top 50 of 2016 | 40-31

40. Ariana Grande - "Side To Side"

Top 40 didn't do much for me this year. Most of it seemed unusually uninspired and formulaic, and this is coming from someone with a deep, deep love for pop music. This track, however, stood out. Grande is uncharacteristically restrained, which fits the chill nature of the track. And there is pretty much no song that isn't improved by a Nicki Minaj verse.

39. Moby & The Void Pacific Choir - "Hey Hey"

I'll be totally honest; this is the first Moby album I've ever listened to, and boy was it a pleasant experience. I don't know enough about his career to know why he decided to essentially assemble a band and release an album with them (all while in the same calendar year releasing a free album of gorgeous ambient tracks), but it seems like a tribute to early new wave. I'm here for it.

38. Lost Years - "The Connection"

Lost Years was the artist who got me into the (still sort-of nascent?) synthwave genre a few years back when he released his brilliant sophomore album Amplifier. I still think he does it better than pretty much anyone else in the game (I say that knowing full well that there are two synthwave artists higher than he on this list), and his third album Venom was proof of that. This track was my fav from that release. It's a midnight chase through a neon city in pursuit of Carmen Sandiego.

37. CL - "Hello Bitches"

I'm honestly not sure why KPop hasn't fully crossed over in the United States. I really thought Psy's breakthrough a few years ago would be the final breaking down of the barrier, but it wasn't. This one had that same chance. CL is part of South Korea's (arguably) best-known pop group, 2NE1, but has consistently released solo material for the last few years. She's a solid enough rapper that even if you don't speak the language in which she's flowing, you have to nod your head. Bitches.

36. Jessy Lanza - "VV Violence"

I'm a sucker for a singer who can control their high register. This track combines sweet, high vocals, vintage drum machine sounds, and lyrics about confronting someone who's too cowardly to talk shit to your face. Gotta love it.

35. Lady Gaga - "A-YO"

Whether you were into it or not, I think every Gaga fan would agree that Joanne was not the album anyone was expecting for her 5th release. This is one of the album's best, a line-dance-pop hootenany that is somehow still perfectly in Gaga's sultry style.

34. Shura - "Touch"

A deceptively complex production consisting of a drum machine clap, warm synth pads, and a beeping little motif, all tied together with breathy, whispered vocals. It's as sexy as it is beautiful.

33. Kanye West - "Fade"

Probably the most talked-about music video of the year served as the in-your-face delivery of West's ode to the classic Chicago house sound. It's Flashdance meets Cats, starring Teyana Taylor!

32. The Weeknd ft. Daft Punk - "Starboy"

You can put this collab on the list of "stuff you didn't know you wanted to happen until after it happens." It's odd for Daft Punk to take a backseat like they do on this track, but it works. It's hard not to imagine that The Weeknd was more than a little self-referential when writing the lyrics, but you have to appreciate that level of self-awareness. Few celebrities have that kind of control over their own egos.

31. Volbeat - "Seal The Deal"

I happened across this rock-o-rama on a "New Music Friday" playlist back at the beginning of summer and immediately started headbanging along with it. How the hell can you not? This is everything I love about a great rock song. The lead singer's hyper-affected delivery really - if you'll pardon the expression - seals the deal.

top 50 of 2016 | 50-41

50. Wet - "These Days"

The world finally got to hear Wet's debut LP back in January, and it was worth the wait. There were a handful of songs that those of us who've seen them live over the last few years recognized, alongside some beautiful new surprises. This track closes the album and finds lead singer Kelly Zutrau in the highest highs of her register, calling into the night after a departed lover.

49. Khia - "Santa Baby"

We were long overdue for a new Christmas classic. It didn't seem to capture much attention on release, but I hope that just means it's going through the usual path of American pop Christmas tunes that end up becoming standards by going unnoticed for a few years first.

48. M.I.A. - "Go Off"

M.I.A. is nothing if not consistent. She's delivered what is indubitably a signature sound for over a decade now. This little slow burner from her latest (and supposedly final) release has a super cool music video to accompany it of a bunch of shit blowing up being filmed from a helicopter. Doesn't really get more M.I.A. than that.

47. Era Istrefi - "Bonbon"

Probably the most fascinating pure club tune of the year. Superficially, it blends in with plenty of other unmemorable club tracks you'd hear on the floors today, but there are intricacies in the production that make it stand out. In particular I love the razzy synth bass line.

46. Ninja Sex Party - "Cool Patrol"

An ode to being aggressively uncool told by a bunch of folks who are undoubtedly walking that walk.

45. Dodie - "Sick Of Losing Soulmates"

I love this one because of the tacit admission that it's possible to feel a soulmate connection more than once in your life. Usually, songs that deal with the topic of begging a lover to return put the entire universe on that person, but Dodie admits that she's felt this way before about others and that frankly it's getting exhausting.

44. Years & Years ft. Tove Lo - "Desire"

A song about the benefits of hooking up, because love hurts, or something? Honestly the lyrics seem a bit disjointed to me, but the production and his voice are just so solid. Great stuff.

