DavesMusicDatabase.com is devoted to ranking, rating, and reviewing music of all genres and eras. The DMDB blog serves up album and song reviews, best-of lists, music history snapshots, and music-related essays.
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 | Digital Dream Door:Songs of the year, 1920-2024 |
Digital Dream Door offers multiple best-of music lists, including song-of-the-year lists from 1940 to present. Here are the best songs from each year: Check out other “songs of the year” lists here.
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First posted 4/6/2019; last updated 12/31/2025. |
 | MTV:Videos of the Year, 1984-2024 |
Three years after the birth of music television with MTV, the network introduced its annual video awards. While multiple categories were established, this page recognizes just those songs which won for Video of the Year. Originally winners were determined by a panel of music video directors, producers, and record company executives, but viewers have voted on the winners since 2006. Check out other “songs of the year” lists here.
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First posted 1/28/2021; last updated 1/4/2025. |
 | Dave’s Music Database:Top 50 Songs of 2021 |
These are the top 50 songs of 2021 based on their overall performance in Dave’s Music Database, which is determined by combining chart data, sales figures, streaming, video views, and aggregates from more than 30 year-end lists. Check out “Top Songs and Albums of the Year” lists here. Check out Dave’s Music Database podcast: The Top 20 songs of 2021 based on this list. 
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First posted 12/26/2021; last updated 1/17/2023. |
 | Industry BabyLil Nas X and Jack Harlow |
Writer(s): Montero Hill, Jackman Harlow, Mark Williams, Raul Cubina, Roy Lenzo, Denzel Baptiste, David Biral, Kanye West, Nick Lee (see lyrics here) Released: July 23, 2021 First Charted: August 7, 2021 Peak: 11 BB, 11 DG, 12 ST, 11 RR, 26 A40, 118 RB, 3 UK, 3 CN, 5 AU (Click for codes to charts.) Sales (in millions): 7.0 US, 0.6 UK, 10.60 world (includes US + UK) Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, 929.59 video, 2073.61 streaming |
Awards:Click on award for more details. 
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About the Song:Montero Lamar Hill, professionally known as Lil Nas X, was born in Georgia in 1999. He rose to fame in 2019 when his song “Old Town Road” spent 19 weeks atop the Billboard Hot 100, the longest-running #1 in the history of the chart. He released his first album, Montero, in 2021. It reached #2, went platinum, and generated the #1 hits “Montero (Call Me by Your Name)” and “Industry Baby.” The song paired Lil Nas X with Jack Harlow, a rapper born in Kentucky in 1998. He released several mixtapes and EPs before his debut album, That’s What They All Say, came out in 2020 and was a top-five, million-selling album. He experienced his first chart success with the album’s single “What’s Poppin’,” which reached #2 on the pop and R&B charts on its way to being certified seven times platinum. Lil Nas X said of “Industry Baby” that it was a song “for us.” WK He wrote about “stagnation during the Covid-19 pandemic, ostracization due to his sexuality, and staying strong in the face of adversity to witness his future success.” WK He also said the song “captures his honest feelings of his place within the music industry.” SF Harlow’s contribution is a verse “where he raps about handling his critics and boasts that he’s here to stay.” SF Lil Nas X first sent the song to Nicki Minaj, but never got a reply from her. The song also features production from Kanye West. Billboard called it an “expertly crafted rap anthem” WK while Clash described it as “a bubbling piece of pop-edged rap.” WK Resources:
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First posted 1/19/2024; last updated 10/14/2024. |
 | Montero (Call Me by Your Name)Lil Nas X |
Writer(s): Montero Hill, Denzel Baptiste, David Biral, Omer Fedi (see lyrics here) Released: March 26, 2021 First Charted: April 10, 2021 Peak: 11 BB, 11 DG, 12 ST, 12 RR, 17 A40, 15 UK, 11 CN, 12 AU (Click for codes to charts.) Sales (in millions): 6.0 US, 1.2 UK, 10.65 world (includes US + UK) Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, 1035.72 video, 1966.46 streaming |
Awards:Click on award for more details.
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About the Song:Montero Lamar Hill, professionally known as Lil Nas X, was born in Georgia in 1999. He rose to fame in 2019 when his song “Old Town Road” spent 19 weeks atop the Billboard Hot 100, the longest-running #1 in the history of the chart. His double-platinum, #2 EP 7 followed, giving him another top-ten hit with “Panini.” He released his first album, Montero, in 2021. It reached #2 and went platinum. The first single, “Montero (Call Me by Your Name),” was one of two #1 songs from the album (the other was “Industry Baby”) and one of three top-tens (“That’s What I Want,” #8). The title of the song was inspired by the 2017 movie Call Me by Your Name, which Lil Nas X said was one of the first gay films he watched, explain, “I thought the theme was so dope, like calling somebody by your own name is love, keeping the love between you two.” BI The artist came out as gay in 2019 while “Old Town Road” was launching him to stardom. He said “Montero” was about a man who he fell in love with who was, as Lil Nas X saw it, still unhappy because he was living in the closet. BI The song also dealt with the pressures Lil Nas X faced “as a member of the LGBTQ+ community” and with fame. BI He said it was “the most real and the most vulnerable he’d ever been on a song.” BI The song and video received praise from some liberal commentators but backlash from conservative figures. The “sexually charged music video…depicts Lil Nas X in a number of biblically-inspired scenes, including the artist riding a stripper pole to Hell, and giving a lap dance to Satan.” WK Resources:
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First posted 1/16/2024; last updated 10/13/2024. |
