Some years don’t fade—they hover. And 2016 is one of those years that still shows up uninvited, sliding into your playlists like it pays rent. If the cultural mood is looping back (again), then the soundtrack has to come with it: the pop confessionals, the late-night bangers, the gleeful earworms, the songs that made you text someone you absolutely should not have texted. Here are the 21 tracks that defined the year—and if 2016 is truly returning, they’re not optional.

Johnny Cash never pretended to be neutral. While much of Nashville tried to tiptoe around the Vietnam War, Cash walked straight into it—boots first, guitar slung low, and conscience fully intact. At a time when protest could cost you radio play, sponsors, and even your career, Cash decided that silence felt worse.

This man basically wrote the playbook on destroying your own career. Steven Seagal had everything Hollywood offered during the early nineties. Then he burned every bridge and guaranteed his exile.

Talkies were new, the rules were loose, and movie stars had real mystery. The actors who ruled the 1930s turned risk into legend and performances into icons that still hold power.

Every family has this argument. It usually starts with a record collection, ends with someone storming off, and somehow always involves The Beatles. To some people, they’re untouchable. To others, they’re overrated pioneers who’ve been mythologized beyond reason.

Hollywood loves a glow-up story. But long before awards speeches and standing ovations, many of today’s most respected actors heard something far less inspiring—about their looks. That fame simply wasn’t in the cards. They were very, very wrong.