43. Raylo - "Winner"

The song from the greatest commercial of all time finally gets a proper release. A perfect track to get you hype as hell.

42. Jean-Michel Jarre - "Oxygène Pt. 20"

Part 1 of the Oxygène series was released back in 1976, with Part 2 following in 1997. Now here with are with the next movement of the piece. The idea of creating one long piece across three albums and 40 years is simply stunning, and man does Jarre nail it. Electronic music was born in France in the 40s and 50s, and it's pretty safe to say that Jarre drew from those early "musique concrète" pieces and was an early pioneer of what we now call "ambient" music. This is the final cut on the album, and it's a perfect example of his ability to take the listener on a ride with his vivid soundscapes.

41. Computer Magic - "Been Waiting"

Her husky voice, those puffy snares, that little popcorn motif -- this is just everything that's great about modern synthpop.

top 100 of the '00s | 56. stefy - "chelsea"

From the Eurythmics-esque opening synth hook that punches hard to the saccharine flow of Stefy Rae Eustace's voice in the verses to the fabulously hooky chorus, this is flawless modern synthpop through and through.

The album as a whole has a California/Orange County tinge that seemed to permeate a lot of media during this time. Maybe it's because The OC was popular, or because California has always been cool, but I think it's largely something else: This album came out in fall 2006, when social media was nascent enough to not yet be the pop culture pipeline that it became. Americans still looked largely to traditional media for what was cool, and traditional (entertainment) media has always been centered around New York and California.

I think this album acts almost as a final glimpse into that "what's cool" window.

This song in particular is simply incredible. Her voice is perfect for it, and you'll be singing it the rest of the day after one listen.

top 100 of the '00s | 57. ladyhawke - "paris is burning"

When this came out in fall 2008, pop music was starting to trend back toward electronic pop, a pivot from a decade of hip-hop domination.

Alternative music was only a few months behind. Indie rock had been the driving force of that scene since the end of the '90s grunge era. Around 2005, some of these bands started incorporating keyboards, but since the music was still heavily traditional rock it was branded "dance rock" (think LCD Soundsystem, Franz Ferdinand, etc.).

I found Ladyhawke on a blog that I followed at the time of cool new electronic music. I was in love instantly and knew I could get away with pitching it for rotation on the campus radio station because of its undeniably rock orientation. This was September. I wouldn't feel truly validated until March, when I attended the SxSW conference and heard multiple DJs spin it.

There isn't even much to say about it musically; it's just a great song. Both verses and hook are instantly singable, and the pleasant little bell synth motif in the song's final act is simply radiant.

top 100 of the '00s | 58. gnarls barkley - "crazy"

It's now been over a decade since this track's release, and I can say with decent confidence that I've still not heard another song that sounds quite like it does. It samples a song from a 1960s Western film significantly enough for its composers to receive a writing credit here, but subtly enough that ears in 2006 would not immediately make that sonic connection.

Instead, it comes together as a sort of Motown throwback for the modern era, its orchestral section acting as a lifter for Cee Lo's high-pitched voice. There are moments where his singing and the violins are nearly indistinguishable.

It's certainly got staying power and shows all signs that it's on its way to being regarded as a classic. No disagreement here.

top 100 of the '00s | 59. randell & schippers - "alice in wonderland"

At one of our weekly college radio staff meetings back in 2005, our general manager and host of the Tuesday night goth music show slid me a promo CD she'd received in her mail that week, saying she felt it was more appropriate for my retro club-oriented show -- "It has that sheen," she said.

I don't know what I expected, but it certainly wasn't what I heard. This is a perfect mid-'00s house thumper that has very obvious influences from '90s eurohouse, but it's so much more than that. It's a fairy tale, one that we're all familiar with in every sense of its subject matter.

We all know the story of Alice in Wonderland, and the version told here is not the traditional one. Instead, we meet characters like Mr. Jive Turkey and Mr. Do-Good Stranger as we follow Alice from her financially-troubled father's removal of her silver spoon to her journey into the big city.

The hardest part of growing up is the destroying of the set pieces we've been accustomed to throughout our childhoods and being forced to look at the actual moving parts on the stage. Being able to laugh about it feels nice.

top 100 of the '00s | 60. tomcraft - "overdose"

By the end of the '90s, the club scene had transitioned almost entirely away from the eurodance that had dominated the decade, and things were swinging quickly toward progressive house and trance. Both of these genres were respectively extensions of the o.g. club genres of house and italo-disco.

This particular cut falls comfortably into the trance pocket. Though snobs and casuals alike have written myriad blogs and books on exactly what defines trance music, everyone seems to (very generally) agree that the hallmarks are an uptempo BPM and a "rise and fall" form that generally includes beat drops.

"Overdose" typifies the trance sound of this era, and has the added bonus of containing a bizarrely singable hook that happens to be about someone dying. After hearing it on the floor, you'll wake up thinking, "What the hell did I sing along to last night?"