The series is also an excellent way to see what sonic trends emerged over the year. This year's installment might sound a little more dislocated than the previous ones, which could hold up as dance singles on their own, and that's because EDM wasn't as dominant on the charts.

'The thing that has been most notable in the past two or three years is the decline of EDM," he told Billboard. 'The 'United State of Pop' became this dance track from '09 to '12, and then starting last year, there just wasn't enough in that genre to fully support it, so I went down-tempo. And this year, 'Timber,' which was popular in January, is the only popular dance track I'm dealing with. It's definitely down-tempo, so you have to decide, how is this going to go? How am I going to maintain the energy levels while being true to the sound of the year?"�

Instead, Earworm's 2014 mix is, in his words, 'dominated by these slow, ponderous songs like 'Say Something' and 'All Of Me,' and then swaggering hip-hop songs like 'Turn Down For What,' 'Talk Dirty,' and 'Black Widow.' Then you have totally uptempo songs like 'Happy' and 'Shake It Off,' too. It's a little bit more diverse, and definitely softer than it's been."