2017: Intro & Singles
- kevpalowe8
- Mar 24
- 9 min read
Originally posted Jan 2026
INTRO
ALSO – THOUGHTS ON HOW THE CHART IS COMPILED
ALSO – AM I CONTINUING WITH THIS PROJECT (SEE 2017: Albums & Conclusions).
2017 was the big ‘Ed Sheeran Controversy’ year. Just a few year’s earlier, streaming (which had its own off-shoot chart since 2012) was incorporated into the official charts (2014 for singles & 2015 for albums). The stand-alone streaming chart included any single track that streamed – so it didn’t necessarily have to be a ‘Single’. The incorporation of the Streaming Chart into the Official Chart made no modifications.... so this meant non-singles could find there way into the Singles Chart. Nobody had a major problem with this until Ed Sheeran released the hugely popular (and brilliant, to be fair) album “÷”. The epic streaming of this album resulted in a complete and long standing takeover of the Singles Chart. I’ve shown 1 week of this in the attached pics. As you can see – 16 of the top 20 singles (and 9 of the top 10) were the tracks from the album. What makes it worse is the ‘proper’ album only contains 12 tracks. The additional 4 were due to the availability of a ‘deluxe’ version of the album. This caused some outrage. I think it WAS concerning because it signalled a future were just a handful of artists would continually monopolise the chart. Those who cared were so united in the concern that a rule that limited the number of tracks an artist could have in the chart was introduced within months.
The rule is only 3 tracks as the ‘lead’ artist is allowed. The rule itself is not a bad one. However, I have 2 thoughts on this. 1. Without further changes, I think the chart may end up being dominated by a handful of tracks anyway due to streaming platform algorithms. I’m not the only one with this concern. In 2024, I noticed my Spotify account heavily pushing American artist Chappel Roan’s “Good Luck, Babe” (a very good track, in all fairness) to me. It would persistently be recommended to me, and almost always be auto-selected as the next track in my earbuds unless I intervened. Exactly why this happened is unknown to me. But surely enough, this song gradually moved its way up the chart to become one of the biggest smashes of 2024, which in turn led to Roan’s 2023 album finding its way to the top of the chart and Roan becoming one of the biggest artists currently around (her UK chart record standing at 2 #1 singles, a further 3 top ten hits, and a #1 album........ as well as a Brit Award). She’s great, so I don’t begrudge that success. I’m just not too keen on the idea of algorithms doing the work. In early 2025, a number of muso-journalists shared my concern and DID cite Roan as the prime example. I think this is a mechanism that could be exploited and lead us back to a small number of artists dominating........ I believe that is the inevitable endpoint.
2. I bet you forgot I had a 2nd point, right? So, my 2nd point about the ‘3 tracks per lead artist’ rule is a complaint. I believe there was a much more fair and logical solution to the problem. The stand-alone Streaming Chart could have (and has) stayed as it is. Anything included. But, the Singles Chart, should only include tracks that have been officially released as Singles, whether present or historical. That just makes 100% sense, no? Not only that, I think it covers almost all problems and complaints you may have about the Singles Chart, including potential future ones, in one fell swoop!
Right. Finally getting to the task in hand. The pop music of 2017.
Actually, I do have one more note to make. Dua Lipa’s “Be The One”, my favourite Lipa track, was a hit in 2017. It was her breakthrough hit. However, it was a ‘sleeper hit’ because it was actually released in late 2015. Therefore, it will not be included in my 2017 posts. But, spoiler alert (even for me), it WILL feature in the 2015 part of the project. And, lets face it, its going to take an incredible track to deny it my top spot for that year.
Now. We got there eventually. 2017.
ANYTHING I DIDNT LIKE
Nothing here this year. The 1st time that’s happened. Things get better as you go back? I guess there IS evidence of that.
