"Hello" by Adele
Chart peak: No. 1 on Billboard's Hot 100 for 10 weeks.
Our take: Hello, it's Adele. Do power ballads get any bigger than Adele singing about regrets and apologies?
"Formation" by Beyoncé
Chart peak: No. 10.
Our take: Performed at the Super Bowl halftime, this song is a fiery embrace of one's blackness.
"7 Years" by Lukas Graham
Chart peak: No. 2.
Our take: A young man's dreams go from childhood until he's 60. Is this a modern-day pop answer to the Beatles' "When I'm 64"?
"Work" by Rihanna
Chart peak: No. 1 (9 weeks).
Our take: With its mix of pop, reggae and R&B, this spare, burbling track celebrates working for a living. Its many co-writers include Rihanna, Drake and Minneapolis' own Monte Moir, of the Time.
"Stressed Out" by Twenty One Pilots
Chart peak: No. 2.
Our take: A mix of pop and Top 40 hip-hop, this song talks about the stresses and insecurities of adulthood and gets all nostalgic for youth and adolescence — "the good old days."
Jon Bream
Special report: Go behind Minnesota's pro-athlete curtain to see how the best athletes in our state get ready for their biggest moment: gameday.
