http://www.theguardian.com/culture/2015/de...-grime#comments

 

The music critics from the Guardian have published their best 15 songs from 2015... Personally I feel there's some absolutely fantastic songs on the list!

 

Skepta - Shutdown

Fetty Wap - Trap Queen

Jamie xx - I Know There's Gonna Be (Good Times)

Julia Holter - Feel You

The Weeknd - Can't Feel My Face

Courtney Barnett - Pedestrian At Best

Kendrick Lamar - King Kunta

Grimes - Realitli

Drake - Hotline Bling

Rihanna - Bitch Better Have My Money

Justin Bieber - What Do You Mean?

A$AP Rocky - L$D

J Hus - Dem Boy Paigon

Stormzy - Know Me From

Daphene & Celeste - You & I Alone

 

Some inspired choices here. :wub: What are people's thoughts on the list?

Grimes on the list :wub:

 

Really r&b/rap orientated list but thats always a good thing

Dunno about the last one :lol: but the rest I have no qualms if, even if I don't personally like all of them.

 

Very inspired #1 though! :)

I thought I normally agreed with the Guardian on music taste, what's up with that horror of a list? Excellent to see Pedestrian At Best here though, that is a really inspired choice and some great recognition of a talented artist. Grimes is good, Kendrick is talented and that's a good song, however, I like Bitch.. but to see it on a list of the year's best songs is really something else.

 

There's too much of one genre dominating really. I wouldn't listen to Can't Feel My Face over and over but I can see why it's there, I guess the cultural impact of Hotline Bling and Trap Queen merit them places even if I still think they're both utterly dreadful, but Bieber? Skepta? That's really pushing it too far.

 

(that's me trying to be fair, I'd put most of that lot nowhere near anything resembling 'the best')

That is almost entirely diabolical.

Pedestrian At Best is in my top 10, very inspired choice! Such a unique song but all the better for it. I'd have chosen Flesh Without Blood by Grimes but Realiti is still a good choice. Also like What Do You Mean, King Kunta, Can't Feel My Face and Trap Queen a lot.

Songs like Dem Boy Paigon & I Know There's Gonna Be (Good Times) have been very well received critically so I can see why they are there. Stormzy too, although I'm more surprised they didn't go for one of his chart freestyles. The video for Know Me From is pretty iconic though and utterly British. :lol:

 

King Kunta, because Kendrick had one of the best albums of the year (critically speaking again) and King Kunta is particularly great anyway. Shutdown should be there because of the heralded 2015 'Grime Revival' and that's the song that's got the international recognition and Skepta's the figurehead of the scene right now with co-signs from Drake and Kanye.

 

Hotline Bling and Trap Queen are no brainers. There should be one Bieber song as he's arguably been the biggest Pop star of 2016, especially the second half of the year. I suspect that's their 'Pop Song' inclusion. Much the same can be said of Can't Feel My Face too - a true worldwide hit from one of the most consistent artists of the year.

 

I knew this would generate discussion and that's why I posted the list here! Just adding my two cents into that...

Daphne & Celeste? :blink:

REALITI :wub: a pretty "urban" heavy list (maybe a tad too much, a little more variety wouldn't have hurt) but still plenty of good choices there- Kendrick, Jamie xx, Stormzy, Drake, Bieber, Weeknd, Courtney, Fetty

Songs like Dem Boy Paigon & I Know There's Gonna Be (Good Times) have been very well received critically so I can see why they are there. Stormzy too, although I'm more surprised they didn't go for one of his chart freestyles. The video for Know Me From is pretty iconic though and utterly British. :lol:

 

King Kunta, because Kendrick had one of the best albums of the year (critically speaking again) and King Kunta is particularly great anyway. Shutdown should be there because of the heralded 2015 'Grime Revival' and that's the song that's got the international recognition and Skepta's the figurehead of the scene right now with co-signs from Drake and Kanye.

 

Hotline Bling and Trap Queen are no brainers. There should be one Bieber song as he's arguably been the biggest Pop star of 2016, especially the second half of the year. I suspect that's their 'Pop Song' inclusion. Much the same can be said of Can't Feel My Face too - a true worldwide hit from one of the most consistent artists of the year.

 

I knew this would generate discussion and that's why I posted the list here! Just adding my two cents into that...

 

I'd have said if we were going to do representation that one of Stormzy or Skepta should be there, but not both. Preferably Stormzy as he's definitely made more of an... effort to get himself heard this year. From my persepective, I've not seen any sort of grime revival and it's been about as big as it's normally been, but then I'm far from being a grime fan.

 

I guess this shows how disconnected I am from chart music as as far as my year goes, there should be far more than just Courtney Barnett representing the guitar and rock side of things (maybe Wolf Alice would be a good start), and there's no dance either. Something from Disclosure or Kygo or Major Lazer would diversify that list up hugely. Instead we're left with a Bieber aping the current dance sound that just looks like yet another critic sucking up to him because he passed puberty. And when there's one song is representing two genres pretty much alone on that list, while there are a majority of songs under one RnB/rap umbrella, it looks very narrow.

 

Am definitely with you, it's very interesting for discussion, because I disagree completely with a lot of it :lol:

The fact that grime freestyles can now sit in the upper echelon of the charts speaks volumes! Of course the Grime revival has taken place largely away from the chart, but if you look at radio plays, clubs increasing acceptance of a genre they once shunned due to fears of 'violence' and international recognition then Grime has had a huge year!!

 

I'd argue that Dance music hasn't been as exciting this year personally. Both the Disclosure and Rudimental albums were relatively unexciting and both had to resort to popstars for chart hits that came naturally. Deep House and D&B were past their peak, too early for the Garage renaissance. Tropical House perhaps, but I find the Kygo type of music quite dull, so it's no loss for me...

 

Admittedly, it is a 'urban' heavy list. Could be that this music has been the most exciting or innovative or talked about this year? Perhaps. I agree there could be more rock/indie etc. songs, but I'm far from an expert so I wouldn't know what to suggest. :lol:

 

 

Daphne & Celeste *.*

Great list! About half of them would be in my top 20 of the year too.

 

Glad to see BBHMM getting the recognition in lots of these end of year lists. It really should've been so much bigger than it was.

Obviously big love for Trap Queen, I Know There's Gonna Be (Good Times), REALiTi, King Kunta, L$D, What Do You Mean? too

I'm guessing this is a joke :lol: :unsure:

I'd bring up some of my favourite rock/indie songs but going down the list, I keep saying 'not Guardian fodder', although with that list... The thing is, the likes of Halestorm, Best Coast, Wolf Alice, Muse, CHVRCHES, Susanne Sundfor (to mention a few of my more credible favourites but there are others as well for sure) have been innovating just as well as the urban branch with lots of fresh sounding guitar chords and lyrics, but rock's having very bad times in the chart and sometimes just to bring it up looks like you're stuck in the past, maybe they veered away from it for that reason, while indie-pop has rarely done well, although for that representation they still have Grimes at least, but then that's just one like with Courtney Barnett has one for rock. The thing is, with that list, they've clearly made a statement and half the people who read that list will love it, like you MLHammer, the other half will look on very confused. It seems to have been created by a bunch of people as well which makes me even more surprised that they've come up with this.

 

It's a fair point you have about dance though, tropical house and Major Lazer aside it's been on autopilot a bit, I'd say something from tropical house just because that's been a big sound of this year and Kygo is very talented, Firestone or one of his remixes, or just Lean On if nothing else.