2010s Music: Top Songs, Genres And Trends

Streaming takes the chart over, and a handful of artists sell more than everyone else combined.

Below: the albums worth owning from the 2010s, the artists who defined it, how people listened at the time, and the biggest song of every year from 2010 to 2019.

Good for building a party playlist, setting a quiz round or working out what someone grew up listening to.

Shop the cards that go with these

Shop prints and posters Look back to 2010 Look back to 2011 Look back to 2012

Song and lyric prints, drawn and printed by us

Music and milestone art prints and funny cards, printed in the UK. Order on a working day and it usually goes out the same day.

99 Problems, Prompting Ain't One A6 Postcard 99 Problems, Prompting Ain't One A6 Postcard £3.00 Cunt Rude A6 Postcard Cunt Rude A6 Postcard £3.00 99 Problems but Excel Ain't One A6 Postcard 99 Problems but Excel Ain't One A6 Postcard £3.00 Dancing On The Ceiling Music Print A6 Postcard Dancing On The Ceiling Music Print A6 Postcard £3.00 Music Sounds Better With You Music Print A6 Postcard Music Sounds Better With You Music Print A6 Postcard £3.00 Kenny Dalglish Liverpool Football Club (LFC) Legend Stats Print Kenny Dalglish Liverpool Football Club (LFC) Legend Stats Print £12.99

Shop prints and posters

Years covered in the 2010s

  • 2010 - A hung parliament, a volcano that stopped the planes and the first iPad. Full year: /blogs/news/look-back-to-2010
  • 2011 - The royal wedding, the riots and Adele's 21. Full year: /blogs/news/look-back-to-2011
  • 2012 - The Diamond Jubilee and the London Olympics in one extraordinary summer. Full year: /blogs/news/look-back-to-2012
  • 2013 - A royal baby, Andy Murray at Wimbledon and the horsemeat scandal. Full year: /blogs/news/look-back-to-2013
  • 2014 - The Scottish referendum, the ice bucket challenge and streaming joining the chart. Full year: /blogs/news/look-back-to-2014
  • 2015 - The Queen's record reign, Leicester's title run beginning and Adele's return. Full year: /blogs/news/look-back-to-2015
  • 2016 - Leicester won the league, Britain voted to leave and a lot of people died. Full year: /blogs/news/look-back-to-2016
  • 2017 - Grenfell, the Manchester Arena attack and a snap election that went wrong. Full year: /blogs/news/look-back-to-2017
  • 2018 - A royal wedding, a heatwave and England reaching a World Cup semi-final. Full year: /blogs/news/look-back-to-2018
  • 2019 - A cricket World Cup final nobody could believe and a December election. Full year: /blogs/news/look-back-to-2019
  • That is every 2010s year we have written up so far: 2010 to 2019.

Albums of the 2010s

  • Adele, 21 (2011) and 25 (2015).
  • Ed Sheeran, x (2014) and divide (2017).
  • Beyonce, Lemonade (2016).
  • Arctic Monkeys, AM (2013).
  • Stormzy, Gang Signs & Prayer (2017) - a UK number one grime album.
  • Kendrick Lamar, To Pimp a Butterfly (2015).

Artists who defined the 2010s

  • Adele and Ed Sheeran, the two biggest British sellers of the decade.
  • One Direction, formed on The X Factor in 2010.
  • Stormzy, Skepta and the grime acts that reached the mainstream.
  • Taylor Swift's move from country to pop with 1989 (2014).
  • Dua Lipa and Sam Smith towards the end of the decade.

Genres of the 2010s

  • EDM and the big-room drop.
  • Grime's second wave and UK drill late in the decade.
  • Streaming-shaped pop - shorter songs, faster hooks.
  • Folk revival and stadium acoustic acts.
  • Afrobeats and Latin pop crossing into the UK chart.

Music trends of the 2010s

  • Streaming becomes the main way people listen, and the playlist becomes the gatekeeper.
  • Vinyl returns as a collector's format.
  • Social video breaks songs before radio does.
  • Touring income overtakes recorded income for most artists.

Biggest songs, year by year

  • 2010 - 'Love the Way You Lie' by Eminem and Rihanna was the year's best-selling single.
  • 2011 - Adele's 21 was the best-selling album of the year and went on to be the decade's biggest.
  • 2012 - 'Somebody That I Used to Know' by Gotye was the year's best-selling single.
  • 2013 - 'Blurred Lines' by Robin Thicke was the year's best-selling single.
  • 2014 - 'Happy' by Pharrell Williams was the year's best-selling single.
  • 2015 - Adele's 'Hello' and the album 25 broke sales records on release in the autumn.
  • 2016 - David Bowie died on 10 January, two days after releasing Blackstar; Prince died in April; George Michael died on Christmas Day.
  • 2017 - 'Shape of You' by Ed Sheeran was the year's best-selling single and one of the most-streamed songs ever.
  • 2018 - 'One Kiss' by Calvin Harris and Dua Lipa was the year's best-selling single.
  • 2019 - 'Someone You Loved' by Lewis Capaldi was the year's best-selling single.

How people listened

  • Spotify streams counted in the UK chart from July 2014, which changed what a hit looks like.
  • Vinyl sales climb every year from about 2007, mostly as an object rather than a format.
  • Playlists replace albums as the way most people listen.

How to use this

  • Party: take the running order from the 2010s playlist and pull extra tracks from the artists above.
  • Quiz round: read the year and the song, and ask for the other one.
  • Reminiscence session: the songs people sang at eighteen get the most talking.
  • Present: a print of a song from 2010-2019 beats another mug.

Shop prints and posters

Found your words? Now find the card

Shop prints and posters Look back to 2010 Look back to 2011 Look back to 2012

How to write it so it lands

  • Download the tracks rather than streaming them if the party is somewhere with bad signal.
  • One song from the year someone turned eighteen does more than a whole decade playlist.
  • Check for clean versions before a family party - some of these are ruder than people remember.

Where to shop next

Frequently asked questions

What are the best albums of the 2010s?

Adele, 21 (2011) and 25 (2015). The full list above gives real records with their release years, not a ranking - pick by what the person actually listened to.

What music genres were popular in the 2010s?

EDM and the big-room drop. Grime's second wave and UK drill late in the decade. Streaming-shaped pop - shorter songs, faster hooks. The genres section above has the full list.

Who were the biggest artists of the 2010s?

Adele and Ed Sheeran, the two biggest British sellers of the decade. The rest are listed above, including the British acts that mattered more here than anywhere else.

What was the biggest song of each year in the 2010s?

The year-by-year list above gives the chart facts for each year of the decade, taken from the same checked data as our year pages.

Do you sell records?

No. We make greeting cards, art prints and pin badges in the UK, including song and lyric prints. For the records themselves, charity shops and independent record shops are the honest answer.

Back to blog