Billboard Names ‘100 Greatest Choruses of the 21st Century’!

Get ready to nod in agreement…

via GIPHY

Or completely lose your mind.

via GIPHY

Billboard has sparked a ton of online conversation by naming what they say are the ‘100 Greatest Choruses of the 21^st Century’ and people are FREAKING out.

Let’s define ‘Chorus’ so we are very clear.

According to Dictionary.com, a chorus is “a part of a song that recurs at intervals, usually following each verse.”

You can check out the full list below, but for the purpose of this article, let’s focus on the Top 10.

10. Miley Cyrus- ‘Wrecking Ball’

Miley released this song from her 2013 Bangerz album and it followed the smash hit, ‘We Can’t Stop’.

‘Wrecking Ball’ is probably best known for its provocative music video which features Miley literally swinging on a wrecking ball wearing very little; at the time of its release, the video held the Vevo record for the most views in the first 24 hours after its release with 19.3 million views.

‘Wrecking Ball’ also gave Miley her first ever number one single and spent nine weeks atop Billboard’s Hot 100 chart.

Miley performed the song at high profile events like the 2014 MTV Video Music Awards and Saturday Night Live.

Fun fact, the song wasn’t even originally written for Miley. According to songwriter Sacha Skarbek, a song-writing session that was originally set up to be about writing a song for Beyonce, ended up with Skarbek (and Dr. Luke) realizing that ‘Wrecking Ball’ was a better fit for Miley.

The song sparked several parodies and lip syncs, including this (awful) one by yours truly!

9. Nelly ft. City Spud – ‘Ride Wit Me’

WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT?

This isn’t even the Nelly song that I would have chosen (ummm hello, ‘Hot in Herre’?!?!)

Nonetheless, there likely wasn’t a bigger star in Hip Hop in the early 2000s than Nelly.

This song’s most well known lyric in the chorus is “Heeyyyyyy, must be the moneeeeeyyy”!

It served as the third single from Nelly’s debut Country Grammar album; the album also featured singles, ‘E.I.’ ‘Batter Up’ and the album title track, ’Country Grammar’.

Ya, not so sure about this one Billboard…

8. R. Kelly, “Ignition (Remix)”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y6y_4_b6RS8

I AM HERE FOR THIS (even if the guy behind the song weird me out a bit. Google R.Kelly at your own risk).

Back to the music, ‘Ignition (Remix)’ is one of the best R&B songs of all time. That’s my opinion at least. It is such a feel good party anthem (any song that says, “It’s the freaking weekend baby I’m about to have me some fun.” Is sure to be a hot track).

In 2010, Rolling Stone included the song on its ‘500 Greatest Songs of All-Time’ list; it also peaked at number two on Billboard’s Hot 100 chart.

R. Kelly performed the song at two of the biggest festivals of the year in 2013: Coachella and Lollapalooza, check out those performances below!

7. Katy Perry, “Teenage Dream”

See what I wrote for song #9 on this list.

Once you’ve done that, when I say ‘I KISSED A GIRL’, you’ll understand.

P.S. I LOVE Katy Perry. Just think she has a MUCH more memorable chorus.

6. Jay Z feat. Alicia Keys, “Empire State of Mind”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HhyUVM2w6ro

I admit bias here. Outside of Toronto, New York is my favourite city in the entire world.

The brilliance of this song is in its shout out to New York staples such as the New York Yankees, cabs, Statue of Liberty and so forth, but the chorus really demonstrates both Alicia Keys and Jay Z’s love for their hometown, “New York, concrete jungle/ Where dreams are mad of/ There’s nothing you can’t do/ Now you’re in New York.” 

The song marked Jay Z’s first ever number one on Billboard’s Hot 100 chart as a lead artist; it spent 5 straight weeks atop the chart.

‘Empire State of Mind’ was nominated for three GRAMMYs in 2009 and won two: Best Rap Song and Best Rap/Sung Collaboration.

The duo also performed the song at the 2009 VMAs and American Music Awards that same year.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RPQD5RT_MPg

5. Jimmy Eat World, “The Middle”

I freely admit to not being the biggest Jimmy Eat World fan. I don’t know too much about the band but their commercial success, especially with ‘The Middle’ is undeniable.

The band were able to tour with the likes of Weezer, Tenacious D, Blink 182 and Green Day off the strength of the song.

‘The Middle’ was used in an Apple Music commercial featuring Taylor Swift. Check that out below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DOIQ5i87-Kg

 4. OutKast, “Ms. Jackson”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WEkuqv1V4n4

At first, I was about to give this song the same treatment I gave to songs #7 and #9 on this list because I think OutKast has a more memorable chorus (see, ‘Hey Ya’). But to be fair, there isn’t much to that chorus and ‘Ms. Jackson’ is a really good song.

“I’m sorry Ms. Jackson (oh), I am for real/Never meant to make your daughter cry/I apologize a trillion times.”

