36. 5 Seconds of Summer, "Youngblood"
5OS delivered the goods with the title track of their glossiest, most radio-friendly album to date. With its shouty hook and galloping pop-punk bassline, “Youngblood” was an anomaly among the trap-infused hip-hop and breathy-voiced chill vibes that prevailed at the top of the charts this year. Yet the song was massive and modern enough to fit in on radio alongside those other sounds -- and become the Australian four-piece’s biggest Hot 100 hit to date, peaking at No. 7. -- P.C.
35. Taylor Swift, "Delicate"
Of the many instances where Swift referenced her public image on 2017's blockbuster reputation LP, it was her declaration that “My reputation’s never been worse,” from fourth single "Delicate," that was the most affecting. While some of the album’s other hits, including comeback smash “Look What You Made Me Do,” came off as a challenge to her haters, “Delicate” presented the humanity hidden behind her defensiveness, while the song’s vocoder-drenched vocals and lightly bouncing beat -- courtesy of co-producers Max Martin and Shellback -- made Swift’s latest electro-pop experiment feel like her bread and butter. It wasn’t her biggest Hot 100 hit, peaking at No. 12, but "Delicate" slowly became a pop radio mainstay in 2018, because it's such a breezy listen and such a relatable sentiment. Isn’t it, isn’t it, isn’t it? -- BECKY KAMINSKY
34. Migos, "Stir Fry"
The hypnotic circus throb on this insta-classic Migos smash was inescapable in a year when the trio had fresh product almost every week. The busy, polyrhythmic bed -- one beat ringmaster Pharrell Williams sat on for almost a decade -- whips in deep-vein bass, whistles, jazzy hi-hats and a chopped and screwed interpolation of the snare from the Mowhawks’ 1968 funk classic “Champ.” The hearty meal is nothing, though, without the group's signature triplet flow, including standout lines like Offset’s twisty, arty boast, “I gotta keep watching out through my bird eye/ No casket, drop dead fresh and I got dead guys.” Some songs inspire you to move, “Stir Fry” defies you to sit still. -- G.K.
33. Panic! At the Disco, "High Hopes"
It took almost a dozen people to write and produce the ornate, relentlessly triumphant “High Hopes,” a fact that might inspire some hand-wringing about the state of creativity today. But on his first top 10 hit in over a decade, Panic! mastermind Brendon Urie and his unlikely band of collaborators -- which include folksy singer-songwriter Jenny Owen Youngs (Ingrid Michaelson, Pitbull) and rising hitmaker Tayla Parx (Ariana Grande, Janelle Monáe) -- managed to make a song that doesn’t just sound seamless, it also explicitly celebrates the weirdos and oddballs whose approach to the music industry is anything but business as usual. -- N.F.