Year-End Special – 2016: A Year In Review

What a year 2016 has been. If I'm being really honest here, 2016 was certainly not one of the best years we've had. It has been filled with some obnoxious trends, some very sad deaths, and a new President that's probably going to do more harm than good. Sure, we got some good things out of 2016. I mean, the Chicago Cubs won the World Series for the first time since 1908. So that's pretty historic. I can now say that I lived to see the Cubs win a World Series. But there was a lot that made 2016 a little bit of a shitty year. I think the big thing was the deaths of some of our music legends. The two biggest ones? David Bowie and Prince. Me personally, I have enjoyed quite a bit of David Bowie's music. He was a very talented individual his death definitely saddened me. I haven't listened to much of Prince's music, but I know a lot of people probably looked up to him and considered him their idol, which I can completely understand. But yeah. Those two deaths were ones that were all over the news days after they occurred. They definitely made 2016 not as good as we had hoped it would be.


As far as the music that we got this year, I'm not that impressed. Don't get me wrong, we certainly did get a load of good music this year, which you will see when I count down my Top 45 Songs of the Year. But we also got a lot of shitty music. However, I will say that a lot came from the rap genre, which really does not surprise considering that this isn't the first year we've gotten a load of trashy rap music. But aside from that, we also got some bad singles from new artists, which is never good because then they have a bad first impression. There were some pretty bad songs from artists that I like, which is very disappointing. So what I'm going to do right now is I'm going to count down the worst songs of 2016. However, I'm going to do it differently than I've done it previous years. I'm going to count down the 10 worst songs of the year overall. So it will not be restricted to only songs that were on the Weekend Countdown. It can be any song from this year. So let's get into my Bottom 10 Songs of 2016. But first, here are my dishonorable mentions!

• AJR – I'm Not Famous
• Beyoncé – Sorry
• Bruno Mars – 24K Magic
• Calvin Harris/Rihanna – This Is What You Came For
• Charlie Puth – One Call Away
• Dawin – Dessert
• Desiigner – Timmy Turner
• Future/The Weeknd – Low Life
• Jacob Sartorious – Hit Or Miss
• Jason Derulo – Get Ugly
• Lady Gaga – Perfect Illusion
• Meghan Trainor – No
• Meghan Trainor/John Legend – Like I'm Gonna Lose You
• Post Malone – White Iverson
• Ruth B. – Lost Boy
• Selena Gomez – Hands To Myself
• Selena Gomez – Kill Em With Kindness
• Selena Gomez – Same Old Love
• Symon – Say
• Travi$ Scott – Antidote
• Twenty One Pilots – Ride

Bottom 10 Songs Of 2016
10. Lukas Graham – Mama Said - This group brought an amazing song this year known as 7 Years. But I gotta say, this was a really weak follow-up. The verses are just straight up mediocre and I cannot stand the chorus. Grabbing a bunch of kids to join you in the chorus of a song is not always a good idea. Sometimes it may work, but this time it did not. And my goodness that last chorus is painful to listen to. Let's just move on because this song does not deserve anymore of my time.


9. Beyoncé – Formation - I guess you can call me a Beyoncé hater because I don't like the majority of her songs. However, she is talented and she does have a good voice. Only issue is that she doesn't use it in songs like these. She has not proved herself to be a good rapper and unfortunately she still does it on songs like Formation. Overall, it's a very weird song and not weird in a good way. I do not like the instrumentation. And as one my favorite album reviewers, ARTV, quoted, "The opening sound effects sound like somebody plucking a rubber band to try and get the sound."


8. Kent Jones – Don't Mind - I'll admit that this song isn't as bad now as it was back when it was actually popular. The reason behind that is probably because a lot other shitty music came around afterwards and made Don't Mind actually seem like a decent song in comparison. I still think the production is very lazy and the lyrical content is just dumb. And no, it is not cool when you throw in lyrics in all these different languages that you probably used Google Translate for.


