Top Songs of 2012

The musical landscape of 2012

Streaming, social media and electronic dance production changed discovery and promotion. Collaborations became especially important as genre boundaries weakened.

Flo Rida appears 3 times in the Top 20, making the artist one of the clearest recurring presences in this year’s list.

What to listen for

Compare festival-scale electronic production with more intimate pop and R&B records built for repeat personal listening.

This list contains 16 different credited artists. The number gives a quick indication of whether the year was concentrated among repeat hitmakers or spread across a wider field.

Billboard Year-End Top 20 songs of 2012

Build a 2012 playlist

Start with “Somebody That I Used to Know” by Gotye, then alternate familiar high-ranking records with contrasting selections from the lower half of the list.

Open the playlist builder

How this page should be used

Year-End charts summarize performance across an extended chart year. They are not simply a list of songs that reached number one, and historical methodology has changed. Treat this page as a guided listening resource and compact chart-history reference rather than a mathematical comparison with other eras.