2014 Year in Review: The biggest songs of the year

Resilience is one thing, but sometimes people just want to dance.

There's a certain amount of hardiness to many of this year's most-popular songs. Katy Perry won't let anyone keep her down and Taylor Swift doesn't care what you think about her. MAGIC! are going to marry that girl anyway. But Pitbull just wants people to shake their bodies, and Meghan Trainor's certainly up for that. Emma Goldman definitely didn't mean it in the same way when she said 'If I can't dance, it's not my revolution,' but the tunes on this list definitely do illustrate something kind of similar.

Many of them seem to be saying,"If you're going to make it through a massive storm, you might as well celebrate with a good twerk on the other end."

These are the 10 most-popular tracks among Canadians, according to VEVO.

10. Nicki Minaj - Anaconda

When 'Anaconda' hit the airwaves, Internet and television this summer, it quickly became a hot topic of conversation, not just because it was essentially Nicki Minaj's answer to 'Baby Got Back.' (It helps that it also samples that very Sir Mix-a-Lot song.) The track's already dripping with sexual innuendo and Minaj's talk about the size of her rear end, but then there's the twerk-heavy clip with strategically-placed bananas and that Drake lap dance. The combined result is something so completely over-the-top that pretty much everybody wanted to see it, whether it was to laugh, shock themselves or just go into sensory overload.

9. MAGIC! - Rude

It's tough having your girlfriend's father think you're a just a good-for-nothing punk when you're head over heels for her and know you'll only treat her with respect. Reggae fusion hasn't been this huge in Canada since the days of Bedouin Soundclash and this one's a hell of an earworm. It doesn't matter whether the protagonist of the song is right for his girlfriend - he's going to marry her anyway. And just like him, it doesn't matter if this song's a musical masterpiece - it's still going to get stuck in your head thanks to its 'marry that girl' hook.

8. Katy Perry - Roar

Truthfully, 'Roar' came out in 2013 and was the first single from Prism, which was also released that year. But it's so catchy that it's still one of the most popular songs of 2014. Just like Perry, who can't be denied or held down, neither can this tune, which is basically the first combination of 'eye of the tiger' and 'survivor' since 1982. Plus, its video brilliantly mocks the type of culture where people are more concerned with taking selfies after a plane crash than calling their loved ones to tell them they're safe. Think about that. There's something inherently wrong with it.

7. Chris Brown - Loyal

Chris Brown will always be more known for assaulting Rihanna in 2009 than anything he'll ever release. Every time he puts out a new album or single, critics will inevitably mention what he did, and rightly so. Although this one's catchy, the inherent misogyny of its chorus kind of makes it sound like its time has passed and it's still very firmly entrenched in 2009. That also happens to be the last time Lil Wayne, who guests on the track, was relevant. All this begs the question - given the increasing attention placed on violence against women through things like the Ghomeshi and Cosby affairs, if Chris Brown had assaulted Rihanna in 2014, would he still have been able to salvage his career? One really has to wonder why people continue to listen to him.

6. John Legend - All of Me

Imagine how many couples probably played this tune at their weddings this year. John Legend doesn't need bombastic symphonic arrangements to write a love song. All he needs to do to perfectly tell the subject of this song, whoever they are, how much he cares for them is a piano and his own voice. Sometimes, there's inherent power and beauty in simplicity.

5. Taylor Swift - Shake it Off

Admit it - you thought this one would be higher up. Aside from the number one track here, Taylor Swift's debut single from '1989' is probably the most inescapable earworm on this entire list. There are singles that place hooks here and there, and then there are songs that nothing but hooks. 'Shake It Off' is definitely the latter. There's not a single part of this song that won't get stuck in your head, which is part of Swift's brilliance. It's the type of tune that, had it come out 15 years ago, would have been used in Gap ads. Heck, its video is practically a redo of that 'Everyone in khakis' spot.

4. Pitbull - Timber

Remember 'Save a Horse, Ride a Cowboy'? There's a tune just like this one that comes out every five years or so, combining vague country elements with pop and/or hip-hop. 'Timber' is this generation's version of that very thing, except while it's not about doing the deed, it is about shaking your butt, as so many tunes from 2014 seemed to be.

3. Iggy Azalea - Fancy

Iggy Azalea has been teasing people with singles and EPs for years, but hadn't released an actual album until this year. The entire industry was salivating for it, and when it finally came out, people went after it like a rottweiler on a soup bone. 'Fancy' went number one in the U.S., making Azalea the only female rapper ever to have accomplished that feat. Like a true star, she's also had her fair share of controversies and a wardrobe malfunction this year. The song's message, which can also clearly be seen in its 'Clueless' remake of a video, is that while her meteoric rise has certainly come fast, she's here to stay, and if Snoop Dogg can't handle it, whatever!

2. Katy Perry' - Dark Horse

It's easy to imagine this one showing up in a list of the most-popular and most-searched songs of 2015. Katy Perry's got a knack for releasing songs that, like it or not, just don't seem to leave people's heads for well over a year. Don't let the title fool you - she's certainly no dark horse. But she seems to be able to defy the shortness of most people's attention spans, which, in an era where one-hit-wonders have become even more of a statistical inevitability, is actually quite the achievement.

 1. Meghan Trainor - All About That Bass

Perhaps this and 'Anaconda' prove that body-shaming is on its way out. One can only hope. But this song's appearance at the top of this list can't be due to its catchiness alone. In a world that tells women their bodies are somehow always lacking in some way, a tune that extolls its listener to love their curves and every bit of themselves is a refreshing change. Whether this is simply Meghan Trainor's moment or she's here to stay and change the musical landscape remains to be seen, but for now, here's a question worth thinking about: Why not love your body? It’s the only one you’ve got.