Music

The Biggest Snubs From Pitchfork’s End-Of-Decade List, According To You

Where is Childish Gambino?? Lady Gaga??? 'Call Me Maybe'???

by David James Young  8 October 2019
Pitchfork's Best Of 2010s list has created debate

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Pitchfork have come out swinging with a monster list to kick off their best of 2010s coverage, putting together a list of the decade’s best 200 songs.

Taking out bronze was Robyn’s sad banger ‘Dancing on My Own,’ the silver went to Grimes for her 2012 hit ‘Oblivion’ and the overall winner was… drum-roll please…Pulitzer Kenny himself, Kendrick Lamar, for 2015’s ‘Alright.’

Of course, whittling down the hundreds of thousands of songs that have been released between 2010 and 2019 to just 200 was never going to be an easy task – and, as Twitter rightfully pointed out, there were more than a few artists and songs that didn’t make the cut.

First up is Lady Gaga, who kicked off the decade at the top of her game with huge hits like ‘Telephone’ and ‘Born This Way’ and ended it with ‘Shallow,’ which has done modestly well for itself. None of this seemed to matter to the Pitchfork hive-mind, however, which did not include any of Gaga’s work – even as a featured artist.

On the hip-hop front, tracks like ‘N***** in Paris’ and Future’s ‘Codeine Crazy’ were ignored. Meanwhile, fans of Lamar’s argued for other songs from his catalogue despite the fact the dude already won the whole list.

Shockingly, not a single Childish Gambino song made the list – not even ‘This is America,’ which was widely regarded as one of the biggest and most important songs of 2018. Admittedly, Gambino hasn’t always sat well with the publication, but to ignore Donald Glover’s ouvre entirely seems a bizarre call.

Other names thrown around as general snubs include Sufjan Stevens, CHVRCHES, The War on Drugs, The XX, Car Seat Headrest and Janelle Monáe.

If that wasn’t enough, fans are also furious that the only St. Vincent song to make the list out of her entire 2010s output was 2017’s oft-maligned ‘New York.’

Of course, these lists are created to provoke conversation and debate, and it’s impossible for anyone to be 100 percent content with a Best Of list.

Find out what you do and don’t agree with here, and stay tuned for our own 2010s wrap-up soon. Don’t worry, we’re sure ours will be objectively correct.