Perhaps more so than now, pop music in the 2010s had an optimistic turn. Much of the genre was about making the most of the night or leaving your cares behind. The three songs below captured that sense of optimism. It’s impossible to feel sad when these hits play.
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Videos by American Songwriter
“Happy” — Pharrell Williams
Few songs are more upbeat than Pharrell Williams’ “Happy”. I mean, it’s in the name of this 2010s pop staple. Williams imbues the listener with a buoyant, effervescent feeling from the track’s first few seconds. After only the first beats of this song, we all sit up a little higher in our seats.
“It might seem crazy what I am ’bout to say / Sunshine, she’s here, you can take a break,” the familiar lyrics read. Sure, we might have grown a little tired of hearing these lines over and over again. But if we can soften our hearts, we’re reminded why this song was such a hit in the first place. We all need a reason to feel a little happier every now and then. This song provides that excuse.
“Shake It Off” — Taylor Swift
“Shake It Off” isn’t one of Swift’s most impressive lyrical bouts, but it remains one of her biggest hits nonetheless. And that’s because of how cheerful it is. Swift dropped any pressure to be overly eloquent in this song and decided to have some fun. The listener does the same, letting their guard down for the brief runtime of this hit.
Like “Happy,” many of us may have grown tired of hearing this familiar song, but it’s still a staple for a reason. Give this song another listen today and try letting your optimism take the wheel for a while.
“We Are Young” — Fun. feat. Janelle Monáe
The 2010s loved a song about making the most of the night with youthful abandon. No song better exemplifies this than “We Are Young”. The rhythmic opening to this song is iconic and instantly orients much of the world to what they are about to hear. Few people can’t sing along to this era-defining hit, no matter if they are Fun. fans or not.
“Tonight / We are young / So let’s set the world on fire / We can burn brighter than the sun,” is the kind of simplistic carefree sentiment that thrived in this era. When we think back on the 2010s, we often feel like it was an easier time. Part of that is plain nostalgia, and part of that is what we learned from songs like this back then.
(Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images for iHeartRadio)