The Year in Pop

When it comes to talking about 21st century pop music, my mind immediately springs to the club boom that was the late 2000s that would eventually build up to the year 2010. In the same vein that the late 70s were dominated by disco, and the 80s of the synth pop and hair metel, late 2000s were dominated by the maximalist need party hard at the clubs. The ride had been steadly morphing the main and sub genres for nearly half a decade by 2009, and the signs were pointing to a critical mass that would be 2010 in pop music.  Nearly every genre would either be muscled out or pivot to the club and dance scene that had been rising steadily. Rock and country saw any visibility they had muscled and winnowed out, same with R&B, while pop, rap and hip-hop became more synth and electro heavy than ever. Most of the songs that had a modicum of chart presence was very heavily club orientated, and there are only a small handful of songs that didn't pivot to the club sound that did manage to not...