US #1s of 2009

yuck. BBP by some distance

yuck is right. "empire" has grown on me, but I'm going with "Poker Face" even though it melds with "Bad Romance" in my mind.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D4T_QtiepG8

yuck x 3. i can possibly bring myself to vote for kelly, but even that's a stretch.

(isn't there one chart week left?)

its like you dont even care about xmas #1 in an inane nation engulfing way. voted kelly by a mile.

boy do i wish taylor had broken through the bep barricade.

"Just Dance."

"Empire State of Mind" by a wide margin.

"i gotta feeling" >>>> "empire state of mind" >>>>>>>>> "my life" >>>> "whatcha say" >>> "fireflies" > "boom boom pow" > "down" > "poker face" > "just dance" > "3" > "right round" > "crack a bottle"

l'chaim!

there were only 12 #1s this year? Is that normal?

the black eyed peas sat atop the fucking charts for like half of it

not even "like" half of it, literally 26 weeks

still amazes me

12 is about average, actually, as far as this decade goes:

2000: 18
2001: 15
2002: 9
2003: 12
2004: 12
2005: 8
2006: 19
2007: 18
2008: 14
2009: 12

(isn't there one chart week left?)

― hellzapoppa (tipsy mothra), Monday, December 21, 2009 1:43 PM Bookmark

nope. billboard charts are dated by the end of the upcoming week. last thursday's chart is dated "for the week ending dec. 26th"

i didden know that.

ew, kelly clarkson easily

Which one of these songs has guitars?

BOOM BOOM POW is an awesome song

I went with Jay-Z, under duress. It's gotten under my skin, esp. since I hear it out all the damn time now that I live in Brooklyn.

its ubiquity has just made it sound more like a chamber of commerce jingle to me.

It's not as if I actually like it or anything.

i do appreciate the gesture of the decade ending on a big triumphalist new york note. it'll probably help sucker the next generation of unpaid interns.

"empire state of mind pt 2" >>>>>>>>>>>>>> "empire state of mind"

yup, it's official, I'm 100% out of the loop. didn't hear a one of these.

"Boom Boom Pow" is a super strong contender for worst song of the year, up against "I Love College" and 3OH!3. "I Gotta Feeling" also has insanely embarrassing/enthusiastic shouting, but at least it has a decent hook to back it up?
"Watcha Say" is a terribly confused and uninspired use of a fantastic sample--it also fits under 'embarrasing' (see also Eminem, Flo Rida and Owl City). I can't believe "Down" became a hit, so so dull!
"My Life Would Suck Without You," "Just Dance" and "3" are all fine but also quite boring, which is apparently enough to land in the top tier, next to "Poker Face" and "Empire State of Mind." I think I'll go with "Empire State of Mind."

"Just Dance" feels like a million years ago, doesn't it? So does "Crack a Bottle," though.

I went with "Watcha Say." It's a really pretty song, even without that amazing sample.

yup, it's official, I'm 100% out of the loop. didn't hear a one of these.

― Herodcare for the Unborn (J0hn D.), Monday, December 21, 2009 8:21 PM (40 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

didn't you tour around the world this year? you didn't once go inside a convenience store or a restaurant or a car? You're not fooling anyone with this fake steampunk old-an-in-the-way act, homie.

like come on, i heard like one of these songs today just going to the fucking bahn mi place, stfu already

I don't now, I've only heard a couple of these. I mean, I'm sure it's likely that one of these was playing while I was in a store or something, but, if so, I sure didn't know it...

didn't you tour around the world this year? you didn't once go inside a convenience store or a restaurant or a car? You're not fooling anyone with this fake steampunk old-an-in-the-way act, homie.

nothing that registered, no - if any of these played while I was in the room, I didn't notice. not trying to fool anybody w/anything, just making a comment on a message board. you might wanna recalibrate your ativan if "I didn't hear these songs" raises a "you're not fooling anybody" dude.

whiney in having the highest blood pressure of anybody in his age group non-shocker tho I guess

srsly dude as a guy who's enjoyed reading your writing about music for a long time: you need to fucking chill sometimes dude

for u, i chill

fwiw none of these songs in my experience achieved the cant-miss-it everywhere-at-once thing that, say, "umbrella" or "yeah" or "milkshake" or a bunch of the biggest hits of the decade did. not even boom boom pow (thank god).

