1. 'We Can't Stop' - Miley Cyrus
The song - for good or for bad - of 2013 has to be Miley Cyrus' 'We Can't Stop'. No other song has, this year, quite so completely caused a more undeniably potent fallout in pop music, particularly given that it came from the sweet-faced girl who once graced lunchboxes as popstar Hannah Montana. Miley emerged from her popstar hibernation in a number of stages in 2013, debuting a shorter, edgier hairstyle, a racier wardrobe, and finally sealed the deal by releasing 'We Can't Stop' into the world where it immediately got both praise and condemnation for being a morally reckless party anthem that glorified drugs and irrepressible irresponsibility. Which, is true, certainly, but then so are a hundred other songs, and very few of them have the sonic edge or addictively enjoyable production. A lot of the controversy is due to the video, rather than the song, which seems very unfair in terms of judging a song on its own merits, especially considering that making out with Barbie dolls and dancing with teddy bear backpacks has little to do with lyrical or aural content. And if we strip back all preconceptions about Miley? The song itself is a strong, engaging, pop song rooted in hip-hop and rap sound production that while certainly irreverent is no more so than any other artist's attempt at a party anthem. 'We Can't Stop' also contains some of the year's best hooks in the earworm-laden chorus and it effectively establishes Miley's new sound and persona in the 'Bangerz' era in a single three-minute window. Can many artists actually accomplish that without a single interview ahead of the music? No, not really. The song also keeps Ms Cyrus remarkably on trend as she has, in retrospect, done every single time she's ventured into the world of music. In her early, Disney days, her music was sweet and cookie-cutter; as she matured, the innocence slowly was tempered with a growing sexuality and experience such as in the 'Can't Be Tamed' era which fit in with the electropop popular at the time of the album's release. This time around she's a full-blown R&B star and while it might not be the musical vein she chooses to remain in, Miley has remained on-trend with current, more midtempo trends, and 'We Can't Stop' is now an iconic single for the fact it transformed our preconceived notions of a good girl gone bad and secured Ms Cyrus' place as a woman with the eyes of the whole world upon her. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Km3wOjaRyE4