Not just setting the standard for the joyous nostalgia-embracing pop-punk sound that’s dominated the mainstream in 2021, it’s a masterclass in songwriting, matching a real rock earworm with Rodrigo’s brilliant, pithy lyrics. “We wanted to take an early 2000s pop-punk song and sort of twist it and find a way to make it 2021,” Rodrigo told NME earlier this year in her cover story – a brief she more than fulfilled on the Dan Nigro-assisted tune. The ferocious tune that saw Rodrigo eye-roll “Well, good for you, you look happy and healthy” over thrashing instrumentals is a killer. It’s ‘Good 4 U’ that really stood out, though. Far from a one-hit wonder, Rodrigo’s debut album ‘Sour’ (released in May) was a veritable treasure trove of tunes, ranging from the emotive stripped-back moments (‘1 Step Forward, 3 Steps Back’), to alt-rock indebted stompers (‘Brutal’). Her stunning debut single ‘Drivers License’ came – almost out of nowhere – to conquer topping the UK chart for nine weeks and breaking countless records along the way. In early 2021, a little-known singer-songwriter called Olivia Rodrigo became the most talked about teen on the planet. Words by: Alex Flood, Ali Shutler, Andrew Trendell, Ben Jolley, Charlotte Krol, El Hunt, Ella Kemp, Hannah Mylrea, Jenessa Williams, Kyann-Sian Williams, Patrick Clarke, Rhian Daly, Rhys Buchanan, Sam Moore, Sophie Williams, Thomas Smith and Will Richards

In that spirit, let’s just bloody get on with it shall we? Here’s your year in absolute bangers. These are the moments of magic in an instant. From icons to upstarts, these are the tracks that took around three minutes of your life, but gave you so much more. In this definitive list of the 50 absolute best songs of 2021, you’ll find every shade of life – from dayglo pop-punk to glitterball K-pop via goth-noir, neon electro, hard grime and everything in between.

Whether this was the year you stepped back on to the dancefloor or jumped back into a mosh-pit or not, there was always a song to keep you on your feet. The important thing is that 2021 really felt like the year where we remembered that life is for living, and the music of the year was certainly a soundtrack for that. We don’t need any spiel about pandemic fatigue. We don’t need to get into the ins and outs of why. Time usually feels like a line, but much of 2021 was a fog.

Can you pick me up meme