Songs That Got Stuck in My Head this Year

Credit to Jackie for saying I should make this playlist (and this piece).

At the beginning of the year, I got “Freak the Freak Out” from Victorious stuck in my head, for no reason whatsoever. I get songs stuck in my head all the time and then proceed to sing a part of it over and over. My girlfriend, Jackie, realized this and prompted me with a task for the year.

“Why don’t you make a playlist of every song that gets stuck in your head?”

And this is that playlist.

There were certain criteria I had for this. One, if it is a song I listened to or found, it has to be stuck in my head the following day to qualify (otherwise this list would just be infinite). Two, if I sang the song randomly out loud while it was bouncing around in my head, it would have to be immediately added. Third, no repeating songs, if I wanted a playlist of all of my favorite songs, I would just listen to that. Pretty simple criteria, but it also explains why the playlist is only 100 songs long.

I am going to categorize this playlist as best as I can. There are some patterns that show themselves in this playlist that I may have missed, but these are the broad sections of songs that got stuck in my head. I will try to cover every song, but some are truly just random, typical of me.

Secret Musical Lover

I guess this category would fit the previously mentioned Victorious track, but yeah I did realize this year that I enjoy musicals properly. I used to have a musicals playlist, but I may have deleted it to protect my cool music-loving persona (I have now remade one that is on my Spotify).

These were those tracks:

• “Lay All Your Love On Me” and “Super Trouper” from Mamma Mia

• “More Than Survive” from Be More Chill (my favorite musical)

• “Roxie” from Chicago

• “Without Love” from Hairspray

• “The I Love You Song” from The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee (my second favorite musical)

• “Willkommen” from Cabaret

• “It Only Takes a Taste” from Waitress

• “At The Ballet” from The Chorus Line

Some of these are just because I saw them this year (yes, I did re-watch Mamma Mia this year), but others are just truly great songs. “The I Love You Song” is one of the most devastating songs I have ever listened to with some insane harmonies, “At The Ballet” has three phrases and changes tempo very smoothly, and “Willkommen” was just because I kept catching it on social media.

Musicals do tend to be catchy, so it was not surprising to have them appear frequently throughout the year. They can cover almost every type of mood, almost as well as just regular music can, but it is a little bit hard to mix them into a normal playlist amongst friends (with Wicked’s recent fame, maybe it is a little bit more possible now).

Just a Tad Funny

These ones are just weird and whacky. Listening to almost everything does lend to the possibility of ending in the comedy, instrumental, or a random old pop song getting stuck in your head.

These included:

• “Livin’ La Vida Loca” by Ricky Martin

• “Bella Ciao”

• “Rock Your Body” and “Senorita” by Justin Timberlake

• “You’ve Never Had Chocolate Like This” from the Timothee Chalamet Willy Wonka movie

• “Crucified” by Army of Lovers

• “Epic Rap Battle: Nerd vs. Geek” by Rhett and Link

• “Dialga’s Fight to the Finish!” from Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Sky

• “Funkytown” by Lipps Inc.

• “Dubidubidu (Chipi Chipi Chapa Chapa)” by Christell

Yeahhhhhh these are all over the place. You see a couple of things: my love for Justin Timberlake (I was devastated when he was arrested for a DUI), me singing Bella Ciao when anything Italian happens in my life, the corny and silly parts of Willy Wonka, and most importantly, getting random YouTube parodies and comedy songs (how can you forget the famous lyric “ooh, you beat Angry Birds, you’re not a gamer because you battled your friends with words”). I will now proceed to have “Dubidubidu” for the rest of the night.

This does not take away from the fact that these are great songs. Even though for me, “Crucified” is a Just Dance classic, the layers in the vocals are truly transcendent. “Rock Your Body” is considered by me as one of the best songs ever and I am being so so serious. The Pokemon Mystery Dungeon song is truly an insane track, it takes place in the final battle and it never fails to fill me with memories and give me a triumphant mood. Even the weird can have meaning.

