Honestly, if you go back and look at the Billboard Top 100 in 2016, it feels like a fever dream that actually worked. It was this weird, chaotic bridge between the old-school radio era and the absolute dominance of streaming that we're living in now. You had Drake basically camping out at the number one spot, the "Chainsmokers" era hitting its peak, and Beyoncé dropping Lemonade like a nuclear bomb on the industry. It wasn't just about the music. It was about how we consumed it. This was the year "One Dance" happened. You couldn't walk into a grocery store or a gas station without hearing that tropical house beat.
2016 was a pivot point.
The data from the Billboard Year-End charts tells a story of a shifting guard. Justin Bieber had three of the biggest songs of the year—"Love Yourself," "Sorry," and "What Do You Mean?"—which is kind of wild when you think about where his career was just two years prior. He went from being a punchline to being inescapable. But it wasn't just the Biebz. We saw the rise of Twenty One Pilots, who brought this strange mix of reggae, rap, and emo-pop to the masses with "Stressed Out." It shouldn't have worked on paper. It worked in reality.
The Year Drake Owned the Billboard Top 100 in 2016
Drake didn't just participate in the charts in 2016; he owned the lease. His album Views was a commercial juggernaut, even if critics were a bit split on it at the time. "One Dance" sat at number one for 10 non-consecutive weeks. Think about that. Ten weeks. That’s nearly an entire season of the year where one song was the undisputed king.
It was the first time we really saw the power of the "global" sound hitting the US mainstream. With Wizkid and Kyla on the track, Drake was tapping into Afrobeats and UK funky house, bringing it to people in middle America who had never heard anything like it. It changed the blueprint for what a "pop" song could sound like. Suddenly, everyone wanted that dancehall-lite rhythm.
But Drake wasn't alone in the "Views" era dominance. You had "Hotline Bling" still lingering from the late 2015 hype, and "Work" with Rihanna. That collaboration was everywhere. Rihanna's Anti was a masterpiece that didn't follow the rules of a typical pop record, yet "Work" was so infectious that it topped the Billboard Top 100 in 2016 for eight weeks. It was a year of long-running number ones.
When EDM Met the Suburbs
The Chainsmokers. Love them or hate them, you couldn't get away from them. "Closer" featuring Halsey was the defining anthem of that summer. It spent 12 weeks at number one. It was the song that everyone's younger sibling and grandmother knew at the same time. The lyrics about a Rover and a tattoo on a shoulder were oddly specific yet strangely universal.
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What’s interesting about the Billboard Top 100 in 2016 is how it marked the moment EDM (Electronic Dance Music) stopped being about the "drop" and started being about the "vibe." "Don't Let Me Down" was another massive hit for the duo, featuring Daya. It had this gritty, guitar-driven edge that felt more like a pop song than a rave anthem. This shift allowed dance music to stay on the radio for much longer than the "wub-wub" dubstep era ever did.
The Weeknd and the Starboy Transition
While the Chainsmokers were dominating the airwaves, Abel Tesfaye, known as The Weeknd, was busy murdering his old persona. "Starboy" was a massive shift. Partnering with Daft Punk—the legendary French duo who rarely did features—was a stroke of genius. The song was sleek, dark, and expensive-sounding.
It’s easy to forget that earlier in 2016, he was still riding the wave of "The Hills" and "Can't Feel My Face" from the previous year. He was one of the few artists who managed to have two distinct eras of dominance within a single calendar year. By the time the Billboard Top 100 in 2016 year-end chart was finalized, he was firmly cemented as the heir to Michael Jackson’s pop throne, but with a much darker, R-rated twist.
The Unlikely Rock Renaissance
People say rock is dead every single year, but 2016 had some interesting outliers. Twenty One Pilots were the big ones. "Stressed Out" and "Ride" were massive. They weren't "rock" in the 70s sense, but they brought a band dynamic back to the top of the charts. Then you had Panic! At The Disco with Death of a Bachelor, which saw Brendon Urie channeling his inner Frank Sinatra.
Even The Lumineers had a moment with "Ophelia." It wasn't a number one hit, but it lived on the charts for a long time. It showed there was still a hunger for something acoustic, something that felt "real" in an era of heavy synths and auto-tune.
Desiigner and the One-Hit Wonder Phenomenon
Let’s talk about "Panda." Desiigner came out of nowhere. For months, people actually thought it was a Future song because the vocal style was so similar. But "Panda" became a viral sensation, fueled by its inclusion on Kanye West’s The Life of Pablo. It hit number one on the Billboard Top 100 in 2016, making Desiigner one of the youngest artists to top the charts that year.
