Remember when we thought 2016 was bad? We crawled out of that year beaten, bloodied, and positive that nothing could possibly be worse. Then 2017 happened.

Whether you’re reeling from the endless onslaught of mass shootings, the revelation of all your favorite people as sexual predators, or literally anything the Trump administration has done, it seemed like this year would never end.

Thankfully though, today is the last day of 2017. So let’s take a look at the things that didn’t make us want to tear out our hair in frustration. For every time the news told us the world was ending, we could always mute it and put on a solid jam. Then we could pretend just for a moment that everything wasn’t crumbling around us. Every year is a good year for music, but 2017 was so brutal, that the escape these songs gave us might have been just a little sweeter than batches from years past. Whether it be the unstoppable reggaetón of “Despacito,” the funk revival captured by our favorite hip-hop artists, or a life affirming anthem from Kesha of all people, these songs lifted us out of the doldrums three to five minutes at a time.

So without further ado, let’s pay tribute to the thirty best tracks of 2017, and hope that maybe 2018 won’t be any worse.

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