As our Mid-Year Report continues, today we reveal the Top 25 Songs of 2020 (So Far). If you missed it, here are our Top 25 Albums So Far.
I once argued that albums get us through rough patches, and songs help us through difficult days or moments. I’m not sure if all of that’s true or not. In fact, if 2020 has taught me anything, it’s that I know far less about the world than I ever imagined. It’s hard to look towards the future with confidence right now. As I write this introduction, COVID-19 cases are once again on the rise in most states, and police departments are giving us new reasons every day to keep taking to the streets in the movement for justice and reform. And that fella in the White House seems content to watch it all burn and reign as king of the rubble and ashes. In fact, he’s stoking the flames with any hateful fuel he can find.
Given all of this, I need to believe that songs are helping us through. That we’re still seeking out music old and new to remind us that joy, comfort, and understanding exist there, even when it seems absent in the world around us. That we’re tuning in to live music online or clutching our tickets to a concert that’s been postponed until next year because we know that music brings people together and that there’s a powerful bond in that union. That artists are continuing to create the songs that make us cry in our bedrooms, dance involuntarily (even without a dance floor), and march in the streets for a better tomorrow.
I hope there have been songs you’ve clutched and held close to you during the past few months. I hope they’ve made you remember or forget or feel whatever it is you needed to make it through that day and all that you’re facing: the pain of injustice, the loss of a loved one, or even just the despair of looking out the window and not knowing what tomorrow will bring or when it will come. Most of all I hope that there have been songs that have given you hope.
Here are 25 songs that have done that for us so far in 2020.
Thank god.
–Matt Melis
Editorial Director