THE ‘M’EH’ LIST
French Montana & Swae Lee “Unforgettable”
Post Malone & 21 Savage “rockstar”
Drake “Passionfruit’
THE ‘GOOD LIST’
Ed Sheeran “Shape Of You”
Ed Sheeran “Galway Girl”
Luis Fonsi, Daddy Yankie, & Justin Bieber “Despacito”
JD Khalid, Justin Bieber, Quavo, Chance the Rapper, & Lil Wayne “I’m The One”
DJ Khalid, Rihanna, & Bryson Tiller “Wild Thoughts”
Martin Jenson “Solo Dance”
Little Mix “Touch”
Jason Derulo, Nicki Minaj, & Dolla $ign “Swalla”
Liam Payne & Quavo “Strip That Down”
J Hus “Did You See”
Charlie Puth “Attention”
Starley “Call On Me”
Maggie Kindeemann “Pretty Girl”
Rita Ora “Your Song”
Julia Michaels “Issues”
Bruno Mars “That’s What I Like”
Zedd & Alessia Cara “Stay”
Future “Mask Off”
Stormzy “Big For Your Boots”
Jonas Blue & William Singe “Mama”
‘TOP TEN’ CONTENDERS LIST
Ed Sheeran “Castle On The Hill”
A good case of very strong song-writing and story telling. While the story itself may or may not be relatable to everyone, its constructed under the banner of nostalgia/fond memories etc., which tends to have broad appeal. While not particularly original or innovative, its a good showcase of Sheeran’s songwriting strength.
Ed Sheeran “Perfect”
Its a well-written ballad that’s is, indeed, near perfect. I say ‘near’ because I have just one tiny niggle with this track. All the way through, the melodic phrasing is very precise and neat. Each phrase ends on the down-beat of a bar. This is completely consistent apart from one line in the chorus: ‘listening to our favourite song’. There –
‘fav’ lands on the down-beat...... but we’ve still ‘-ourite song’ to get through. Because everything else is so perfectly symmetrical it sticks right out and sounds like we just couldn’t quite get that line to work. Its just me, and such a petty criticism, but I’ve never been able to get past it.
Clean Bandit & Zara Larsson “Symphony”
Its a decent enough melody, and I think the sentiment of the lyric is quite clever...... expressing through music ‘I just wanna be part of your symphony’. I’m hugely attracted by that twinkly syncopated keyboard figure that sets up then dominates the track. The phrasing and syncopation of the chorus melody (set up by said keyboard figure) is interesting as it feels slightly too long – like the singer doesn’t want the thought to end..... ‘when you hold me tight and won’t let go’.
Jax Jones & Raye “You Don’t Know Me”
Vocals by Raye have become a winning factor for me. I like the melody line’s composition here. Each line being broken up by the ‘na na yi eh’ figure. The music arrangement is light and subtle. Addictively catchy.
Shawn Mendes “There’s Nothing Holdin’ Me Back”
Great track. Good pop song with rock leanings including a very infectious guitar hook. I can’t see anyone denying its a pretty strong track.
Calvin Harris, Pharrell Williams, Katy Perry, Big Sean, & Funk Wav “Feels”
Ive always assumed this was a Daft Punk track!!! I also thought the lyric was ‘don’t be afraid to catch fish’!!! (Peter Kay can have that one for free. lol). Its great. Its got the same groove/tempo about it that made Sabrina Carpenter’s “Espresso” so attractive. Its fast enough to dance to but slow enough to chill by the pool to. Its a really simple feel-good disco/funk. Perfect pop.
Kygo & Selena Gomez “It Ain’t Me”
A song that may or may not be about Gomez’s, now hopefully confined to history, turbulent on-off relationship with Justin Bieber. More specifically about having to clear up his messes – and the singer musing ‘who’s gonna do this now that I’m done with you?’. I’m not often a fan of this sort of thing and this one is also slightly marred by the fact that sources generally state the pairs on-off relationship ended in 2018. This was 2017...... which suggests she went back to it at least once more after this!
