Category Archives: 2010s songs

The best 500 songs from the 2010s. Lyrics, meanings and interpretations from your favorite musicians. Adele, Halsey, Sara Bareilles, Grouplove, Sia, The 1975, Harry Styles. Find out our highest ranked music acts of the 2010 decade. It was a great decade for music.

2010s songs, story songs

#217 Sign Of the Times- Harry Styles

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Just stop your crying/
It’s the sign of the times…

According to Harry Styles, “Sign of the Times” is about a mother who just had a child and she was told the baby is going to live but she is going to die shortly. “Sign of the Times” is the mother’s words to the child. That concept is great, but that is not the story the song tells, nor does the tone of the song match. It wouldn’t be the first time an artist fibbed when asked what a song is about. (Dylan did this all the time.)

Think of all the things you’d want to tell your child if you had only five minutes to live. Probably not something about how we’re always stuck and running from bullets. What does that even mean in this context?

Sign of the Times Meaning
Harry Styles

The lyrics sound closer to a Bonnie & Clyde adventure told from the perspective of Clyde. Everything makes much more sense this way. The lovers are having fun but getting into trouble…they’ve got to get away! This makes much more sense.

Harry Styles is has an amazing voice and delivers a powerful vocal. What a melody! Both the verse, bridge and chorus are strong. The song has solid instrumentation.  Styles  sings with emotion.   His falsetto is amazing. He is on the same level as Prince and the Brothers’ Gibb.

The more you experience “Sign of the Times” and the less background you bring to it, the more you’ll enjoy it (the fact that he was in boy band “One Direction”, his story about the lyrics, etc.) “Sign of the Times” is one of the best songs of the past decade.

Sign of the Times Lyrics

Just stop your crying,
It’s a sign of the times.
Welcome to the final show,
Hope you’re wearing your best clothes.

You can’t bribe the door on your way to the sky.
You look pretty good down here,
But you ain’t really good.

If we never learn, we been here before.
Why are we always stuck and running from
The bullets?
The bullets.
We never learn, we been here before.
Why are we always stuck and running from
The bullets?
The bullets.

Just stop your crying,
It’s a sign of the times.
We gotta get away from here,
We gotta get away from here.
Just stop your crying,
It’ll be alright.
They told me that the end is near,
We gotta get away from here.

Just stop your crying,
Have the time of your life.
Breaking through the atmosphere.
And things are pretty good from here.
Remember everything will be alright,
We can meet again somewhere,
Somewhere far away from here.
We never learn, we been here before,
Why are we always stuck and running from
The bullets?
The bullets.

We never learn, we been here before.
Why are we always stuck and running from
The bullets?
The bullets.
Just stop your crying
It’s a sign of the times.
We gotta get away from here.
We gotta get away from here.

Stop your crying
Baby, it will be alright.
They told me that the end is near.
We gotta get away from here.
We never learn, we been here before,
Why are we always stuck and running from
The bullets?
The bullets.

We never learn, we been here before,
Why are we always stuck and running from
The bullets?
The bullets.

We don’t talk enough.
We should open up,
Before it’s all too much.
Will we ever learn?
We’ve been here before.
It’s just what we know.

Stop your crying, baby
It’s a sign of the times.
We gotta get away,
We got to get away!
We got to get away!
We got to get away.
We got to get away.
We got to, we got to (away).
We got to, we got to (away).
We got to, we got to (away).

written by: Harry Styles, Jeff Bhasker, Mitch Rowland, Ryan Nasci, Alex Salibian, Tyler Johnson

2010s songs, anthem

#207 Girl on Fire- Alicia Keys

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She’s just a girl, and she’s on fire/
Hotter than a fantasy, longer like a highway.

“Girl on Fire” is a great woman’s anthem from Alicia Keys. This Girl on Fire sounds a bit like a superhero: she’s on top of the world, hottest of the hottest girls, can fly away, so bright she can burn your eyes. But during the bridge we find out that she is sometimes a lonely girl in a lonely world…so it turns out there are two sides to this superhero.

