Earlier I wrote about the Project X-style party in Huntington Beach, and whenever I think about Project X, I think of the Steve Aoki remix of Pursuit of Happiness.
After listening to that song about a dozen times as it brought me back to 2012, I went into a rabbit hole of party songs. In my opinion, Kid Cudi is my favorite rapper of all time. I’ve listened to Man On The Moon in its entirely, probably around 1000 times. Pursuit of Happiness is one of the best songs on that album but as a party song, it kind of sucks. It’s too slow, and even though everybody knows every word, it doesn’t get the people going. That’s why when Steve Aoki remixed it and brought that EDM dance style to the song, it became an amazing party song. I can’t listen to that song without reliving parties that happened the summer after my senior year of high school. The taste of shitty Skol vodka refills my mouth, and blurred images of me jumping up and down in a shitty basement come instantly to my mind.
I found some contenders, but nothing compares to Pursuit of Happiness Remix. Hey Ya by Outkast is a worthy opponent. Everybody knows the words; every drunk guy loves to yell, “what’s cooler than being cool? Ice cold.”, and every drunk guy hopes that when the line “Shake it like a polaroid picture.” happens that every girl at the party will start twerking.
Avicii has a couple of great party songs; it’s a shame that we aren’t going to get more bangers from him. My favorite song of his is Hey Brother, but it’s not the best party song. His best party song is Levels, and it’s not even close.
Speaking of early 2010 DJ’s you can’t talk about DJs without talking about David Guetta. He’s had monster hits like Titanium, and Memories but none of them are worthy enough to take the crown. There are some honorable mentions like Blinding Lights by The Weekend. I know that I’m missing some, and I’m probably going to get yelled at that I didn’t include a song by an artist that I’ve never heard of. Hopefully, I’m not showing my age while talking about Steve Aoki and Avicci.
