Man, 2016 was a fever dream. If you turn on the radio today, you’ll hear snippets of it everywhere, but at the time, the Billboard top 100 hits 2016 felt like a massive identity crisis for the music industry. It was the year of the "Tropical House" drop. Remember that weird, pan-flute-sounding synth that was in literally every song? That’s 2016 in a nutshell. We were stuck between the dying gasps of EDM-pop and the meteoric rise of "Sad Boy" rap and streaming-first hits.
Justin Bieber was somehow the king of the world again. Drake was dancing in a turtleneck. The Chainsmokers were inescapable.
It wasn't just about the catchy hooks, though. This was the year the way we consume music actually broke. Billboard had recently started weighing streaming much more heavily, and you could see the results in real-time. Songs didn't just hit number one and disappear; they sat there for months, squatting on the charts because people were looping them on Spotify while they slept. It changed the DNA of what a "hit" actually sounded like.
The Year Tropical House Swallowed the Billboard Top 100 Hits 2016
If you look back at the Billboard top 100 hits 2016, you'll notice a pattern that's almost hilarious in hindsight. Everything sounded like it was recorded on a beach in Ibiza during a rainstorm. Justin Bieber’s "Sorry" and "What Do You Mean?" are the prime examples. Produced largely by BloodPop and Skrillex, these tracks moved away from the aggressive "Wub-Wub" dubstep of the early 2010s into something softer, more rhythmic, and distinctly island-inspired.
It worked. Boy, did it work. Bieber became the first artist to replace himself at number one on the UK charts, and his dominance on the Billboard Hot 100 was just as suffocating.
But he wasn't alone. Mike Posner, who most people had forgotten since 2010, suddenly had a massive hit with "I Took a Pill in Ibiza." The irony? The original song was a depressing acoustic folk track about being a washed-up celebrity. Then SeeB remixed it into a high-energy dance track, and it shot straight into the top ten. It’s peak 2016: a song about the misery of fame becoming the literal anthem of the parties it was criticizing.
Then there was Sia. "Cheap Thrills" was everywhere. It was originally written for Rihanna (who turned it down), but Sia’s version, especially the remix featuring Sean Paul, became her first number-one hit. It utilized that same bouncy, dancehall-lite percussion that defined the year. Honestly, if a song didn't have a slight Caribbean influence in 2016, did it even exist?
The Chainsmokers and the Rise of the "Drop"
You can't talk about this era without mentioning Drew Taggart and Alex Pall. Love them or hate them, The Chainsmokers owned the Billboard top 100 hits 2016. "Don't Let Me Down" featured Daya and a massive, distorted guitar-synth drop that became the blueprint for pop-EDM crossovers.
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And then came "Closer."
It stayed at number one for 12 consecutive weeks. It’s a song about a Rover, a tattoo on a shoulder, and being "broke in Boulder." It was hyper-specific yet strangely universal. It was also the moment where the "millennial whoop" (that melodic interval between the fifth and third notes in a major scale) reached its absolute saturation point. "Closer" wasn't just a song; it was a monoculture event. It was the last time it felt like everyone was listening to the exact same thing at the exact same time before the algorithms completely fractured our attention spans.
Drake and the 6-God Dominance
While the EDM guys were fighting for the "Song of the Summer," Drake was playing a different game. 2016 was the year of Views.
Drake’s "One Dance" was a behemoth. It didn't even have an official music video for the longest time, yet it dominated the Billboard top 100 hits 2016 for 10 non-consecutive weeks. This song was a masterclass in globalism. It pulled from UK Funky (sampling Kyla’s "Do You Mind") and featured Nigerian superstar Wizkid.
It was smart. By pulling in sounds from London and Lagos, Drake ensured he wasn't just a North American rapper; he was a global pop entity. This was also the year he gave us "Hotline Bling" (technically a late 2015 release, but it lingered deep into 2016). That song changed the marketing of music. The video was designed specifically to be turned into GIFs. Drake knew that if you make yourself a meme, you stay on the charts.
The Weeknd and the Retro-Future
Toward the end of the year, the sound started to shift again. The Weeknd cut his hair and dropped "Starboy."
Collaborating with Daft Punk was a stroke of genius. It moved the Billboard top 100 hits 2016 away from the tropical sun and into the dark, neon-lit streets of a sci-fi city. It was moodier, faster, and much more cynical. It signaled the end of the "bright" pop era and the beginning of the trap-inflected gloom that would dominate the late 2010s.
