The 2016 Songs We Can’t Cease Taking part in in 2026
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Let’s be honest with ourselves for a moment. If you’re reading this, there’s a solid chance you’ve recently found yourself down a Spotify rabbit hole, streaming songs from a decade ago and wondering where the time went. You’re not alone. You’re not even close to alone.
The internet’s collective obsession with 2016 has reached a fever pitch, and now that we’re firmly planted in 2026, the nostalgia has only intensified. That year—when your biggest concern might have been whether your phone battery would last through brunch—feels impossibly distant and achingly close all at once.
The Science Behind Why This Hits Different
Here’s the thing: there’s an actual psychological reason why you can’t stop romanticizing 2016, and it’s not just because you had better knees back then.
“It’s 2026, people are feeling nostalgic for 2016 (because) enough time has passed to have those warm feelings for that time,” Clay Routledge, an existential psychologist who’s a leading expert in the science of nostalgia, told NBC in January 2026.
Routledge, also an executive vice president and COO at Archbridge Institute, points to something that probably resonates if you’ve spent any time doom-scrolling lately. He notes that millennials and older Gen Z are the ones most affected by “technological transformations” amid the advances of artificial intelligence.
“People tend to be nostalgic when they’re anxious about the future or they’re not sure what direction in life to take,” he told the outlet. “So I think this generation is dealing with those anxieties, and they’re using nostalgia as a way to respond to them.”
Sound familiar? Between AI reshaping entire industries, the lingering weirdness of post-pandemic life, and the general sense that everything moves too fast now, it makes perfect sense that we’d want to retreat to a time when things felt more… manageable. When the music industry wasn’t oversaturated with TikTok sounds and weekly releases fighting for attention, but instead featured artists who were genuinely at the top of their game.
So consider this your permission slip to fully embrace the nostalgia. Here are six songs from 2016 that somehow still absolutely hit in 2026.
‘Love on the Brain’ by Rihanna
We need to talk about Rihanna. More specifically, we need to talk about the fact that ANTI dropped in 2016 and she still hasn’t followed up with another album. Ten years. A full decade of waiting, hoping and watching her build a billion-dollar beauty empire while we refresh her Spotify page like it’s a part-time job.
ANTI was deeply personal, marking her first project after departing from Def Jam Recordings. The album also featured Drake and SZA, who wasn’t well-known back then (wild to think about now, right?).
“Love on the Brain,” specifically, became a massive hit and remains everywhere—TikToks, commercials, wedding playlists, your shower karaoke sessions. The song’s raw, retro-soul sound proved Rihanna could do anything, and we’ve been waiting for her to do literally anything musically ever since.
But here’s where it gets truly impressive: As of July 2025, ANTI is the fourth-longest charting female album in Billboard 200 history. Then, in December 2025, it clocked a historic 500th week on the Billboard 200. “On the chart dated Dec. 6, 2025, the critically acclaimed LP ranks at No. 134, recording a milestone 500th nonconsecutive week on the ranking. It marks the first album by a Black female soloist in Billboard chart history to spend that much time on the Billboard 200,” according to Billboard.
Let that sink in. An album from 2016 is still charting. Your taste? Validated.
‘Somebody Else’ by The 1975
If you didn’t ugly-cry to this song at least once between 2016 and now, did you even experience your twenties? This track has become an indie pop classic from the band led by Matty Healy, pulled from their gloriously titled album I Like It When You Sleep, for You Are So Beautiful Yet So Unaware of It.
The song is considered one of the band’s greatest and has been rightfully labeled a “breakup anthem.” There’s something about its synth-drenched melancholy that captures the specific pain of imagining your ex moving on—a universal experience that transcends any particular era.
Even Charlie Puth admitted to wishing he wrote the song, covering it following the single’s release in February 2016.
“I love the simplicity of the record, I love the chord structure and Matty’s voice on it. I like the band but I really love that song,” he told BBC. “I love the way they paint a picture lyrically. They’re not so concerned with using huge words, it’s more like getting into people’s hearts with nostalgia.”
Puth literally used the word “nostalgia” to describe why the song works. He knew. He knew even then.
‘Into You’ by Ariana Grande
Off her third studio album Dangerous Woman, “Into You” was the second single from the project and pivoted Ariana into a more mature and sexy image which became her staple for a few years.
This song is so peak 2016 that hearing it probably triggers a very specific sensory memory for you—maybe a summer night, maybe a crowded bar, maybe the exact moment you realized Ariana Grande was about to become one of the biggest pop stars on the planet.
The track couldn’t be escaped in 2016, and honestly? It still can’t. Many outlets, including The Guardian and Rolling Stone, ranked it as Grande’s best song. The production, the breathless delivery, the way it builds to that explosive chorus—it’s a masterclass in pop songwriting that hasn’t aged a single day.
‘Starboy’ by The Weeknd
Who can forget when The Weeknd dropped the masterpiece of Starboy and that it’s been 10 years since his rebrand?!
The album was supported by eight singles, including the US Billboard Hot 100 number-ones “Starboy.” The title track, with its Daft Punk collaboration and instantly iconic opening line, announced a new era for Abel Tesfaye. Gone was the mysterious mixtape artist; here was a full-fledged pop star with a haircut that launched a thousand memes.
In an interview with Variety in 2020, The Weeknd said that the cross imagery on the album cover symbolizes being reborn.
That rebirth resonated with an entire generation who was also figuring out who they wanted to become. In 2016, many millennials were in their mid-twenties, navigating career changes, relationship evolutions, and identity shifts of their own. “Starboy” became the soundtrack to reinvention.
‘Sorry’ by Justin Bieber
Everyone remembers where they were when Justin Bieber dropped “Sorry,” along with its iconic music video featuring dancers from New Zealand dance crew Royal Family. The track was a mega pop hit and although it technically came out in 2015 — it became iconized almost immediately.
But here’s what really makes this song a time capsule: the song allegedly being about his ex Selena Gomez also adds to the 2010s nostalgia when the two exes often released tracks seemingly about one another.
Ah, another time. Truly.
The Bieber-Gomez era was its own cultural phenomenon—a will-they-won’t-they that played out across Instagram posts, song lyrics, and tabloid covers. Following their relationship drama felt like a collective experience, a shared narrative that an entire generation tracked in real-time. “Sorry” wasn’t just a banger; it was a chapter in a story we were all invested in.
‘Wait a Minute!’ by Willow
While this track technically came out in December 2015, it saw little reception after first being released from Willow’s debut album Ardipithecus. But here’s the thing about great music: sometimes it takes a while for the world to catch up.
“Wait a Minute!” has gone on to become one of the most iconic songs from the mid-2010s. Willow was only around 14 years old when she wrote the track, and it’s remained her most popular, reaching over 1 billion streams.
It still hits.
The song’s dreamy, neo-soul vibe feels timeless, and its resurgence proves that quality eventually finds its audience. For those who discovered it years after release, it became a personal treasure—a song that felt like a secret even as it racked up billions of plays.
So go ahead. Queue up that 2016 playlist. Let Rihanna remind you that you’ve been waiting for her album almost as long as you’ve been waiting for your life to make sense. Let The 1975 validate every complicated feeling you’ve ever had about an ex. Let these songs be the bridge between who you were and who you’re becoming.
Ten years is a long time. But the music? The music is forever.