Eye of the tiger: The most popular songs for Brits returning to the office

Is there anything more hotly debated than the office playlist? Aside from the heating temperature of course!

Music can motivate us to work harder, bring us out of a 2pm post-lunch slump, or inspire incredible new ideas.

Whether you’re returning to your high-rise office block, business park location, shared creative spaces, converted mill – or wherever – we wanted to discover the most popular songs and artists for office playlists.

We analysed over 2.2 million songs from office-related Spotify playlists; here’s what we found.

The top 25 most popular office songs are…

1. The Weeknd – Blinding Lights
2. Eminem – Till I Collapse
3. BTS – Dynamite
4. Dua Lipa – Don't Start Now
5. Ed Sheeran – Shape of You
6. The Chainsmokers – Closer
7. Foster The People – Pumped Up Kicks
8. Survivor – Eye of the Tiger
9. Panic! At The Disco – High Hopes
10. Roses – Imanbek Remix
11. Kanye West - POWER
12. Journey – Don't Stop Believin'
13. TOTO – Africa
14. Maroon 5 – Memories
15. Post Malone – Circles
16. Jason Mraz – I'm Yours
17. Mark Ronson – Uptown Funk (feat. Bruno Mars)
18. AC/DC – Thunderstruck
19. Train – Drops of Jupiter (Tell Me)
20. Justin Timberlake – Can’t Stop This Feeling
21. Travis Scott – Sick
22. Elton John – Tiny Dancer
23. Lorde – Royals
24. Macklemore & Ryan Lewi – Can't Hold Us - feat. Ray Dalton
25. Roddy Ricch – The Box

The top ten features a number of recent, catchy hits, including The Weeknd’s hugely upbeat ‘Blinding Lights’ which clinched the top spot, as well as tracks by Dua Lipa, Ed Sheeran and The Chainsmokers. However there were some throwbacks too.

The motivational hit ‘Eye of the Year’ by Survivor, famous for its appearances in the Rocky films, snuck into the top ten – you can’t beat an old school classic – while Eminem’s upbeat ‘Till I Collapse’ secured the number two spot in our analysis.

K-pop superstars BTS rounded out the top three with ‘Dynamite’.

Clearly upbeat tempo songs are a must in office playlists, with so many of the top 25 including catchy singalong and positive tracks.

The need to maintain high levels of motivation is a must for anyone returning to the office, especially after a potentially long break due to COVID-19.

Top 10 most listened to artists in the office

The top 10 sees a real mix of current artists as well as legendary superstars from years gone by. Ed Sheeran topped the list while veterans Eminem and Coldplay also made the top three.

AC/DC’s head-banging anthems are clearly a favourite for office motivation, with the seemingly unstoppable rock legends sitting comfortably in the top ten.

Queen B herself, Beyoncé, is in at nine, with Imagine Dragons sneaking into tenth spot.

1. Ed Sheeran
2. Eminem
3. Coldplay
4. Post Malone
5. The Weeknd
6. AC/DC
7. The Chainsmokers
8. Travis Scott
9. Beyoncé
10. Imagine Dragons

Whatever your taste, there is something for EVERYONE returning to their offices. Download the full list here (PDF) and add them to your own office Spotify playlist. You can then tell your colleagues these are the definitive tracks for work from across the world! No arguments.

Methodology
All results are based on Spotify data as of 8 September 2020. We searched for playlists named ‘office playlist’, ‘office songs’, ‘office playlists’, ‘work playlist’, ‘work songs’ and ‘work playlists’. We then scraped the data and analysed it to find the most popular songs per category and the most frequently featured artists.