Streaming begins reshaping the mainstream

Top Songs of 2013

The Billboard Year-End Top 20, led by “Thrift Shop” by Macklemore and Ryan Lewis.

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

RankSongArtistListen
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.

Open the playlist builder

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.