The Good & The Ugly: 2015

After escaping the suffocating grasp of 2014, 2015 is a lot better. The imprint of 2014 was (and still is) left on the pop landscape but the gloomy, apocalyptic overtones weren’t nearly as heavy. One thing that definitely hadn’t changed was the internet’s influence on music consumption, YouTube and social media gaining in how we share and enjoy the product. This results in a lot of niche musical records, flash-in-the-pan artists, and the attempts at turning soundbites into viral sensations. 2015 was the testing ground for some artists in that attempt, how small moments can create long lasting memories and a devoted fanbase. Some of it worked, some of it obviously didn’t but the great stuff here is much more memorable than a good chunk of the last 2014 list.

Before I dive into the list, here are some honorable mentions: Walk The Moon- “Shut Up and Dance”, Fetty Wap- “679”/”Trap Queen”/”My Way”, The Weeknd- “The Hills”, DJ Snake- “You Know You Like It”, Tove Lo- “Habits (Stay High)”, Pitbull- “Time of Our Lives”, Mr. Probz- “Waves”, Drake- “Back To Back”, Rae Sremmurd- “No Type”, Demi Lovato- “Cool For The Summer”, Big Sean- “I Don’t Fuck With You”, and Rihanna. Kanye West, & Paul McCartney- “FourFiveSeconds”. That feels much better than the last installment, I was grasping for straws in order to get good honorable mentions. With that out of the way, I will try to make an argument for an artist’s…