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What People Get Wrong About 2016 Music
Most people remember 2016 as a "great" year for music because of the albums. We had Beyoncé’s Lemonade, Frank Ocean’s Blonde, and Kanye’s The Life of Pablo. But here’s the kicker: those albums didn't actually produce that many massive "radio" hits compared to the singles-driven artists.
"Formation" was a cultural earthquake, but it peaked at number 10 on the Hot 100. Frank Ocean didn't have a single top 10 hit that year.
There was a massive disconnect between "Art" and "The Charts." The Billboard top 100 hits 2016 were dominated by what we now call "Spotify-core." These were songs designed to be catchy enough to not be skipped, but inoffensive enough to play in the background of a H&M. This is why artists like Twenty One Pilots exploded. "Stressed Out" and "Heathens" were massive. They tapped into a specific kind of suburban angst that hadn't been serviced since the mid-2000s emo boom, but they wrapped it in a production style that fit perfectly next to a Rihanna track.
The Weird Outliers
Occasionally, something totally bizarre would break through.
- Desiigner - "Panda": A 19-year-old from Brooklyn who sounded remarkably like Future had the number one song in the country. It was raw, energetic, and barely intelligible to the average radio listener, yet it topped the charts.
- Rae Sremmurd - "Black Beatles": This became a number one hit largely because of the Mannequin Challenge. It was one of the first times a viral internet trend directly forced a song to the top of the Billboard charts. It proved that the "gatekeepers" at radio were no longer in charge. The kids with iPhones were.
- Lukas Graham - "7 Years": A Danish band singing a sentimental, somewhat rambling song about aging. It was the "Cat's in the Cradle" of the 2010s and it was absolutely inescapable.
The Economics of the 2016 Chart
Why did songs stay at the top for so long in 2016?
It's actually pretty simple. Billboard’s formula at the time heavily favored "active" listeners on streaming platforms. If you were a mega-fan and played a song 500 times a week, that carried immense weight.
This led to "chart stagnation." In the 90s, the number one spot changed hands almost every week or two. In 2016, we only had 10 different songs hit number one the entire year. Ten! That’s ridiculously low. It meant that if you didn't like "Closer" or "One Dance," you were basically out of luck for four months.
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The Death of the "Indie" Hit
2016 was also the year the "Indie Pop" crossover died. In 2012, you had Gotye or Fun. hitting number one. By 2016, the cost of "breaking" a song was so high, and the reliance on massive streaming playlists was so heavy, that smaller labels were squeezed out. The Billboard top 100 hits 2016 were almost entirely the province of major label machines—Republic Records, in particular, had a historic year.
How to Use 2016 Trends for Modern Success
If you’re a creator, a marketer, or just a music nerd, there are actual lessons to be learned from the 2016 chart behavior. It wasn't just a fluke; it was a roadmap.
Embrace the "Sonic Wallpaper" Strategy
The reason "One Dance" and "Cheap Thrills" worked is that they were "low-friction." They didn't demand your full attention with screaming vocals or complex time signatures. They had a steady, mid-tempo BPM (usually between 100 and 110). If you're creating content today, that "background-friendly" vibe is still the king of retention.
Visual Association is Everything
"Black Beatles" didn't win because it was the best rap song of the year. It won because it was the soundtrack to a visual meme. If you want something to go viral, you don't just release the audio. You create a "vibe" or a "challenge" that requires the audio to function. 2016 was the year this became the industry standard.
Nostalgia Cycles are Getting Shorter
We are already seeing a 2016 revival. Why? Because the 10-year cycle is real. In 2026, the kids who were 12 years old listening to "Stressed Out" are now 22 and looking for nostalgia.
Actionable Steps for Music Fans and Curators:
- Audit your playlists: Look at your 2016 favorites. Notice how many of them rely on the "Tropical House" pluck. If you're a DJ, mixing these with modern Afrobeat tracks works surprisingly well because the rhythmic DNA is nearly identical.
- Watch the "Secondary" Artists: 2016 was the year of the "featured" artist. Bebe Rexha, Halsey, and Ty Dolla $ign all built massive careers by being the "voice" on someone else's hit. In any industry, piggybacking on an established giant is still the fastest way to the top.
- Don't ignore the "Meme" factor: If you are trying to rank content or get eyes on a project, look at how "Panda" or "Black Beatles" used repetition and simplicity. Complexity is the enemy of the viral hit.
The Billboard top 100 hits 2016 might feel like a lifetime ago, but they fundamentally rewrote the rules for how fame is manufactured in the digital age. We're still living in the world that Drake and The Chainsmokers built—for better or worse.