cool I mean - you do realize I'm telling the truth, not striking a pose, right? that I generally have kinda hung my hat on being a guy who tries not to: strike poses/pretend he's heard stuff he hasn't or hasn't heard stuff he has/tries to know about stuff he doesn't know about/etc? that that's kind of, if there's anything about me that's worth bragging about, the thing: I try to be honest? and that you suggesting I'd come onto a thread about #1s to kind of be the "I don't own a TV" guy suggests that your image of me is delusional or something? for jeez man. kinda hurts my feelings and pisses me off tbh. the whole thing about j0hn d is kinda rooted in trying to tell the truth about his experiences. sorry to have barked at u but being accused of posing is a bummer for me 'k. I didn't hear these. I would guess that your ability to tolerate being at the bahn mi place hearing music & hanging out is a lot higher than mine. I avoid leaving the house/hotel/bus as much as possible.

xp

sorry, dawg. i was being dramatic for the sake of internets, i don't really think you're posing. Sorry for being to snarkified.

But i am pretty sure you heard some of these songs, even if you know it or not

*too snarkified

no sweat man just wanted to make clear "I haven't heard any, ain't I cool" is not my kinda look - and anyhow my participation in this thread is actually mainly a viral thing to build excitement for my Christmas album, J0hn D. Sings the #1s of '09

I had to get really fucked up to sing the Owl City one

I know I musta heard some of these but consciously I'm in the same boat as j0hn. Every time I go in a convenience store I just hear that Katy Perry song which apparently is not a #1.

whiney in having the highest blood pressure of anybody in his age group non-shocker tho I guess

Didn't Whiney listen to 1K discs this year? That'll give anyone high blood pressure.

Really blown away that Mraz didn't make it to the top!!!

12 is about average, actually, as far as this decade goes:

2000: 18
2001: 15
2002: 9
2003: 12
2004: 12
2005: 8
2006: 19
2007: 18
2008: 14
2009: 12

So the average No. 1 song stays on top of the charts for a full month? When I was a kid (80s), it seemed like the average No. 1 song had a much shorter shelf-life.

for me the thing is: I'm still a music obsessive, constantly hearing & acquiring new stuff - it's not like I've gone out to pasture, I'm listening to music all day every day & most days most of it's new. it's that the fragmentation of the market/audience & the lack of any communally centralized sources means that people who are still pretty engaged with music & not even really making any kind of concentrated effort to be outre or whatever are now in a position where, if they want to know what the #1s sound like, must resolve to be paying attention. anybody who, in, when was it, '87/'88, said he hadn't heard Guns 'n' Roses, I'd be like, how'd you manage that? but I don't think it's even particularly strange for the pop charts to be completely out of range now. I'm out of the loop, I say, not wanting to say "there really isn't a loop, kinda," but maybe that's what I mean.

these four i'm aware of due to radio ubiquity:
Lady Gaga, "Just Dance"
Lady Gaga, "Poker Face"
Black Eyed Peas, "I Gotta Feeling"
Britney Spears, "3"

this one i'm aware of because i watched tv today:
Kelly Clarkson, "My Life Would Suck Without You"

the others i don't really have any idea whether i've heard them or not.
i'll have to go with "I Gotta Feeling" because it is just so retarded.

Steve Shasta's Official Ranking As Featured On My Award Winning Vlog:

Jay Sean, "Down"
Black Eyed Peas, "I Gotta Feeling"
Jay-Z, "Empire State of Mind"
Lady Gaga, "Just Dance"
Black Eyed Peas, "Boom Boom Pow"
....
(every song ever recorded in the history of mankind)
....
Flo Rida, "Right Round" (got sick of this the 2x i heard it!)
Lady Gaga, "Poker Face" (the WORST)
Owl City, "Fireflies" (oh wait, SKULLFUCK THIS SONG ETERNALLY)

oh, never heard:
Kelly Clarkson, "My Life Would Suck Without You"
Eminem, "Crack a Bottle"
Britney Spears, "3"
Jason DeRulo, "Whatcha Say"

so that first group is better than every song ever recorded?

honestly there isn't a single song there i give a shit about, and "poker face" - poker fucking face by lady fucking gaga - is the winner by an embarrassing distance.

this list is also...idk. wait'll you see the uk list this year, basically: several milli times worse. ugh, i fucking hate pop music now! fuck 2009 for doing this to me. if anyone would like to come up with any explanation or theory as to why pop music completely sucks all of a sudden, i'd like to hear it.