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It was a sign of things to come—how a song could blow up on the internet (this was pre-TikTok, mind you) and bypass the traditional radio gatekeepers. It was raw, it was repetitive, and it was undeniably catchy.
Adele’s Lingering Shadow
Adele’s 25 was released in late 2015, but its impact on the Billboard Top 100 in 2016 was massive. "Hello" was still a titan at the start of the year. Then came "Send My Love (To Your New Lover)," which was Adele’s attempt at a Max Martin pop banger. It worked.
Adele represents the "pre-streaming" power. She was still moving millions of physical copies and digital downloads in a way that almost no one else could. While everyone else was fighting for plays on Spotify, Adele was just existing as a mountain that everyone had to climb over.
Justin Bieber’s Redemption Arc
It's hard to overstate how much "Love Yourself" changed things for Bieber. Written with Ed Sheeran, it was a simple, stripped-back song with a middle finger disguised as a lullaby. It ended up being the #1 song on the Billboard Year-End chart for 2016.
Think about that.
A song with just a guitar and a trumpet beat out every high-production dance track and rap anthem of the year. It proved that at the end of the day, a good melody and a relatable (and slightly petty) lyric will win. Bieber followed it up with "Sorry," which became the anthem of every person who ever messed up a relationship. 2016 was the year Bieber finally grew up, musically speaking.
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The Era of the Feature
If you weren't "featuring" someone in 2016, were you even making music?
- "Cheap Thrills" by Sia featuring Sean Paul.
- "Don't Wanna Know" by Maroon 5 featuring Kendrick Lamar.
- "Work from Home" by Fifth Harmony featuring Ty Dolla $ign.
The Billboard Top 100 in 2016 was the year of the unexpected pairing. Kendrick Lamar appearing on a Maroon 5 track felt like a glitch in the matrix, but it worked for radio. Sia, who had spent years as a behind-the-scenes songwriter, finally became a household name herself with "Cheap Thrills," which was actually originally written for Rihanna.
Why 2016 Still Feels Different
There was a specific energy to 2016. It was the last "monoculture" year before the algorithms completely took over and fragmented our tastes. We were all listening to the same ten songs on the radio, watching the same music videos on Vevo, and talking about the same VMAs performances.
It was also a year of massive loss. David Bowie, Prince, and George Michael all passed away in 2016. This created a strange vacuum in the industry where the old legends were leaving, and this new, streaming-first generation was taking over. You could feel the shift in the charts. The veterans were being replaced by the likes of Lil Uzi Vert and Rae Sremmurd, whose "Black Beatles" became the soundtrack to the Mannequin Challenge.
The Mannequin Challenge and Viral Success
"Black Beatles" is the perfect example of how the Billboard Top 100 in 2016 changed. The song was already doing well, but then the Mannequin Challenge hit. Everyone from high school students to Paul McCartney was filming themselves standing still while that song played. It propelled Rae Sremmurd to the top of the charts.
This was the birth of the "viral hit" as a legitimate chart strategy. Record labels started realizing that they didn't just need a good song; they needed a "moment."
Actionable Insights for Music Fans and Data Geeks
If you’re looking back at this era to understand the music industry, there are a few things you should actually do to see the patterns:
- Check the Year-End Chart vs. The Weekly Charts: You'll notice that songs like "Love Yourself" and "Sorry" stayed in the Top 10 for months, which is why they dominate the year-end rankings even if they weren't at #1 for as long as "One Dance."
- Look at the Producers: 2016 was the year of Max Martin, Benny Blanco, and Greg Kurstin. If you see a hit from this era, chances are one of those names is in the credits.
- Study the Streaming Shift: 2016 was the year Billboard really started weighting streaming more heavily. This explains why hip-hop began its absolute dominance over the charts, as rap fans were the earliest and most frequent adopters of platforms like Spotify and Apple Music.
- Listen to the "Tropical House" Influence: From Mike Posner’s "I Took a Pill in Ibiza" (the Seeb remix) to Justin Bieber’s "What Do You Mean?", the sound of 2016 was defined by pan flutes and light, Caribbean-inspired percussion.
2016 wasn't just another year for the charts. It was a massive collision of pop, EDM, and hip-hop that hasn't really been replicated since. It was messy, it was loud, and honestly, it was kind of great. We moved from the polished pop of the early 2010s into the "vibe" era that we're still stuck in today. If you want to understand why music sounds the way it does now, you have to start with the Billboard Top 100 in 2016.