third number-one single following Boom Boom Pow and I’ve Gotta Feeling, and was also featured on The Hangover Part II soundtrack. What an achievement!

April 2010 – Rihanna, Rude Boy


Considering its relatively simple premise, it’s surprising how divisive Rude Boy by Rihanna was when it came out. While some critics and fans considered it to be the strongest part of Rihanna’s fourth album Rated R, others found it un-engaging and repetitive. Despite this, Rude Boy managed to achieve top-five charting placements in Germany, Hungary, Ireland, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Slovakia, and the United Kingdom. Despite being released in 2010, it surged in popularity again in 2023 after Rihanna performed it at her Super Bowl halftime show, leading to it going viral as a TikTok dance challenge.

May 2010 – B.O.B and Bruno Mars, Nothin’ on You


The defining characteristic of pop music for much of the 2010s was that it was too much: audacious, repetitive vocals, bombastic instrumentation and themes that often centred on going out, drinking hard, dancing harder and making mistakes. Against that backdrop, Nothin’ on You by B.O.B and Bruno Mars seems almost impossibly sweet, soft and wholesome, with its love story premise, blend of pop rap and R&B and music video featuring cut-out animation. Maybe that’s why it was nominated for Record of the Year, Best Rap Song and Best Rap/Sung Collaboration at the Grammys.

June 2010 – Eminem, Not Afraid


By 2010, rap legend Eminem was promoting his seventh studio album, Recovery. This album was supposed to represent a change in direction and existed as a counterpoint to Relapse, his previous project. As such, his single Not Afraid had more of an upbeat, anthemic and hopeful message than much of Eminem’s previous back catalogue, and this divided fans and critics alike. While many praised the bravery and vulnerability of this shift in tone, others found it less emotionally compelling, though this didn’t stop the track from going ten times Platinum.

July 2010 – Katy Perry and Snoop Dogg, California Gurls


In 2010, few musical alliances seemed as unlikely as that between Kay Perry and Snoop Dogg. Nevertheless, the princess of bubblegum pop and Snoop Doggy Dogg collaborated on California Gurls, the most candy-coloured of all pop anthems. The single was designed to be a counterpoint to Jay-Z and Alicia Key’s Empire State of Mind, and featured a music video in which Snoop Dogg was positioned as lord of the Candyfornia board game, while Katy played one of its cotton candy pieces. Critics called California Gurls the summer jam of 2010, so it’s not surprising that it debuted at number one on the US Billboard charts.

August 2010 – Eminem and Rihanna, Love the Way You Lie


Rihanna and Eminem both had hugely successful singles in 2010, so it makes sense that a collaboration between the two would be received just as well. Love the Way You Lie depicts a mutually-destructive relationship in which neither party is willing to leave, with Eminem choosing Rihanna to sing the refrain owing to their shared experiences of difficult relationships. The single sold over 12 million copies in the US and 1.5 million in the UK, and it remained at the number-one spot on the Billboard Hot 100 for a whopping seven weeks.

September 2010 – Katy Perry, Teenage Dream


Katy Perry’s Teenage Dream was one of the most colossal and decade-defining albums of the 2010s, so of course its title track had a big impact all of its own. Teenage Dream was Perry’s second consecutive number one after California Gurls, and was certified eight times Platinum in the United States, six times Platinum in Australia, four times Platinum in Canada, and Gold or Platinum in eight other countries. This mammoth performance has led to Teenage Dream being considered one of the decade’s biggest summer anthems.

October 2010 – Bruno Mars, Just the Way You Are

When it came to love songs, nobody had a tighter grip on the 2010 charts than Bruno Mars. Just the Way You Are was his response to other loved-up classics like Eric Clapton’s Wonderful Tonight and Sinéad O’Connor’s Nothing Compares 2 U, and centred on the simple premise of having a partner who was perfect in every way. Despite some critics calling the track “sappy and trite”, the song captured the imagination of the public, and it remained on the Billboard Hot 100 for a whopping 48 consecutive weeks.