The Trends Getting Me

It is so easy to have a song from TikTok or Twitter get stuck in your head. Whether it is a band or artist starting to go viral, or a trend, or a song that gets cycled in edits, they all get stuck in my head in some way.

• “Linger” by The Cranberries

• “Weak” by SWV

• “Night Shift” by Lucy Dacus

• “Tek It” by Cafune

• “Steeeam” by Shelly

• “I’m Like a Bird” by Nelly Furtado

• “Sleepyhead” by Passion Pit

• “Europapa” by Joost

• “Love Me Not” by Ravyn Lenae

Some of these songs truly popped off from social media this past year. “Love Me Not” started getting attention from a remix combining it with Solange’s “Losing You”, “Steeeam” Saturdays were always being posted, “Night Shift” was constantly being edited to tragic fictional couples (looking at you Arcane), and “Europapa” was a part of Eurovision this year (which led to me getting an insane amount of Eurovision stuff on my feeds).

I truly love how social media can circulate what songs get randomly popular or decide to be used. The artistry of editing (in the sense of editing clips to a song) paired with a perfect song choice creates some profound videos and messages, tying the nostalgic and dreamy song of “Sleepyhead” to the video game, Little Big Planet gives me that homey feel. It reminds me of when Fleetwood Mac started to gain some popularity with the younger audience because of the guy who rode his skateboard to “Dreams” while drinking cranberry juice. Social media can be such a beautiful place for music circulation, and I feel it is very underrated for doing so.

2024 Live Shows and Releases

The last category will cover songs I witnessed live and songs that were released this year. You are always going to go back to songs you witnessed live over and over again, and the same goes for new releases.

• “Good Luck, Babe!” by Chappell Roan

• “Anything But Me” and “Stayaway” by MUNA

• “Show Runner 99” and “Escalator” by Ritt Momney

• “On My Mind” by Baby Rose and BADBADNOTGOOD

• “Take Me Away” by Leyla McCalla

• “Cheers” by Faye Webster

• “Please Please Please” by Sabrina Carpenter

• “The Walls Are Way Too Thin” by Holly Humberstone

• “Not Like Us” and “Luther” by Kendrick Lamar

• “Electric Lady” by Janelle Monae

• “American Teenager” by Ethel Cain

The live shows are categorized by three concerts I went to this year: Ritt Momney performing at my school, Faye Webster in Philly, and seeing Janelle Monae, Ethel Cain, Holly Humberstone, and MUNA at All Things Go in NYC (should've been Chappell Roan as well, but she unfortunately pulled out last minute). Some of the new releases are songs that I added to my school’s radio station (Leyla McCalla and Baby Rose), but others are just from the popular releases of the year.

Going to concerts this year I discovered both “Cheers” and “The Walls Are Way Too Thin”, one from an artist I love with all my heart, and another from an artist I never heard of at the time. It is so amazing I am still able to find new music out there in the endless music world, I really thought “Cheers” was a new track because it was so good and I did not remember it (or maybe I am a fake Faye Webster fan). I discovered Holly Humberstone and so many other amazing artists at All Things Go which makes me want to go to more concerts desperately to find even more new artists (only if my bank account can allow it).

This year was also one of my favorite years of music, ever. Some surging pop stars Chappell Roan and Sabrina Carpenter brought me into the pop world further realizing it is a lot more fun than I thought. And then you have the momentous year Kendrick Lamar had, I still remember being at work and my friends telling me “holy shit, Kendrick released again”, and then the same thing happened when he released the album.

With the new year, I will not be surprised if my playlist this year is much much longer, hopefully it does not touch the 200 range, because writing this up next year will be a lot harder. Yes, I did already start one for this year. A new rule is being added: no repeats from last year. That will help narrow down the playing field a bit (well, by 100). Here is this year’s playlist, check in from time to time to see if a song you showed me made it, or tell me if you make your own!