10 best songs of 2024: Kendrick Lamar, Taylor Swift, Beyonce deliver a spectacular year

From Charli XCX giving us a "Brat" summer to Shaboozey getting us to hand clap along to "A Bar Song (Tipsy)," much liveliness reigned in music in 2024.

Even a couple of newcomers – Benson Boone and Teddy Swims – commandeered many a chart and playlist with their respective "Beautiful Things" and "Lose Control."

Of course, the dynamic trio composed of icons Beyoncé and Taylor Swift, along with burgeoning pop priestess Chappell Roan, captured much of our listening, while Post Malone morphed into a full-fledged, palling-around-with-Morgan-Wallen country artist and Drake and Kendrick Lamar traded verbal jabs for months.

Sometimes it was a little exhausting, but more often, exhilarating.

Here are 10 of the songs that held us rapt throughout the year.

10. Jelly Roll 'I Am Not Okay'

There are many things to like about Jelly Roll, among them his humility and kind-hearted appearances in the cities he tours. He has an awareness his life could have continued in a very different, destructive direction. But the most endearing quality about Mr. Roll is his authenticity, which seeps into every note of the first single from his latest album, “Beautifully Broken.” When he sings in his rough-hewn, weary voice, “Some days it ain’t all bad/some days it all gets worse/some days I swear I’m better off/layin’ in the dirt,” he taps into universal feelings that make you want to give him a hug, while longing for one yourself.

9. Rosé and Bruno Mars 'APT.'

Apparently Bruno Mars is spending his time as the Great Collaborator these days (see also: Best Song No. 5). He’s among the army of songwriters on this peppy hand-clapper with a title inspired by a South Korean drinking game. He and Blackpink’s Rosé, who released her debut solo album “Rosie” in early December, are a jovial pair, bopping through a caffeinated beat and delivering personality-filled verses. It’s a brisk, barely-three-minute party steered by two versatile talents.

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8. The Weeknd 'Dancing in the Flames'

Awash in ‘80s synth pop – much like the best songs in his cache – and produced by pop maestro Max Martin, this first single from The Weeknd’s upcoming album “Hurry Up Tomorrow”, scheduled for a Jan. 24 release, glistens and glides. The wiggling keyboard hook is irresistible and, as typical for the apocalypse-obsessed Abel Tesfaye, offers a divergent mood from his sweetly crooned lyrics equating romance with risk-taking, crashing and true to his darkly poetic heart, dying (“My love’s beyond the pain/But if I miss the brake, we’re dancin’ in the flames”). That’s dedication.

7. Sabrina Carpenter 'Taste'

Though any of Carpenter’s smashes from her “Short n’ Sweet” breakthrough album (“Espresso,” “Please Please Please”) are worthy of year-end accolades, this revenge tale spiked with a spoon of sugar perfectly personifies Carpenter’s songwriting smarts. Dispensing her lyrics with the breathiness of The Divinyls’ “I Touch Myself” while dumping an ocean’s worth of lyrical acid a la Alanis Morissette’s “You Oughta Know,” Carpenter slyly triumphs.

6. Beyoncé with Miley Cyrus 'II Most Wanted'

No doubt “Texas Hold ‘Em” announced Beyoncé’s country foray with attitude and pluck. But this duet between vocal powerhouses is a standout from “Cowboy Carter” with its fragile dissertation on loyalty, aging and love. “I’ll be your shotgun rider, ‘til the day I die,” they sing in unison, like a musical Thelma and Louise, in it for the long haul no matter how messy. Cyrus’ gravelly voice is an anchor as well as a complement to Beyoncé’s honeyed vocals, leaving us swollen with admiration for these two outlaws.

5. Lady Gaga and Bruno Mars 'Die with a Smile'

There is talent, and then there is Lady Gaga bopping into Bruno Mars’ studio at his invite and writing and recording a song the same day. That it’s a deep dive into everlasting love coated with a retro feel spotlights their symbiotic charms, two souls with expansive stylistic palettes colliding to make magic. Along with resonant vocals from both, credit Mars’ rhythmic instincts for including drums that power the urgency of the song’s lyrics, with fills nudging the chorus instead of existing merely as a backbeat.

4. Kendrick Lamar 'Not Like Us'

Don’t worry if you couldn’t keep up with the monthslong musical war between Lamar and Drake (here’s a primer if you were busy living life during that period). All you really need to know is that Super Bowl headliner-to-be Lamar dropped the mic, the hammer and the bulldozer with his final shot, an epic diss track that for nearly six minutes rolls through an dictionary worth of words that slice (“The family matter and the truth of the matter/it was God's plans to show you the liar”) with precision, all over finger snaps and a deliberately poking keyboard.

3. Billie Eilish 'Birds of a Feather'

Between the wispy guitar backdrop and Eilish’s airy delivery, the standout track from her solid third album, “Hit Me Hard and Soft,” exemplifies not only her artistic growth, but mounting confidence as a lyricist. “Birds …” is Eilish’s most soulful offering in a still-young career as she yearns for everlasting love to the grave, at once hopelessly devoted and resolute. “I knew you in another life/you had that same look in your eyes/I love you, don’t act so surprised,” she sings over a gently chugging groove, determined to express the intensity of her feelings. Sometimes it’s hard to believe the nine-time Grammy winner is only 23.

2. Chappell Roan 'Good Luck, Babe!'

If “Pink Pony Club” was the opening act and “Hot To Go!” the encore, “Good Luck, Babe!” arrived as Roan’s delicious main attraction. At once a study in sapphic desire along with anger at the woman who refused to entertain self-acceptance in the wake of their "sexually explicit kind of love affair," Roan’s smash is a brutally honest takedown gift-wrapped with a shimmery pop bow. The visceral bridge of the song, when she shifts from less-mystical Kate Bush to untethered punk, is bracing behind her gale-force vocals. “And when you think about me all of those years ago/you’re standing face to face with ‘I told you so,’” she seethes, her fury tempered by the heartbreaking resignation of what wasn’t meant to be.

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1. Taylor Swift 'I Can Do it With a Broken Heart'

Swift is always willing to let her angst – romantic or otherwise – spill out. But it’s a new vulnerability she exposes in “… Broken Heart,” a Swiftified update of “the show must go on/tears of a clown” philosophy. She’s at turns wickedly wry (“I’m so depressed I act like it’s my birthday … every day”), sad (“Breaking down I hit the floor/all the pieces of me shattered as the crowd was chanting “More”) and defiant (“You know you’re good when you can even do it … with a broken heart”). The propulsive dance beat belies her layers of emotion, while the “1, 2, 3, 4” heard faintly in the background, like a dance instructor or drummer counting in the song, is a subtle insider touch. The moral, though, is that whether a superstar in her glittering prime or a mortal in sweatpants, the only way to overcome the hurt is to reclaim your power. It’s an art.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Best songs of 2024: Taylor Swift, Chappell Roan, Sabrina Carpenter