What have we learned? That music is in a really healthy placepublished at 18:15 GMT
Mark Savage
Music correspondent
Phew! That was a marathon, not a sprint – but Olivia Dean
emerged as the biggest winner of the day. She had four songs in the Top 100,
including the number one – Man I Need.
Sam Fender, her duet partner on Rein Me In, was close behind
with three entries. Canadian sensation Tate McRae, bedroom pop icon
PinkPantheress and BBC Sound of 2025 winner Chappell Roan also had three.
What have we learned? That music is in a really healthy
place.
Very few of those songs could be accused of hopping on
trends or playing it safe; and innovation is coming from every walk of life.
Artists like JADE, CMAT, Skepta and Chappell Roan are in a
gleeful search for boundaries they can break; while bands like Wolf Alice,
Turnstile and Geese are tenaciously pulling rock out of a decade-long doldrum.
But as I said a couple of hours ago, it feels like we’re at
a transitional point.
No one artist or genre is dominant – but equally, there
hasn’t been an album that defines the last 12 months (although Rosalía’s Lux
stands head and shoulders above the competition).
Next year promises new music from the likes of Harry Styles,
Madonna, Gorillaz and Beyoncé, while Radio 1’s Sound of 2026 longlist proves
there’s no dearth of new talent.
To quote the long-forgotten 80s rock act Timbuk3, “the
future’s so bright, I gotta wear shades”.
If you want to relive the countdown of Radio 1’s 100 Biggest Songs of the year, you can listen to these programmes on BBC Sounds:
