Boise is Reliving 2016 and These Were the Most Played Songs in the City

Whether you’re actively trying to create content or just scrolling to watch, chances are you have a TikTok account. If you’ve been on the platform over the last week, there’s a multitude of videos out there that may have you asking “what year is it?” 

We’ll be honest. We held out on making a TikTok account for the longest time because “We are adults. We’ll see the videos on Reels like six months later.”  Then we watched The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives and instantly thought “if these women are making bank off TikTok videos, why can’t we?”

READ MORE: See Boise's Most-Played Song From the Year You Graduated 

In the few short weeks that we’ve been there, we’ve learned we’re not good at it. We have 55 followers. Our most viewed videos are the ones of the kittens that we adopted at Simply Cats last summer. We’ve made $0. No one’s even offered Daisy treats. 

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Even though we’re slightly bitter about it, there’s some really fun and creative content on TikTok so we’re glad we caved. We’ve also noticed a trend that’s just exploded over the past week. For a minute, we thought we’d trained the algorithm to show us “2016” themed content but it turns out that #BringBack2016 is THE cool hashtag right now. 

Why Are So Many People Talking About 2016?

The BBC says that searches for the year have surged 452% during the second week of 2026. More than 55 million videos were recently created using the filter TikTok named after 2016. USA Today talked to a psychologist that believes part of the reason people are feeling so nostalgic is because of the amount of tragic news stories and political divisiveness we’re being exposed to in 2026 can lead to extreme feelings of anxiety, stress and loneliness. Nostalgia has been known to relieve those feelings.

Most of Gen Z is now somewhere between the ages 14 and 29, so going back in time 10 years takes the middle part of that generation back to when things felt a lot more simple and fun. We totally  believe it just by watching our own behavior. We’re older millennials and are deep into Season 3 of a One Tree Hill rewatch. The more serious life gets, the more we cling to things from high school. There’s comfort in those old TV shows and the mix CDs we made while giving the family computer a virus from Limewire. 

The 10 Most Played Songs in Boise in 2016

Since 2016 is having a renaissance, we thought it’d be fun to go back and see which songs were the most played on Boise radio that year! Working at a radio station, that info’s at our fingertips. Based on the playlists of Boise’s two Top 40 stations, two Hot Adult Contemporary and Adult Contemporary stations from 2016, these were the songs you couldn’t escape on the radio. 

 10. Lukas Graham - 7 Years

9. DNCE - Cake By the Ocean

8. The Chainsmokers - Don’t Let Me Down featuring Daya

7. Justin Bieber - Sorry

6. Flo Rida - My House

5. Twenty One Pilots - Stressed Out

4. Mike Posner - I Took a Pill in Ibiza

3. Sia - Cheap Thrills featuring Sean Paul

2. Justin Bieber - Love Yourself

1. Justin Timberlake - Can’t Stop The Feeling

Boise’s 5 Most Played Artists of 2016

5. The Weeknd (11,698 spins)

4. Adele (11,897 spins)

3. Twenty One Pilots (14,540 spins)

2. The Chainsmokers (15,115 spins)

1. Justin Bieber (15,938 spins)