Once again, the time has come to look back on a tumultuous year of mainstream pop. Billboard added Youtube views to its Hot 100 formula, Miley Cyrus grinded her ass against a married man's crotch on national television, and most shockingly, Ciara got a hit song.
Just like last year, I'll be counting down the Top 10 best (and worst) hit songs of the year. And just like last year, I narrowed down each list according to two criteria:
1. Only one song per artist.
2. Each song must be taken from Billboard's Year-End Hot 100 (this list IS about hit songs, after all.)
So without further ado, let's get started!
So far:
Top 10 Best Hit Songs of 2013:
10. Mama's Broken Heart - Miranda Lambert
9. Treasure - Bruno Mars
8. Radioactive - Imagine Dragons
7. I Love It - Icona Pop feat. Charli XCX
6. Wagon Wheel - Darius Rucker
5. #Beautiful - Mariah Carey feat. Miguel
4. Swimming Pools (Drank) - Kendrick Lamar
3. Little Talks - Of Monsters and Men
2. Get Lucky - Daft Punk feat. Pharrell Williams
1. Can't Hold Us - Macklemore & Ryan Lewis feat. Ray Dalton
Top 10 Worst Hit Songs of 2013:
10. Started from the Bottom - Drake
9. We Can't Stop - Miley Cyrus
8. 22 - Taylor Swift
7. Crash My Party - Luke Bryan
6. I'm Different - 2 Chainz
5. Let Her Go - Passenger
4. Summertime Sadness (Remix) - Lana Del Rey & Cedric Gervais
3. Boys 'Round Here - Blake Shelton feat. Pistol Annies & Friends
2. #thatPOWER - will.i.am. feat. Justin Bieber
1. Harlem Shake - Baauer
Before I chose my Top 10, I made sure to go through each song on Billboard's Year-End list to see if there were any songs that slipped under my radar. One of them was 'Mama's Broken Heart', perched at #89. "Oh, great," I thought. "A mopey breakup ballad, and a country ballad, no less. Well, might as well get this over with."
Miranda Lambert, if you're reading this right now, I sincerely apologize for being so presumptuous.
Simply put, 'Mama's Broken Heart' took me completely off guard. It chronicles a scorned woman's rapid descent into madness in the wake of a nasty breakup, while her beleaguered mother begs her to pull herself together. Musically, the song is briskly paced and unrelentingly tense. Lyrically... good God, this song actually kind of frightens me. Miranda just keeps teetering back and forth between her commitment to her image and her primal desire for revenge and self-destructive rage while her sanity continually slips away from her. Near the end of the song, she leaves us with this:
Can't get revenge and leave a spotless reputation
Sometimes revenge is a choice you gotta make
And we never do find out what she planned to do for revenge, or if she ever actually did it...
On a much lighter note, we have Bruno Mars's funk-drenched love song, 'Treasure'.
Now, as much as I love Bruno, I can understand why a lot of people grew to hate him during the Doo-Wops and Hooligans era. 'Just the Way You Are', his debut single, was absolutely inescapable for at least half a year, and it was pretty damn sappy.
However, I see no possible reason for anyone to dislike 'Treasure'. For one thing, the schmaltziness that characterized most of Bruno's earlier songs is largely gone here, and the tone is far more carefree, playful and flirty ('baby squirrel, you's a sexy mother****er'). On top of that, it's every funk fanatic's wet dream, laced with retro- grade disco beats, slap-bass and R&B- drenched guitar riffs. One reviewer described it as a modern reincarnation of Michael Jackson's 'Rock With You', and I'm glad that I wasn't the only one who heard that resemblance.
Speaking of which, before anyone asks, yes, I've noticed that the song is suspiciously similar to Breakbot's 'Baby I'm Yours'. But you know what? The owner of Breakbot's label said that he doesn't mind and that if anything he sees 'Treasure' as a compliment, so shut up.
Mama's Broken Heart was co-written by much acclaimed new country singer songwriter Kacey Musgraves! You should check her out if you haven't. Her album is outstanding.
So without further ado, let's get started! 
hope to see it in your top 10 
I'm ready for your lists.
Treasure
one of my fave songs from Bruno
at Miranda Lambert, that I never expect to see from ATRL