7. Rihanna/Drake – Work - Some may consider this to be one of the overhated songs of 2016. But honestly this song is just straight up crap just like the majority of Rihanna's new album. When I think of Rihanna's music, I think of songs like Disturbia and Umbrella, both of which were amazing songs, not this excuse of a song. Being one of the two songs to completely overuse the word "work", it's very repetitive and soon enough the chorus just becomes impossible to understand. Drake adds absolutely nothing to the song and the production overall is just very lazy. And it sucks because I love Rihanna. I guess I can understand that she's trying something new like she did with FourFiveSeconds and American Oxygen. But this just does not work. And it's not just her music. Her featuring in Calvin Harris' This Is What You Came For is rather disappointing as well. But I won't get into that. Those who have been with me for the past few months know how I feel about that song.


6. Zay Hilfigerrr/Zayion McCall – Juju On That Beat - It's fun to see these attempts at catchy songs come around and then do very poorly around the world. I'd like to point out the United States is the only country where this song was a Top 10 hit. I'm rather ashamed by that. It makes America look bad. Honestly we really do not need songs like this one that only have the intent of starting new trends. Like most rap songs nowadays, it just doesn't make sense. I'm not following any of the lyrics. It's honestly just a flat out mess that's pretty much only trying to be that one big anthem of the year. And did it happen? No! It just came and went. Absolutely no one will remember this in a few months. At least I hope not.


5. Jacob Sartorious – Sweatshirt - Yep. It's official. Anyone, despite their age and level of talent, can become famous. Pretty sad if you ask me. Especially when you get someone like Jacob Sartorious, who looks like he's nine-years-old. His level of talent is pretty much all the way down into the negatives. Honestly, I do not know how the hell this guy thinks he can a singer. His voice legitimately sucks. And I don't need the whole, "He's only a kid, stop being so mean." What he needs to realize is that when you become famous, no matter how old you are, you have to learn how to accept criticism because everyone gets it. My piece of advice? Take some damn vocal lessons. Thankfully Sweatshirt was not a huge hit as it was on the Billboard Hot 100 for one week. But honestly kid, you need to step up your game big-time.


4. Kiiara – Gold - Oh look. Another artist that has ultimately failed to impress me with her debut single. First off, if you title your EP, "low kii savage", I legitimately cannot take your seriously. I've listened to this song quite a few times and I honestly do not know what is going on or what is being sung because I can't understand any of it. And I cannot stand those obnoxious vocal effects that come up in the song like four different times. That part is extremely repetitive and it was honestly never even good. Similar to Formation, this song is just weird, and not the good kind of weird. It's the kind of weird that just makes you want to slowly step away. Overall, obnoxious vocal effects, lame beat, and weak use of lyrical content. I doubt anyone will remember who Kiiara is in a few months from now and Gold will just be forever buried in the cemetery of forgettable songs.


3. D.R.A.M./Lil Yachty – Broccoli - Here we go again with a song that made the Top 5 here in the United States while not even making the Top 20 in every other country. America, you need to seriously get your shit together. And as I was thinking that I would never find anyone in the hip-hop/rap genre with a voice worse than Fetty Wap, I find Lil Yachty. His voice is just beyond annoying. How no one stopped this utter piece of shit from being produced I will never understand. This is unfortunately where our music is headed and frankly, I'm just ashamed. It's embarrassing that this song actually peaked in the Top 5 here in America. The music video is atrocious. I do not see how anyone can possibly enjoy this. If America actually thinks this song is good, we're going to have some serious issues. I can tell you right now that this song is not making me want to eat broccoli. In fact, it's driving me further away from it.


