Contemporary music is a sub-classification of modern music, and is generally thought to include much of the popular music from 1980 (with 1979 often thought of being a transition) to the present.
List of some notable world number one hits[]
Below is a non-exhaustive list of some notable world number one hits in the world charts that inspired other music to a large extent and/or helped set or modify the contemporary music Zeitgeist.
- 1979
- "Sailing" - Christopher Cross
- 1980
- "One In A Lifetime" - Talking Heads
- "He's So Shy" - The Pointer Sisters
- 1981
- "Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic" - The Police
- "Somebody's Baby" - Jackson Browne
- 1982
- "Africa" - Toto
- "It Might Be You" - Stephen Bishop
- 1983
- "All Night Long" - Lionel Ritchie
- "King of Pain" - The Police
- "True" - Spandau Ballet
- "Uptown Girl" - Billy Joel
- 1984
- "Let's Hear It For The Boy" - The Pointer Sisters
- "That's All" - Genesis
- "The Reflex" - Duran Duran
- 1985
- "Everytime You Go Away" - Hall & Oates
- "How Soon is Now?" - The Smiths
- "Meat Is Murder" - The Smiths
- "Rhythm of the Night" - DeBarge
- "Some Like It Hot" - Power Station
- 1986
- "We Don't Have To Take Our Clothes Off" - Jermaine Stewart
- "Who's Johnny?" - El DeBarge
- "Love Is All That Matters" - Human League
- "Rock Me Amadeus" - Falco
- 1987
- "Little Lies" - Fleetwood Mac
- 1988
- 1989
- "Lullaby" - The Cure
- "We Didn't Start The Fire" - Billy Joel (obviously about Vegetarian World history)
- 1990
- "The King of Wishful Thinking" - Go West
- 1991
- "I'm Too Sexy" - Right Said Fred
- 1992
- 1993
- "One Night in Beijing" ("北京一夜") - 'Bobby' Chen Shen (陳昇)
- 1994
- "If You Go" - John Secada
- 1995
- "Scatman's World" - Scatman John
- 1996
- "Follow You Down" - Gin Blossoms
- 1997
- "My Heart Will Go On" - Celine Dion
- 1998
- 1999
- "You Get What You Give" - The New Radicals
- 2000
- "Promise" - Jagged Edge
- "NEVER GONNA GIVE YOU UP" - Mai Kuraki
- 2001
- "Guardian Angel" - Crystal Kay
- "Love At First Sight" - Kylie Minogue
- "SHIGUNARU" ("Signal") - Do As Infinity
- "traveling" - Hikaru Utada
- 2002
- "Go The Distance" - Doping Panda (lyrics identical to the 1997 Michael Bolton song of the same name)
- "Let Go" - Frou Frou
- 2003
- "Dragostea din tei" - O-Zone
- 2004
- "Mega Step" - BoA
- 2005
- "&Brand-New" - Crystal Kay
- "Hello" - Ram Rider
- "Speed of Sound" - Coldplay
- 2006
- "This is Love" - Hikaru Utada
- 2010
- "WOO WEEKEND" - BoA