The 45 Best Pop Songs of the 21st Century (Timeout)

"Time was, 'pop' meant manufactured acts whose music erred towards the disposable. There were a few certified geniuses like Michael Jackson or Madonna. But for all the units shifted, in the twentieth-century pop never seemed to be the zeitgeist artform of the day. At the dawn of the new millennium, all the rules for pop went out the window. A complicated series of cultural shifts that can largely be attributed to the internet kicked in: suddenly it was sophisticated pop production that was getting the audiophiles drooling. It's an age we're absolutely still living through, with little sign of letting up. And so, for this list, we've taken a long listen to some of the biggest bangers of the last 20-plus years and did what feels nearly impossible: we've ranked them. While we've broadly speaking excluded rock, country and hip-hop, you'll find R&B jams, dance-floor fillers and insanely catchy earworms. These are the best pop songs of the twenty-first century." - timeout.com