2. MØ – Kamikaze - With songs like Broccoli and Juju On That Beat, there are at least those people that can see the atrocity these songs are. But with Kamikaze, I feel very alone with this opinion. But I don't care because this song is shit. Complete shit. And this is coming from someone who actually considered Lean On to be one of the best songs of 2015. Right off the bat, this girl sucks when she is solo. Her Major Lazer collaborations have been very good, but her solo singles have been rather obnoxious. MØ has one of those voices that can either sound really good or really awful depending on how she uses it. Unfortunately with this song, she shows off what I do not like about her voice. Especially when she's shouting, "Kamikaze!" It just does not sound good with the song's production, which is another issue I'm having. I cannot stand the production. It was very poorly done. This honestly sounds like something a child would've done, which actually kind of makes sense since MØ's voice sounds a lot like the voice of a child. If you ask me, I think MØ should just stick to doing featured roles on professional DJ-produced tracks. Something like Lean On or Cold Water.


1. Desiigner – Panda - Those who know me well really should not be surprised by this. I'm disappointed at the fact that this was actually a #1 hit in America (no surprise). And Billboard had quite the nerve to put this song at #6 on their Year-End Hot 100. This song is an amazing example of everything I do not like to hear. Like 90% of the rap songs today, this song has a really lazy and obnoxious beat and production. Unfortunately it does not change at all during the song so it does sound very repetitive. But it's also the "vocals" and "lyrical content" that are hurting this song. It's very hard to critique the lyrical content when you can't understand anything that's being said. I should not have to look up the damn lyrics. I should be able to listen to this song and get a general sense of what's going on. But with this all I hear is non-stop gibberish. And the "vocals" are awful as well. Dude has a terrible voice and his rapping skills are all the way down at the very bottom. And don't even get me started on the random and obnoxious vocal effects (such as yells) we hear in the background. This song is a perfect example of why I despise today's rap music. I much prefer when rap music actually had some meaning to it. But now for whatever reason, we think it's cool if we start rapping about drugs or something along those lines. It really isn't. I'm just ashamed that this is what music is coming to. Unfortunately rap music has become songs like this one, Broccoli, and Juju On That Beat, which is very sad, yet very true. Let's hope that 2017 can be a better year. Maybe we won't get a song as atrocious as this. At least I hope.




With our #1 songs this past year, a few of them had a pretty long reign at the top. Even if it wasn't a consecutive number of weeks, we did have some songs surpass five weeks. There was even one song that had a 12-week reign at #1 on the countdown, yet spent over half of that at #1 in 2015. As far as what I think of our #1 songs, I'm think it's a pretty decent list. Not all of these songs got overplayed enough to the point where I got sick of them. Surprisingly I'm still not sick of the two songs that spent the longest time at #1 this year. But for the most part, the listen isn't bad. So here is our parade of 2016's #1 hits.

• Justin Timberlake – Can't Stop The Feeling (10)
• The Chainsmokers/Halsey – Closer (8)
• Adele – Hello (5) (12 total)
• Twenty One Pilots – Stressed Out (5)
• DNCE – Cake By The Ocean (4)
• The Chainsmokers/Daya – Don't Let Me Down (3)
• Charlie Puth – One Call Away (2)
• Hailee Steinfeld & Grey/Zedd – Starving (2)
• Mike Posner/SeeB – I Took A Pill In Ibiza (2)
• One Direction – Perfect (2)
• Shawn Mendes – Treat You Better (2)
• Taylor Swift – New Romantics (2)
• Adele – Send My Love (To Your New Lover) (1)
• Demi Lovato – Confident (1)
• Flo Rida – My House (1)
• Panic! At The Disco – Victorious (1)
• Twenty One Pilots – Heathens (1)

Hit-Bound has also been an interesting story this year. We did have a load of good songs on Hit-Bound that sadly never actually graduated to the Weekend Countdown. So I thought I'd give them some recognition for their time and service on Hit-Bound. So here are all the Hit-Bound songs that unfortunately never got the privilege to be announced by Spyder Harrison on the Weekend Countdown.

