The musical landscape of 2013
Streaming, social media and electronic dance production changed discovery and promotion. Collaborations became especially important as genre boundaries weakened.
Bruno Mars appears 3 times in the Top 20, making the artist one of the clearest recurring presences in this year’s list.
What to listen for
Compare festival-scale electronic production with more intimate pop and R&B records built for repeat personal listening.
This list contains 17 different credited artists. The number gives a quick indication of whether the year was concentrated among repeat hitmakers or spread across a wider field.
Billboard Year-End Top 20 songs of 2013
| Rank | Song | Artist | Listen |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Thrift Shop | Macklemore and Ryan Lewis | Spotify ↗ |
| 2 | Blurred Lines | Robin Thicke | Spotify ↗ |
| 3 | Radioactive | Imagine Dragons | Spotify ↗ |
| 4 | Cant Hold Us | Macklemore | Spotify ↗ |
| 5 | Mirrors | Justin Timberlake | Spotify ↗ |
| 6 | Just Give Me a Reason | Pink | Spotify ↗ |
| 7 | When I Was Your Man | Bruno Mars | Spotify ↗ |
| 8 | Roar | Katy Perry | Spotify ↗ |
| 9 | Locked Out of Heaven | Bruno Mars | Spotify ↗ |
| 10 | Ho Hey | The Lumineers | Spotify ↗ |
| 11 | Get Lucky | Daft Punk | Spotify ↗ |
| 12 | Royals | Lorde | Spotify ↗ |
| 13 | Wrecking Ball | Miley Cyrus | Spotify ↗ |
| 14 | I Knew You Were Trouble | Taylor Swift | Spotify ↗ |
| 15 | Wake Me Up | Avicii | Spotify ↗ |
| 16 | Treasure | Bruno Mars | Spotify ↗ |
| 17 | Cruise | Florida Georgia Line | Spotify ↗ |
| 18 | Suit and Tie | Justin Timberlake | Spotify ↗ |
| 19 | Harlem Shake | Baauer | Spotify ↗ |
| 20 | Stay | Rihanna | Spotify ↗ |
Build a 2013 playlist
Start with “Thrift Shop” by Macklemore and Ryan Lewis, then alternate familiar high-ranking records with contrasting selections from the lower half of the list.
How this page should be used
Year-End charts summarize performance across an extended chart year. They are not simply a list of songs that reached number one, and historical methodology has changed. Treat this page as a guided listening resource and compact chart-history reference rather than a mathematical comparison with other eras.