Girl on Fire Meaning
Alicia on Fire

The song has a great chorus and overall, the melody is good-as is the message. Like many Keys’ songs it is mixed heavily with percussion which makes for a good dance mix. This song shows off the different styles of Keys’ singing voice: and it sounds great throughout. Some of the verses and the bridge sound softer, and contrast with her anthem-y choruses.

Keys’ is one of the best of the current diva singers. Her voice is always under control, she rarely uses superfluous runs, and the emotion always sounds genuine.

Girl on Fire Lyrics

She’s just a girl, and she’s on fire
Hotter than a fantasy, longer like a highway
She’s living in a world, and it’s on fire
Feeling the catastrophe, but she knows she can fly away
Oh, she got both feet on the ground
And she’s burning it down
Oh, she got her head in the clouds
And she’s not backing down

This girl is on fire
This girl is on fire
She’s walking on fire
This girl is on fire

Looks like a girl, but she’s a flame
So bright, she can burn your eyes
Better look the other way
You can try but you’ll never forget her name
She’s on top of the world
Hottest of the hottest girls say
Oh, we got our feet on the ground
And we’re burning it down
Oh, got our head in the clouds
And we’re not coming down

This girl is on fire
This girl is on fire
She’s walking on fire
This girl is on fire

Everybody stands, as she goes by
Cause they can see the flame that’s in her eyes
Watch her when she’s lighting up the night
Nobody knows that she’s a lonely girl
And it’s a lonely world
But she gon’ let it burn, baby, burn, baby

This girl is on fire
This girl is on fire
She’s walking on fire
This girl is on fire
Oh, oh, oh,
She’s just a girl, and she’s on fire
Songwriters: Jeff Bhasker / Alicia Augello-Cook / Salaam Remi / Billy Squire / Nicki Minaj

2010s songs, relationship problems

#198 Skinny Love- Birdy/Bon Iver

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I tell my love to wreck it all/
Cut out all the ropes and let me fall.

What is this “Skinny Love” that Birdy and Bon Iver are speaking of? A “skinny love” seems to be with an unhealthy love…perhaps there is not much love left. The relationship is passionate and volatile. Perhaps they get physical with each other. They argue. They make threats to leave each other. The couple is constantly fighting.

But he also seems to realize he needs her. He makes pleas: he tells her that it will be better in the morning.  Eventually she leaves him and his tune changes. While in the beginning of the song he was telling her to leave, by the end he is asking her “who will love you as good as I”?

Skinny Love Greatest All Time Song Meaning
Birdy

Bon Iver wrote this song and made it famous. When I hear Birdy’s “Skinny Love”, I hear an all-time great song. The song sounds better with a piano. Birdy brings the proper emotion to the song: she makes it hers.

There are a couple other songs on this list where a cover version eclipses the original. That doesn’t take away from the original version; sometimes (though not often) someone can interpret and perform your work better than you. She made this recording when she was 14–which sounds impossible and unbelievable.

Skinny Love Meaning
Bon Iver

Skinny Love Lyrics

Come on, skinny love, just last the year
Pour a little salt, we were never here
My, my, my, my, my, my, my, my
Staring at the sink of blood and crushed veneer
I tell my love to wreck it all
Cut out all the ropes and let me fall
My, my, my, my, my, my, my, my
Right in this moment, this order’s tall

And I told you to be patient
And I told you to be fine
And I told you to be balanced
And I told you to be kind
And in the morning I’ll be with you
But it will be a different kind
And I’ll be holding all the tickets
And you’ll be owning all the fines

Come on, skinny love, what happened here?
Suckle on the hope in light brassieres
My, my, my, my, my, my, my, my
Sullen load is full, so slow on the split

And I told you to be patient
And I told you to be fine
And I told you to be balanced
And I told you to be kind
And now all your love is wasted
And then who the hell was I?
And I’m breaking at the britches
And at the end of all your lines

Who will love you?
Who will fight?
Who will fall far behind?

written by Bon Iver