• Adam Lambert – Another Lonely Night
• Alesso/Nico & Vinz – I Wanna Know
• Bebe Rexha/Nicki Minaj – No Broken Hearts
• Ben Rector – Brand New
• Bo Napoleon – If That's Ok
• BØRNS – Electric Love
• David Guetta/Sia/Fetty Wap – Bang My Head
• Demi Lovato – Stone Cold
• Disturbed – The Sound of Silence
• Ellie Goulding – Still Falling For You
• Flo Rida/Jason Derulo – Hello Friday
• Hailee Steinfeld/DNCE – Rock Bottom
• Jacob Whitesides – Secrets
• Jason Derulo – Kiss The Sky
• Kelly Clarkson/Janelle Monáe/Kelly Rowland/Lea Michele/Zendaya/Missy Elliott – This Is For My Girls
• Kungs & Cookin' On 3 Burners – This Girl
• Magic! – Red Dress
• Magic!/Sean Paul – Lay You Down Easy
• MAX – Basement Party
• Mike Posner – Be As You Are
• MKTO – Superstitious
• Nathan Sykes/Ariana Grande – Over and Over Again
• One Direction – Infinity
• Snakehips/Zayn – Cruel
• Steve Aoki & Boehm/Walk The Moon – Back 2 U
• The Summer Set – The Night Is Young
• Troye Sivan/Alessia Cara – Wild

From this list, I will announce my 2016 Lights Over Paris Hit-Bound Hero Award. If you are unaware and curious as to how it got its name, you can leave a comment below asking and I will be more than happy to explain it. But basically, it's the award I give to the best song that very unfortunately did successfully graduate from Hit-Bound. Magic! had the worst Hit-Bound dropout of the year with the song that unfortunately also had the longest Hit-Bound tenure of the year. But for the best song, it was a little bit of a competition between two songs that I thought were amazing this past year. I was really upset that neither of them made it on the countdown and choosing one of them to hand this award to was rather difficult. But I have made my decision.

2016 Lights Over Paris Hit-Bound Hero Award Winner: Disturbed – The Sound of Silence (with Back 2 U being its competition)

I am pretty impressed with Hits 1 as they picked up almost every hit song this past year. Typically, they tend to leave out some songs for whatever reason, despite them being massive hits. Last year, I recognized Skrillex & Diplo/Justin Bieber – Where Are Ü Now as it never made it on to the Weekend Countdown, but spent several weeks on Hits & Misses with Fall Out Boy's Pete Wentz. I awarded it with the Biggest Whiff of the Year award, the award that goes to the biggest song that did not make it on to the countdown. But there was one song that was a huge hit for some reason and thankfully did not make it on to Hits 1. But now I unfortunately have to recognize it with an award as much as it does not deserve any awards. This song was the only song in the Top 10 of Billboard's Hot 100 Songs of the Year that did not make it to the countdown. I'm not surprised Hits 1 never picked up on it and frankly I despise even talking about it. So let's just get this over with.

2016 Biggest Whiff Of The Year Award Winner: Desiigner – Panda

Tenure Trophies

This past year we actually did not have songs that lasted only one week or two weeks. But we did actually have a few three-weekers.

Shortest Tenured Songs of 2016 (all at three weeks):

• Conrad Sewell – Hold Me Up
• Pitbull/Osmani Garcia/Lil Jon – El Taxi
• Shawn Hook – Sound Of Your Heart
• Katy Perry – Rise
• Big Gigantic/Angela McCluskey – The Little Things

As for the longest tenure, the song was very close to lasting one year on the countdown. By spending the most weeks on the countdown within the calendar year, here is the longest tenured song of the year.

Longest Tenured Song of 2016: Twenty One Pilots – Stressed Out (debuted 12/26/15; exited 12/17/16)

Well I hope you guys enjoyed! This was pretty much 2016 summed up all in one post. I will now begin on my Top 45 Songs of the Year. I have already listed all of the potential choice and I must now select the 45 songs that stood out the most this year. I will have that out as soon as possible. But first, there is tomorrow's Weekend Countdown as well as Hits 1's Top 45 of the Year. Because tomorrow is Christmas Eve, I will be spending the day with my family so I will not be able to post tomorrow. I'll still be able to comment, but I will not post. I should be back on Christmas Day. But I hope you guys enjoy your Christmas Eve and I will see you again very soon. I hope you enjoyed this post. :)