The SHOWstudio Team’s Top Songs of the Decade
A small gift from us to you, our favourite songs of the decade. The SHOWstudio team picked their ultimate tracks from the past ten years, with a few giving their own anecdotes alongside. Enjoy!
Calum Knight: Different Pulses- Asaf Avidan
During fittings for Maison Margiela’s A/W 16 Artisanal collection, we listened to this song every day on repeat for weeks and eventually used it as the show’s soundtrack. By the time the show came, I was so sick of it and actually vowed to never listen to it again. A few years have passed but whenever I play this song, it transports me back to the ateliers and some of my most fond memories of the decade.
Maisie Bowker: Dang! - Mac Miller (feat. Anderson .Paak)
It's just an amazing song that never fails to make me dance, it also came out when I first started university so it's really tied into memories of starting something new and exciting. It puts me in a good headspace and I'm forever grateful that this song exists.
Hetty Mahlich: National Anthem - Lana Del Rey
The soundtrack to my teenage years!
Adam Boon: Says - Nils Frahm
Bella Gladman: Uptown Funk - Mark Ronson (feat. Bruno Mars)
It's a stone-cold banger, I love it so much I performed it in a karaoke bar in the Castro in San Francisco. Every party I've been to, post-2014, has been immeasurably improved when someone puts this song on.
Nick Merdasi: Every Single Night - Fiona Apple
I’ve had this song (and the album from which it’s from) on repeat since 2012. It’s so untamed and personal; kind of like one of those hyper-emotional I-finally-get-myself diary entries that you’d die of embarrassment if anyone read. For whatever reason, that does it for me.
Nick Knight: Kali Uchis
Sarah K. Cleaver: Bitch Better Have My Money - Rihanna
Perhaps not the greatest song, but very symbolic for a decade in which women stood up for themselves and each other against all manner of personal and institutionalised injustice, from pay gaps to sexual harassment. I like to listen to it while I chase invoices.
Zachary Mayne: You Wanted A Hit- LCD Soundsystem
Clodie Worboys: I Know There’s Gonna Be (Good Times) - Jamie xx
This song reminds me of being 17 and freeeee.
Rei Nadal: Burial - Come Down to Us
If a tune meant everything, it would be this one.
Edward Brown: Nights - Frank Ocean
This album came out just before I began Arts University and therefore it reminds me of a very enjoyable era of my life. This song, in particular, defines the last decade as Frank touches upon topics that captured the social zeitgeist.
Kat Davey: Dream On - Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds
Thomas Prees: Pickled Spider - Mr Scruff vs. Kirsty Almeida -Kirsty Almeida
It’s been the soundtrack to some of the best nights out I’ve had in the past 10 years. You can’t beat that.
Hugo Gibbon: Money Trees - Kendrick Lamar
Sam Hall: Casisdead - Pat Earrings
Violet Conroy: She - Tyler the Creator feat. Frank Ocean
I found this song really romantic as a teenager, despite its lyrical content about stalking a new girl in the neighbourhood and having sex with her dead body. Instead, Tyler's intention to date his love interest stuck out for me; his music fed into my obsession with the mystique of American high school via TV shows like Freaks and Geeks and books like The Virgin Suicides. It made sense at the time; I was stuck at a single-sex English boarding school. I loved Tyler then and I still love him now, despite the massive gulf in his sound from Bastard (2009) to Igor (2019).
Raquel Couceiro: Game Of Thrones Theme - London Music Works