The 50 Best Songs of 2024

variety.com:

Come back, ’24, all is forgiven. Whether it was an unusually great year for you or an annus horribilis, chances are you needed music to help see you through.

Here are 50 of the songs that did the trick for the Variety music staff — representing the realms of superwoman super-pop (Chappell, Charli, Taylor and Ariana), hip-hop (Kendrick Lamar, Doechii), Latin music (Karol G, Kali Uchis), country (Lainey Wilson, Megan Moroney), rock (Jack White, Vampire Weekend), R&B (Ella Mai, Tinashe), club sounds (Jamie XX), Americana (Waxahatchee, Gillian Welch), show tunes (Cynthia Erivo) and, not least of all, the great, genre-defying mischief that Beyoncé got up to this year. (Note: These aren’t in any particular order of preference… and of course we adhere to a one-song-per-artist policy, with apologies to the multiple hits of Sabrina Carpenter, Billie Eilish, etc.) Relive some favorites and pick up a few new discoveries to take with you on the yellow brick road into 2025. —Chris Willman Engaging in one of the greatest rap battles of all time and climbing out of it with the biggest hit single is a definitive victory lap.

And thus Kendrick Lamar took his with “Not Like Us,” a song that not only defined 2024 but also staked itself as one of the greatest diss records of all time.

If success is the sweetest revenge, then Lamar got it. Not only did it become a chart blockbuster, but it also re-centered the spotlight on the west coast, a marvel for a single song whose message resonated across state lines.