That aside, the chorus (‘who’s gonna walk you through the darkside.... etc’) is the best bit – great melody, good lyrical construction. Its a very good song. I often look for unique quirks that give a track something extra. In this one its the bit that follows the chorus – which is a section made up of snippets of vocals (some played backwards, I think), so that they are cut up and disjointed, but seem to be attempting to say something. I would say the reason its done this way is to represent the mixed feelings and confusion of the singer. They have a strong message for the other party, but its not easy for them to express it. It cleverly represents honest human emotion. That’s very interesting to me because its the music producers/technicians that will have done this bit. It goes against notions that tech has ruined music or only produces things that lack authenticity and soul. I have another misheard lyric here, although its not a fun one. In this section, I’ve always heard the words ‘skin deep’ which I thought was representing a scar – but emotional scar. However, on much closer listening I can here its actually ‘--skey neat’ which is a cut snippet of ‘whiskey neat’ from an earlier lyric in the track.
Rag ‘N’ Bone Man “Skin”
All his stuff from the early days (and arguably beyond) was more than decent. This, simply, was just one of them.
Anne-Marie “Ciao Adios”
I wrote a fair bit about Anne-Marie in the 2018 posts. This track is a very strong pop track that has classic pop song composition, a great rhythmic drive and interesting yodel-like vocal leaps.
Dua Lupa “New Rules”
Its quite a bit down on my Dua Lipa list, but a huge favourite among fans and its not surprising. I loved belting out the lyrics to the list of rules when myself and Simon Ore saw her in concert in 2025. The crowd were loving and I’ll remember the moment fondly.
TOP 3
3. Martin Garrix & Dua Lipa “Scared To Be Lonely”
I’d describe it as a ‘classically written song with a modern production style’.
The lyrics explore the familiar paradox of staying in a toxic relationship for fear of being alone. I think we’ve all either done this or watched someone else doing it. You could argue this takes the idea a step further as there is full acknowledgement of dependency rather than love – ‘Is the only reason you’re holding me tonight ‘cause we’re scared to be lonely?’
There’s also a sense that there’s a fear that ending a relationship would feel like the time was wasted – ‘someone better for us all along?’
I love the distorted keyboard melody (that is a sort of instrumental chorus) that sounds like each note is individually sampled and played backwards, yet creating a forward-moving melody.
............. and, yes, I think Dua Lupa’s performance is spot-on-point.
2. Camila Carbello “Havana”
I normally have a good memory for dates etc., and with music its especially good. Like this track, if I know nothing about the track I can at least accurately remember when I was hearing it a lot. There are occasional exceptions. When this came up for my 2017 list (and actually more of a hit in 2018) I was a bit baffled. I knew the track and liked it very much. Its a great slow salsa Latin-pop track with a very classic pop compositional structure. The melody is repetitive but strong and coupled with the lyric is quite show-tune-y. I genuinely had this pegged for around 2010, however. More than just a couple of years out. Its messing with my head a bit – making me question everything I thought I knew!
1. Chainsmokers & Coldplay “Something Just Like This”
This year was a bit of a cheat because I knew this one really well and was always fascinated with it. The collaboration is particularly brilliant because its a true merging of the characteristics of both acts. It has many of Coldplay’s traits – Chris Martin’s philosophical meandering that could be deep but at the same time could be nonsense.... juxtaposed with his non-lexical vocables (‘doo doo dooooooo’) Also, it contains all Martin’s identifiable vocal features – the deep calm vocals, the high-registered ‘powerful’ exclamations, and his falsetto. Jonny Buckland’s twinkly-guitar melodic style is notably absent from the track but appears at the very end as he’s been playing hide-and-seek all along. The guitar melody also shadows the keyboard chords we’ve been hearing, providing them with a melody that had been lacking earlier in the track. This is another Buckland trait. He has 2 or 3 go-to methods for compositing guitar solos. One of them is to heavy shadow the vocal melody. Here, it shadows the keyboard – except it actually PROVIDES the melody that has been absent.
The keyboard is the Chainsmokers. That sound - as if theres’s 2 or 3 different things producing the same sound and they are burning into each other. The repeated and simple chord progression is also very much theirs.
It works very well and I really love it.
Comments