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Culture

Butler Her Campus and Friends’ 50 Favorite Albums of the 2010s

Kait Wilbur
Rae Stoffel
This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at Butler chapter.

The 2010s, the first decade in which most of this article’s readers began forming opinions and having personalities, will be over in a matter of days. (Isn’t that ABSOLUTELY BONKERS?)

 

It’s incredibly hard to characterize the 2010s in the same way we might characterize the 50s as the sock hop era, the 70s as the disco era, and the 90s as the era in which most of our parents somehow found each other attractive despite the chunky highlights and MC Hammer pants. How will we remember the last ten years, besides “when Marvel had 5 movies in theaters per year and we started eating Mexican food out of bowls?” Music. That’s how.

 

Below are 40 albums the Her Campus staff, select Butler students and alum, and Overlord of Music Taste Kait Wilbur have selected as our favorites from the past 10 years. Now when your future grandkids ask “What did listen to when you were a teenager?” you can show them this article. Instead of having a conversation with them. That’s right, I said SCREW your grandkids.

 

  1. Animal- Kesha (2010)

FUN FACT: this album literally came out on January 1, 2010. Beginning. The. Decade.

  1. Teenage Dream- Katy Perry

  1. Pink Friday- Nicki Minaj (2010)

  1. Teen Dream- Beach House (2010)

“Beach House was my personal number one artist of this decade on Spotify. I meant to ask Santa for another Beach House album on vinyl but accidentally wrote this one down instead. Turns out it’s a perfect album.” -Kait Wilbur

  1. “The Suburbs” Arcade Fire (2010)

  1. Born This Way- Lady Gaga (2011)

  1. Take Care- Drake (2011)

  1. Never Trust a Happy Song- Grouplove (2011)

  1. Torches- Foster the People (2011)

  1. Trilogy- the Weeknd (2012)

  1. Red- Taylor Swift (2012)

  1. Channel Orange- Frank Ocean (2012)

  1. Some Nights- fun. (2012)

  1. Electra Heart- Marina and the Diamonds (2012)

  1. Born to Die- Lana Del Rey (2012)

“lana del rey’s born to die impacted a whole generation i would say” -HC’s Katie Freeman

  1. Pure Heroine- Lorde (2013)

  1. Because the Internet, Childish Gambino (2013)

  1. Acid Rap- Chance the Rapper (2013)

  1. Modern Vampires of the City- Vampire Weekend (2013)

  1. AM- Arctic Monkeys (2013)

“showing my cards as a 2013 tumblr girl” -former HCer Rebecca VanVliet

  1. Frozen- Original Motion Picture Soundtrack (2013)

  1. Alvvays- Alvvays (2013)

  1. Random Access Memories- Daft Punk (2013)

  1. 1989- Taylor Swift (2014) 

  1. Love- Amen Dunes (2014)

“something about the title track from love just hits different” -Camille Arnett

  1. Ultraviolence- Lana Del Rey (2014)

  1. X (Deluxe Version)- Ed Sheeran (2014)

“it’s just bangers upon bangers with some of his best rap work” -Colleen Wilkes

  1. Four- One Direction (2014)

“Artistic masterpiece” – HC’s Kara Connelly

  1. I Love You, Honeybear- Father John Misty (2015)

  1. Emotion- Carly Rae Jepsen (2015)

  1. 25- Adele (2015)

“Adele 25 SMACKS” -HC’s Emily Wray

  1. Sometimes I Sit and Think, and Sometimes I Just Sit- Courtney Barnett (2015)

  1. Carrie and Lowell- Sufjan Stevens (2015)

  1. Hamilton- Original Broadway Cast Recording (2015)

“not necessarily my faves but you cannot deny the impact the original frozen soundtrack and the hamilton cast album had on pop culture” -HC’s Louise Irpino

  1. ANTi- Rihanna (2016)

“rihanna anti has carried her music career while she was on hiatus (sic)” -HC’s Chloe Meredith

  1. Signs of Light- The Head and the Heart (2016)

  1. Lemonade- Beyonce (2016)

“For inventing the concept album”- Colleen Wilkes

“beyoncé’s lemonade was iconic and a fully visual album as well” -Katie Freeman

  1. After Laughter- Paramore (2017)

“a big part of the appeal is that it’s not just the songs that are deep but also the music videos really go hard with storytelling.” -Louise Irpino

  1. Rainbow- Kesha (2017)

“Whenever you see Kesha live, she performs Jolene. Nobody knows that Kesha does this country thing, but in this album she showed a lot of elements of that… a lot of, like, Bob Dylan-esque elements.” -Jessie Lause

  1. Melodrama- Lorde (2017)

 

  1. Crack-Up- Fleet Foxes (2017)

  1. DAMN.- Kendrick Lamar  (2017)

“iconic and also v snubbed” -Colleen Wilkes 

  1. Golden Hour, Kacey Musgraves (2018)

  1. Voicenotes- Charlie Puth (2018)

  1. Sweetener- Ariana Grande (2018)

  1. Invasion of Privacy- Cardi B (2018)

  1. Dirty Computer- Janelle Monae (2018)

  1. Be the Cowboy- Mitski (2018)

  1. Wasteland, Baby!- Hozier (2019)

  1. Cuz I Love You- Lizzo (2019)

Kait Wilbur is an aggressively optimistic individual obsessed with sitcoms, indie music, and pop culture in general. She hails from Manito, a rural wasteland in Illinois so small and devoid of life that she took up writing to amuse herself. Kait goes to Butler University to prepare for a career in advertising, but all she really wants to do is talk about TV for a living. You can find her at any given moment with her earbuds in pretending to do homework but actually looking at surrealist memes.
Rae Stoffel

Butler '20

Rae Stoffel is a senior at Butler University studying Journalism with a double minor in French and strategic communications. With an affinity for iced coffee, blazers, and the worlds worst jokes, she calls herself a witty optomistic, which can be heavily reflected in her writing. Stoffel is a Chicago native looking forward to returning to the windy city post graduation.