In an interview with Vibe magazine Andre 3000 said ‘Ms. Jackson’ was inspired by his relationship with Erykah Badu and her mother.

He added, “‘Ms. Jackson’ was an acoustic guitar song that I was doing at home. Then I just converted it over into something people could understand a little bit more.”

It won the GRAMMY in 2002 for Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group and if you think Billboard are alone in their love for the song, think again. In 2011, Rolling Stone ranked ‘Ms. Jackson’ at number 55 on their “100 Best Songs of the 2000s” list.

3. The Killers, “Mr. Brightside”

Another song that I am not a massive fan of, but once again you can’t deny it its place on this list.

‘Mr. Brightside’ is from The Killers debut album Hot Fuss (2004) and remains their best-selling song with over 3 million copies sold.

‘Mr. Brightside’ is one of the top 20 most downloaded rock songs ever, it was named ‘Song of the Decade’ by two radio stations in Australia and in 2010, Rolling Stone had it on its list of the ‘Best Songs of the 21^st Century’ (at #48).

Here’s the crazy part about the song: it has one verse. But maybe that’s why the chorus is so memorable and on this list in the first place.

Lead singer Brandon Flowers said of the song, “We went in and made demos pretty quickly after that, and it took a ton of time. That’s also why there’s not a second verse… I just didn’t have any other lines and it ended up sticking.”

2. Kelly Clarkson, “Since U Been Gone”

Ya, I don’t get it.

I mean, I do in some sense, as two of the biggest names in music, Max Martin and Dr. Luke (who have worked with everyone) are behind the track, but for this to be NUMBER TWO?!?! Feels like a bit of a stretch to me, but let’s get into how popular this song and its chorus are.

Dr. Luke said this about ‘Since U Been Gone’ in an interview with Billboard, “That was a conscious move by Max and myself, because we were listening to alternative and indie music and talking about some song – I don’t remember what it was. I said, ‘Ah, I love this song,’ and Max was like, ‘If they would just write a damn pop chorus on it!’ It was driving him nuts, because that indie song was sort of on six, going to seven, going to eight, the chorus comes . . . and it goes back down to five. It drove him crazy. And when he said that, it was like, light bulb. ‘Why don’t we do that, but put a big chorus on it?’ It worked.”

It was the first single (and most memorable) off Kelly Clarkson’s 2004 Breakaway album and also won her the GRAMMY for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance (which isn’t too much of a surprise as Kelly absolutely kills it).

Like many songs, ‘Since U Been Gone’ was originally written with another artist in mind, Pink, but she turned it down.

Kelly would also be the first to tell you that she didn’t get its appeal at first, “It didn’t have any lyrics and the melody really wasn’t finalized […] the track was done on a computer, there was no band on it. My record label was freaking out about it and I was, like, why?”

Even if I don’t get it, the success of ‘Since U Been Gone’ is undeniable and remains one of Kelly Clarkson’s most popular songs, in large part to that powerful chorus.

Okay, now get ready for your head to explode.

The earworm of all earworms.

The NUMBER ONE song on Billboard’s ‘100 Greatest Choruses of the 21^st Century’ list belongs to…

1. Carly Rae Jepsen, “Call Me Maybe”

To be fair, this song probably has the most memorable chorus of any song on this list, “Hey, I just met you, and this is crazy, but here’s my number, so call me maybe!”

Hard to argue that you didn’t recite that line at least once in your life time (even if it was done mockingly).

First, a little background on the song.

Singer song-writers Tavish Crowe and Josh Ramsay (leader of Marianas Trench) are behind the song. Carly told Billboard, “That song, for me, has always been a little bit about how you wish you would have the confidence to act in real life. It’s the more fantastical side of things, where you go up to a complete stranger and do something wild that makes you feel alive. I think that everyone has a secret part of themselves that wants to have the confidence to do that.”

She added, “I was in Vancouver at my apartment, with [co-writer] Tavish Crowe to begin with, and he was just strumming some chords, and I sang out what I thought was a pre[-chorus]…We had a verse, we had a completely different chorus, and I thought that what I was singing at the time — ‘Hey, I just met you, and this is crazy’ — was just, like, filler lyrics. I mentioned to Tavish that we would fix them later, and he said, ‘No, I think they’re kind of quirky and light-hearted and fun. I think we should keep those.’”

That’s when Ramsay got involved and made one suggestion that would change the course of the song, “He went, ‘That pre-chorus is way hookier than the chorus that you guys have, so let’s repeat it.”

And there you have it, the song of the summer in 2012 was born.

Everyone from Justin Bieber, to Selena Gomez to Katy Perry found themselves jamming out to the former Canadian Idol contestant’s hit song.

In 2012, it was nominated for two GRAMMYs – ‘Song of the Year’ and ‘Best Pop Solo Performance’.

It is also in the top 5 of best-selling digital singles of all time.

What do you think of Billboard’s list?

What would you have as number one on your list?

To check out the rest of the Top 100, you can head over HERE.