Year-End Special (Part 2): 2018 – A Year In Review

I swear, time just keeps going by faster and faster. It feels like just recently that I was working on year-end posts for 2017. Now we're at the end of 2018. 2018 has not been the best year compared to some of the other years from the 2010s. We did lose a couple of artists this year, although one of the few that I really cared about was Avicii. I've been a huge of his for a while and hearing the sad news that one day broke my heart because he is probably my favorite EDM producer and he seemed like a genuinely great guy. But he made some bangers that I revisit all the time. I wrote a little something for him in the 2013 Billboard Year-End Rankdown where Wake Me Up landed at #1. But may he rest in peace. He has definitely been missed by me.


As far as the quality of music goes, there wasn't much of a substantial difference between the quality of music in 2018 and the quality of music in 2017. We had a lot of terrible songs including a lot of rap, which I really went at if you read my previous year-end post where I went through the worst songs of 2018. But there were also a bunch of great songs that I can totally see myself coming back to in the future. You'll read about those in my next year-end post, where I will be counting down my 45 favorite songs of 2018. I have that scheduled to come out on New Year's Eve, so stay tuned for that.


Now let's talk about 2018 for Hits 1. Regarding our #1 songs, I feel like we had less songs hit #1 this year because we had a few songs that spent quite a few weeks at the top.* Hits 1's #1 song of the year was still really obvious though. As usual, some of these songs were good and others, not so much. Some of them got really overplayed and faded on me. But I liked a good amount of them. So with that, here is our parade of 2018's #1 hits.

• Zedd/Maren Morris/Grey – The Middle (9)
• Panic! At The Disco – High Hopes (8)
• 5 Seconds Of Summer – Youngblood (5)
• Panic! At The Disco – Say Amen (Saturday Night) (4)
• The Chainsmokers/Kelsea Ballerini – This Feeling (3)
• Imagine Dragons – Thunder (3) (5 total)
• Taylor Swift – Delicate (3)
• Charlie Puth – How Long (2)
• Fall Out Boy – The Last Of The Real Ones (2)
• Marshmello/Bastille – Happier (2)
• Shawn Mendes – In My Blood (2)
• 5 Seconds Of Summer – Want You Back (1)
• Bebe Rexha/Florida Georgia Line – Meant To Be (1)
• Camila Cabello – Never Be The Same (1)
• Ed Sheeran – Perfect (1) (2 total)
• Hailee Steinfeld & Alesso/Florida Georgia Line/watt – Let Me Go (1)
• Imagine Dragons – Natural (1)
• Imagine Dragons – Whatever It Takes (1)
• Macklemore/Kesha – Good Old Days (1)
• Taylor Swift/Ed Sheeran/Future – End Game (1)

*I counted and we had 20 songs hit #1 in 2018, whereas 21 hit #1 in 2017. So not a huge difference.

When it comes to Hit-Bound, as usual, we had a load of good songs that were on Hit-Bound, but failed to make their debut on the Weekend Countdown. But instead of just being forgotten, I've decided to recognize them all 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.

• Big Boi – All Night
• BTS – Fake Love
• Cole Redding – Father Father
• Clean Bandit/Julia Michaels – I Miss You
• HRVY – Personal
• In Real Life – Tattoo (How 'Bout You)
• Jason Derulo & David Guetta/Nicki Minaj/Willy William – Goodbye
• Julia Michaels/Trippie Redd – Jump
• Justin Timberlake – SoulMate
• Noah Cyrus, MAX – Team
• Post Malone – I Fall Apart
• Sofi Tukker/NERVO – Best Friend
• Spencer – Whatever
• The Chainsmokers – Everybody Hates Me
• The Chainsmokers/Drew Love – Somebody
• Thirty Seconds To Mars – Walk On Water
• Twenty One Pilots – Legend
• Welshly Arms – Legendary
• Why Don't We – Trust Fund Baby
• Wild Things – Don't Wanna Feel It
• Years & Years – If You're Over Me

From this list, I will announce my 2018 Lights Over Paris Hit-Bound Hero Award. This award is given to the best song to make it on to Hit-Bound, but fail to debut on the Weekend Countdown. So it's essentially the best song on this list. There were quite a few good songs this time around. But this song I'm about to announce is one I thoroughly at first listen. I'm not surprised it missed the countdown, but I sure as hell wish it had spent some time on it.

2018 Lights Over Paris Hit-Bound Hero Award Winner: Welshly Arms – Legendary

I don't care what other people think. This song is awesome. I love it. It's loud and energetic. It always gets me in a great mood. Great instrumentation and great vocals. I love the guitar solo. I wouldn't say this is one of the best of 2018, but it's probably one of the best things I've heard in rock music this year. Everything about this works and I wish it had spent some time on the countdown even though to some it seems like some random rock song. It's quality.

Runner-Ups:

• Julia Michaels/Trippie Redd – Jump
• Sofi Tukker – Best Friend
• Justin Timberlake – SoulMate

Hits 1 is pretty good about picking up as many hit songs as they can. But they also tend to pick up some underground songs that aren't exactly hits. This isn't bad obviously, but it does result in some hit songs not being able to make it on to the station. They did a better job at picking up on as many hits as they could this year than they did last year. But now I will present the Biggest Whiff of the Year award, which goes to the biggest song that failed to make it on to Hits 1 and the Weekend Countdown. I think it's obvious what song this award must go to. It's from the biggest artist of 2018 and unarguably the best of his three #1 hits. It landed at #11 on the Billboard Year-End Hot 100 for 2018 and spent multiple weeks at #1 shortly after it was released. I think it's obvious that this song deserves this honor.

2018 Biggest Whiff Of The Year Award Winner: Drake – Nice For What



Tenure Trophies
This year, we had a few songs that had a short countdown life, including a few songs that lasted only two weeks. But there was one song in particular that lasted only one week on the countdown.


Shortest Tenured Song of 2018 (at one week): Lady Gaga – I'll Never Love Again


For the longest tenure, it's pretty clear that this song is on its way to lasting a year on the countdown. I kind of saw this coming from a mile away, so I'm not too surprised to be giving this award to this particular song. 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 2018: Zedd/Maren Morris/Grey – The Middle (debuted 2/3/18; still on the countdown)



Well I hope you guys enjoyed! This was my attempt at summing up 2018 in one post. Next in line is my Top 45 Songs of 2018, which I'm hoping to finish and post by New Year's Eve as a way to wrap up 2018. I should also have the Weekend Countdown post for this upcoming weekend done either tomorrow or Sunday. Then will be my Top 45 of 2018! But once again, I hope you enjoyed and I will see you all soon!