YEAR ENDER 2017

The “billboard” chart is a list of popular music by various artists around the world, but how many make music for a cause or to make the voiceless heard? Here's a list of songs from 2017 who we think made the difference. From outgrowing gender roles to making a stand, this list has songs by artists from around the world who felt the need to speak out, break stereotypes and be a mirror to society.

1.Change by RM, Wale

The track is an East-meets-West, politically fraught banger filled with the pair's hopes for a better world

2. FEAR by Kendrick Lamar

Part origin story, part meditation on the way, FEAR never really leaves you, but just mutates. FEAR is the sound of Kendrick Lamar reckoning with his own life: Being scared is not just being scared, and being famous comes with its own pitfalls. It stands out to be relatable to the goal-diggers, who have been there and tasted it (read it as fame, success).

3.Go Go by Beyond The Scene

BTS has been famous to chart social engagement though their songs like nobody else. The song approaches criticism of the materialism rife in society through parody.

4. Holding On by The War on Drugs

Holding on is a song close to the heart of the Americans. It allows them to brood or ruminate whichever you may choose over an America that is gone, in other words, this band writes music that acts as a soundtrack to an America that we’re just now realizing we’ve lost, and maybe this is the calm sound of our collective acceptance.

5.I am Her by Shea Diamond

In this materialistic world, it’s very easy to forget oneself, this song is about that. A song about living the truth no matter what anyone says or thinks.

6.Like Really by Oddisee

Oddisee airs various grievances about the world in the first verse, then delves into his personal mission statement to make it better in the second.

7.Mind on Fire by Aisha Badru

She sets out to tell the world how they suppress her desires and she won't back down till the rules are amended.

8.Praying by Kesha

In a year of gut-wrenching revelations of sexual assault in the Entertainment industry, Kesha’s “Praying” felt completely necessary. Kesha also traces her own experiences of abuse by her once collaborator, Dr. Luke. It tugs the heartstrings strongly and sets the insides of one’s tummy churning with her painstaking honesty in the song.

9.Witness by Benjamin Booker feat. Mavis Staples

It’s rhetorical, but also pragmatic—a reminder to be aware, informed and vigilant wrapped up in the warming swath of soul. The punk-rock song everyone moving with the deep lyrics it got.

10.You are the Problem Here by First Aid Kit

On International Women's Day, Swedish folk duo First Aid Kit unleashed a new song, "You Are the Problem Here," a track that the Söderberg sisters wrote after reading about a sexual assault and the rapist's lenient punishment.