C'mon + Crazy Kids + Red + Ride

I'll update these one-at-a-time because I'm just writing them now and will stop when I get tired.



20. Taylor Swift
Taylor went through the year with a series of brilliant singles from her album Red, which in itself was a great record to boot. She proved her ability to transition effectively to a more pop-oriented sound than ever before, crafting some of the catchiest hooks of her career and some of the best "pop-country" on Top 40 radio. The highlights of the year in Swift were the songs "Red" and "Starlight", some of the best songs she's ever made and some of the best any artist released in the last year-and-a-quarter.

19. Christina Aguilera
I'll be honest - I wasn't the #1 Christina fan prior to this year. I loved Bionic and select songs from other releases, but she just wasn't my cup of tea. However, since then, she's impressed me a lot, mainly through two key collaborations. The first of these was "Say Something" with A Great Big World - the song is a beautiful, heart-wrenching ballad that you can actually feel. Aguilera's powerful, emoting, yet light-at-the-right-times vocals connect with the simple, relatable lyrics and tug each of your heart strings one by one - this is a classic song. Later in the year, Aguilera teamed up with Lady Gaga on one of the greatest singles of the year for an epic ABBA-looking duet on the Voice - again she showcased superbly powerful vocals and proved her ability. Overall, Christina did with these two songs what few other pop stars manage to do with entire eras of their own.