Gen Z Are Here And They Have Written The Music's Song Of The Year

Duh. Billie Eilish’s Bad Guy isn't like anything else we’ve ever had at the top of the singles poll, because Eilish is something different herself. She’s the as-yet-uncategorised new generation. People comparing her to other artists usually end up with some weird chimaera, like Lorde with a Manson aesthetic and Kanye on production. Bad Guy hit #1 in April in Australia. In August she topped the US Billboard charts, ending Lil Nas X’s record 19-week run and making Eilish the first person born in the 2000s to ever top the US charts. She told an LA radio station that the track pokes fun at the way people present themselves, herself included (“I feel like you will never catch a bad bitch telling everyone she’s a bad bitch”). If nothing else it’s impressive that Eilish can sound so sinister with her tongue in her cheek. The digital ripple in her voice as she murmurs “I’m the baaaaaad guy," feels like something nasty’s just coiled up in your ear. 

Most artists don’t hit the ground fully formed - the Beastie Boys started out punk and Joe Strummer was a hippy. Eilish might be 17, but when she kicks indifferently through a yellow backdrop and drops her retainer in a dude’s hand at the start of Bad Guy’s music video, she looks pretty sure of her MO. Block colours and black humour, dull eyes and sharp production, Eilish had these things locked down by age 15, with her third single Bellyache, and our writers are here for it.

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Eilish’s place in 2019’s Song Of The Year poll continues a pattern started by last year’s – it is dominated by women. In another year Sampa The Great may have won with Final Form. Black artists speaking truth to power have a proven cachet with The Music’s writers, Childish Gambino’s This Is America, Beyonce’s Formation and Kendrick Lamar’s King Kunta all voted #1 in their respective years. Sampa Tembo’s joyous ode to Black power still comes in at #2, falling only a couple of votes behind Bad Guy.

In third place is Juice. Dropping in the first days of 2019, the track felt like the turning point for Lizzo, who is also our writers’ Artist Of The Year. Lizzo’s bold R&B-funk blend proved impossible to ignore, especially when she delivered it on Fallon literally "lit up like a crystal ball". The song did draw some controversy in October, CeCe Peniston accusing Lizzo of lifting the now-iconic "Ya-ya-ee" line from her ’91 track, Finally. At the time of writing the accusation has yet to be resolved, but The Music’s writers have made up their own minds about Juice.

Lil Nas X’s Old Town Road technically came out last year but the Billy Ray Cyrus remix flooded the airwaves this year. Sharron Van Etten’s poignant open letter to her younger self also struck a chord, Seventeen reaching the #4 spot in the poll, while at #5, Tame Impala is the only Australian act represented in 2019. Kevin Parker’s project has been a regular entrant/winner in the best song poll over the years, so it’s no surprise to see one of the early snippets from his forthcoming fourth album here.

Bringing up the second half of the poll, Mannequin Pussy's Drunk II adds a splash of hazy, lovelorn punk to the mix, Orville Peck fights for self-acceptance in queer country anthem Turn To Hate, and Charli XCX and Christine & The Queens share a spot with Gone, the most jaw-dropping collab of the year. Closing things out for 2019, super-breezy Summer Girl warmed our writers’ hearts, even if it dropped in the dead of winter for Haim’s southern fans.

The Top Ten

1. Billie Eilish - Bad Guy
2. Sampa The Great - Final Form
3. Lizzo - Juice
4. Lil Nas X ft Billy Ray Cyrus - Old Town Road (Remix)
5. Sharon Van Etten - Seventeen
6. Tame Impala - Borderline
7. Mannequin Pussy - Drunk II
8. Orville Peck - Turn To Hate
9. Charli XCX ft Christine & The Queens - Gone
10. Haim - Summer Girl

Past Winners

2018: Childish Gambino - This Is America 
2017: Lorde - Green Light
2016: Beyonce - Formation
2015: Kendrick Lamar - King Kunta
2014: FKA twigs - Two Weeks
2013: Daft Punk - Get Lucky
2012: Tame Impala - Elephant
2011: Gotye ft Kimbra - Somebody That I Used To Know
2010: Cee Lo Green - Fuck You