The 2010s lost classics that became sleeper hits a decade on

When the lists of the most successful songs of 2024 in the charts, streaming and social media were revealed recently, they included the expected big hitters and some evergreen classics. But sprinkled among them was a different type of hit song.

A number of tracks that failed to make a big impact when they were first released, mostly in the 2010s, have since bubbled up and become firm favourites.

The rise of these slow-burning sleeper hits in recent years is "one of the most fascinating trends right now", says Stuart Dredge, head of insight at Music Ally.

Here is our guide to the biggest 2010s sleeper hits.

Songs from all eras have been resurfacing for several years, of course.

Many were hits to start with. Mr Brightside by The Killers (2004) is a fixture, while Kate Bush's Running Up That Hill (1985) and Sophie Ellis-Bextor's Murder on the Dancefloor (2001) shot back up the charts thanks to TV and film soundtracks.

But when it comes to songs that weren't as big the first time around, the 2010s dominate.

One reason is that people who grew up in those years are introducing their favourite tunes to others, according to Sarah Kloboves from music data analysts Chartmetric.

"This revival is pioneered by these older Gen Z listeners [in their mid-20s]. But when they start to create these trends, you also have the younger Gen Zs and even Gen Alpha [young teens and below] that are hearing these songs for the first time - the release date is interesting because it's old, but it's not too old."

Dredge agrees: "A lot of the influencers on places like TikTok are a few years older, so they are probably using songs from the 2010s that soundtracked their teenage years."

Taylor Swift's Cruel Summer (2019) could even be described as a sleeper hit - it wasn't released as an official single at the time, but eventually reached number one in 2023 and was the fifth-biggest song of 2024 overall on Apple Music.

Others, though, are not such obvious hits. Musically, most sound quite restrained and atmospheric - they're emotive soundtrack songs rather than upbeat bangers or full-blooded anthems.

"These aren't songs that were released with the intention of being a pop hit," Kloboves says.

"Not to bash on pop music or pop stars, but sometimes they all sort of sound the same. But I think a lot of these songs are very different from what you might usually hear in the mainstream," she says.

"I think that's why listeners really resonate with them, because they're slightly unique and different-sounding."

Eight more sleeper hits:

• Pink + White by Frank Ocean (2016)
• No Role Modelz by J Cole (2014)
• Jocelyn Flores by XXXTentacion (2017)
• All I Want by Kodaline (2012)
• Lovers Rock by TV Girl (2014)
• Space Song by Beach House (2015)
• Apocalypse by Cigarettes After Sex (2017)
• Freaks by Surf Curse (2013)

Many of these songs owe their belated success to TikTok, and tracks that take off "evoke some kind of emotional response" in the listener, the platform's UK head of music partnerships Toyin Mustapha believes.

"It's having something that emotionally resonates. That could be a lyric. It could be the way that the instrumental lands."

And our relationship with music has changed. When packaging songs with clips on social media, fans are choosing them as soundtracks to evocative moments.

"It's no longer passive listening," Mustapha adds. "People are really active participants in the culture. And they're active because they are taking this music and essentially reimagining it in their own way."

Record labels do try to help back-catalogue songs become sleeper hits, but it normally happens organically thanks to fans, Dredge says.

"One of the things you can see is it's songs that lend themselves to a feeling or mood. It often is a particular line from the song that is the thing that is picked up on and goes viral," he says.

"There doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason to it other than they suddenly feel relevant to someone in a way that other people appreciate."

Sometimes, it's simply that a great song didn't get the attention it deserved at the time: "Part of it is just that a brilliant song can connect with people, no matter how long ago it was made."