"Viral Rhythms and Musical Explosions: The Year of 2023 in International Music"
As 2023 comes to a close, it's time to reflect on the diverse musical landscape that defined the year. Rolling Stones Magazine compiled a list of the 100 best songs, highlighting an eclectic mix of genres, artists, and unexpected collaborations that left an indelible mark on the global music scene. Below are the top ten rankings with the magazine's observations.
1 - Eslabon Armado and Peso Pluma, ‘Ella Baila Sola’
As música Mexicana scaled new heights this year, the cultural phenomenon became impossible to ignore — and its chart-busting success is one of the biggest and most global music stories of 2023. Perhaps no song captured the movement like “Ella Baila Sola,” the standout sierreño by breakout group Eslabon Armado and newly anointed star Peso Pluma. The first strums of a prickly requinto clear the way for a burst of chugging charchetas and trombone that give the song a rich, rounded sound that hooks into the listener immediately. That, paired with the contrast of Eslabon’s silky verses and Pluma’s gritty rasp, meant instant ubiquity: After getting a boost on TikTok, “Ella Baila Sola” quickly dominated the charts, becoming a global Number One on Spotify and landing in the Billboard Hot 100’s Top Five — the latter a history-making feat that only proves the full power of música Mexicana. —J.L.
2 - PinkPantheress feat. Ice Spice, ‘Boy’s a Liar, Pt. 2’
“Being Gen Z ‘It’ girls of the internet era, I feel like we had a lot in common, even though we’re from two completely different places,” PinkPantheress said of herself and Bronx rapper Ice Spice. Assembled via DMs and co-produced by Mura Masa, their remix of the British singer-songwriter’s “Boy’s a Liar, Pt. 2” reflects the duo’s rising stock in the Zeigeist with a fluffy blend of hyperpop energy and 8-bit melodies. Pink’s winsomely girlish voice floats over the beat, while Ice Spice’s boasts add necessary edge. The result feels like it belongs in a time capsule for life in 2003.–M.R.
3 - Lana Del Rey, ‘A&W’
“A&W” is maximum Lana Del Rey: a sweeping, seven-minute epic that follows the sunburned, SoCal folk rock she’s perfected on recent albums back to the hip-hop-inspired pop productions of her early discography. That musical scope is paired with a narrative that’s no less ambitious — vulnerable and lurid, nostalgic and hopeless, funny and utterly bleak. “A&W” tells a story, paints a picture, communicates something ineffable about sex, identity, perception, power, exploitation, girlhood, womanhood, and class. s. And the bow tying it all together? The name of classic root beer brand, “A&W” used as shorthand for “American Whore,” because no one bends American iconography to their will like Lana Del Rey.. —J. Blistein
4 - Zach Bryan feat. Kacey Musgraves, ‘I Remember Everything’
“Strange words come on out/Of a grown man’s mouth when his mind’s broke,” Bryan sings on “I Remember Everything,” displaying the kind of emotional realism that’s at the heart of his songwriting. The highlight of Zach Bryan’s breakthrough self-titled record was this understated gut-punch duet with Kacey Musgraves. The details do most of the talking on this remembrance of summer romances past: a pawned ring, an ‘88 Ford, sandy hair. But it’s Bryan’s and Musgraves’ complementary vocals, the former providing the melodrama and the latter singing with her guarded reservation, that best tell this story of two lovers who remember a far-gone summer fling all too well. —J. Bernstein
5 - Shakira and Bizarrap, ‘Bzrp Music Sessions, Vol. 53’
Nothing could’ve prepared the world for the grenade Shakira dropped with her off-the-cuff collaboration with up-and-coming 24-year-old Argentine producer Bizzarap. The rising star had been teaming up with a host of Latin artists over the past several years, creating sessions with them performing over one of his original beats. Getting a legend like Shakira was a major coup, and it was just the fire she needed to write and record her most explosive music yet. Over the course of the electro-pop track, she takes aim in playful but absolutely not subtle ways at her ex Gerard Piqué, calling him out for cheating on her. It broke the internet so much that it gave Shakira her first Top 10 single on the Billboard Hot 100 since 2007’s “Beautiful Liar.” —B.S.
6 - NewJeans, ‘Super Shy’
NewJeans have been enjoying viral hits for awhile, but “Super Shy” was a breakthrough for the Korean girl group, reaching Number Two on the Billboard Global chart. It might’ve deserved even better: The song is one the purest pop thrills of the year, with a dreamy melody; a bright drum-and-bass beat; and Minji, Hanni, Danielle, Haerin, and Hyein sharing crushed-out lyrics you can’t help but sing along with. In true K-pop fashion, the accompanying music video is just as captivating, with synchronized choreography that experiments with the Seventies disco style waacking. —K.K.
7 - Olivia Rodrigo, ‘Get Him Back!’
There’s nothing Liv loves more than a double-entendre. Except, maybe, revenge, which she gets plenty of on this Guts highlight. She flips from both meanings of “Get him back” so quickly it all morphs into one blissful pop-punk rager, and it’s all the proof you need that this is a 20-year-old pop star who is having the time of her life — heartbreak is just a footnote. Plus, “get him back” contains the best couplet of the year: “I wanna key his car/I wanna make him lunch.” —A.M.
8 - Lil Yachty, ‘Strike (Holster)’
There aren’t a lot of people you could say had a better 2023 than Lil Yachty. The 26-year-old rapper firmly solidified himself as one of music’s major players, dropping a rock album, a slew of viral hits, and a podcast to boot. All the while one song, made famous by a clip of Yachty’s sister singing the hook, stands out as a singular achievement. “Strike (Holster)” felt like a culmination of Yachty’s admirable explorations. His patient, slow-rolling cadence makes for a certain magic over the song’s glittery production. “Strike like I missed it, strike like I hit the pin/Strike like I’m not goin’ to work, strike, strike,” he raps, managing to pantomime the sound of a protest. —J.I.
9 - Billie Eilish, ‘What Was I Made For?’
True to form, Billie Eilish turned existential trauma into one of the year’s most flooring songs in “What Was I Made For.” It poignantly capped Greta Gerwig’s socioemotional blockbuster Barbie. But while soundtracking a huge cultural moment, “What Was I Made For” also spoke to concerns Eilish has raised about herself–about her sense of her own femininity, and about feeling more like a commodity than a soulful person to the world around her. These crises are set against Eilish’s ephemeral, glassy lilt and devastatingly sparse piano. turning the feeling of being disconnected from oneself into art that connected with millions.–M.C.
10 - Victoria Monét, ‘On My Mama’
It’d be tempting to call “On My Mama” a throwback, with its blaring horns, live bass, and declarations of looking “fly.” But a more apt description for would be: timeless. The verses are catchier than most choruses; the chorus has this little pause in it that forces your shoulders to dip; and the lyrics (“I’m so deep in my bag/Like a grandma with a peppermint”) keep the song fresh after a couple dozen listens. Victoria Monét has been known for years as one of the industry’s best songwriters. Turns out, she saved the real classics for herself. —N.S.
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