Plenty of publications like Rolling Stone, Billboard, or Pitchfork have been putting out best tracks of the decade lists… and those are all well and good, but they’re inherently subjective and might be missing your favorite genre or your favorite artist, what have you. Plus, they’re somewhat limited by arbitrary numbers like “Top 100” or what they think a reader’s average attention span might be.
Not Spotify.
Analytics and metrics pair well with a pretty much limitless playlist when you look at dance music over the past 10 years. The Spotify platform itself was launched in late 2008 and, let’s be honest, it wasn’t that popular for the first few years. But, as artists have gone back and retroactively added older music to the platform, fans have been eating up those tracks nonetheless.
Two days ago, Spotify launched its Best Dance of the 2010s playlist presented by mint, and it’s an absolutely wild trip down memory lane. As with all Spotify editorial playlists, it doesn’t explicitly list how many songs are in the playlist, but it looks to also be around the standard 100 (completely invalidating my earlier statement about limitless playlists).
Tracks as far back as 2011 or 2012, or god forbid 2010, are few and far between on the list. Alesso’s edit of “Pressure,” Afrojack’s “Can’t Stop Me,” and the classic “Cry (Just A Little)” by Bingo Players are just a few of the earliest decade tracks on the playlist. But, it also caters to newer tracks from Illenium, Eric Prydz, Mat Zo, Flume, Knife Party, ZHU, Flux Pavilion, RÜFÜS DU SOL, Adventure Club, and more.
On the cover is Avicii — and rightly so. Apart from Skrillex (who, curiously, is only included on the list for his Jack Ü collaboration with Justin Bieber, and no solo material), no other producer can really define the rise of EDM so gallantly as the late Swedish legend who tragically died April 2018. His hit “Wake Me Up” is the top song on the list.
Check out the full playlist below!
Photo via Rukes.com