Although WRVU takes pride in supporting local artists and showing love to less popular musicians, we aren’t living under a rock. 2014 had its fair share of compelling hits on mainstream radio, and we are going to highlight 9 of those songs here. Our criteria is simple: each song needed to spend at least one week on The Billboard Hot 100 to be eligible for this list. We present them to you in no particular order.
“Man of the Year” – ScHoolboy Q
Schoolboy Q’s flow and a sample of Chromatics’ “Cherry” makes “Man of the Year” an easy and enjoyable listen.
“Love Never Felt So Good”- Michael Jackson (ft. Justin Timberlake)
“Love Never Felt So Good” is a posthumous release of a reworked Michael Jackson track from the ’80s. It is stylistically consistent with his other work from that era and features added-in vocals from Justin Timberlake–giving it plenty enough reasons to make the Top 100.
“i” – Kendrick Lamar
An open and honest feel-good hip-hop song featuring an incredible sample of The Isley Brothers’ “That Lady”.
“Take me to Church” – Hozier
A”Riptide”- Vance Joy
This track capitalizes on the public’s love for summery indie-pop vibes that exploded in popularity in the early 2010’s.
“Uptown Funk!”- Mark Ronson ft. Bruno Mars
Fun track that polishes off the funk sound for modern audiences.
“Hot Boy”- Bobby Shmurda
Just like many other young rappers out there, Bobby Shmurda could not have made his hit into a cultural phenomenon without the help of the Internet.
“Left Hand Free”- ∆
∆’s genre-bending music continues to draw in big audiences.