"empire state of mind pt 2" >>>>>>>>>>>>>> "empire state of mind"

agreed, though "keeping the big dumb hook and getting rid of jay-z humiliating himself" is hardly something to congratulate a song on.

nope. billboard charts are dated by the end of the upcoming week. last thursday's chart is dated "for the week ending dec. 26th"

i was wondering this myself. uk in the morning, then.

so that first group is better than every song ever recorded?

― karl...arlk...rlka...lkar..., Monday, December 21, 2009 6:55 PM (10 seconds ago)

at least until 2010~~~

fair nuff

ha ha, I was gonna come in to say "I haven't heard any of these" and then I was like, "no, what's the point, this is the thread where we vote on the best US #1 of 2009 and since I don't have any opinion about any of these, not having heard them, there's no reason to post, I'd just be that I don't have a TV guy." But then J0hn got my back so I felt somehow compelled to say what I was originally going to say. But I don't think this makes me cool. I do have a TV but I don't have digital reception. I love banh mi. I am not going to vote in this poll -- it wouldn't be fair -- but if I were going to, I'd vote for "Poker Face," because while I haven't heard it I've heard a guy on sports talk radio sort of try to sing/beatbox it, which I think speaks to some truly magnificent mega-ubiquity, so powerful as to partially penetrate the noxious shroud of no-TV-snobbiness around eephus. That is all.

OK this is sort of surprising and a little embarrassing but Jay Sean has really grown on me esp since he's played all the time where I work. That said, I prefer this one (Sean Paul, Lil Jon!) over Down but would vote for Down anyway:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a81eP2E8MEQ&feature=fvste3

Top Three:

1) Down
2) Just Dance
3) Empire State of Mind

Owl City, "Fireflies" (oh wait, SKULLFUCK THIS SONG ETERNALLY)

OMG YES. >:O

I know I musta heard some of these but consciously I'm in the same boat as j0hn. Every time I go in a convenience store I just hear that Katy Perry song which apparently is not a #1.

― .gif of the magpie (Jon Lewis), Monday, December 21, 2009 9:41 PM (51 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

"I Kissed A Girl" went to #1 in 2008 (unless you mean "Hot N Cold," which only got to #3)

So the average No. 1 song stays on top of the charts for a full month? When I was a kid (80s), it seemed like the average No. 1 song had a much shorter shelf-life.

On average, yeah. You still have songs that are at #1 for only one or two weeks, but there are more songs that stay perched at #1 for extended periods of time. I think this has been basically true since the advent of SoundScan in 1991; "End of the Road"/"I Will Always Love You" was the "Boom Boom Pow"/"I Gotta Feeling" of its day.

Also, I think "Crack a Bottle" is the only one I haven't heard, though I should point out that the only time I've heard "Fireflies" was when I specifically looked it up after it got to #1.

Or lookit Usher and Fiddy closer to our time.

if you aint heard lady gaga's "poker face" than stop posting about your alienation from the mainstream-by-default what's-left-of-the-pop-music-industry and watch the vid i posted up thread immediately. why? because i want there to be people who hear it before hearing the original.

i'm pretty sure i heard "crack a bottle" but it's the only one i can't remember anything about (couldn't sing you jay sean but i remember it referencing two different akon songs). for some reason i thought miley was a #1 and "3" wasn't.

minus BBP and Eminem I rather like this list, not a huge fan of Empire State of Mind but it bores me more than it offends me.

the big twist for me was how much Fireflies grew on me. Un-twee the lyrics a bit though and give it a more soulful arrangement like this one which is not bad:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PFdBmeo8HV8

will vote for Poker Face in the end.

watch the vid i posted up thread immediately.

ok did that btw

i can't say i'd assume you'd like gaga cuz i remember you saying you wish cristina had been a hit instead of madonna and gaga's kind of a one-dimensional madonna (who's 2d) in ways, but she dresses insane and her singles work like earworms. this should be the bare minimum we ask for from a pop star but apparently it's exceptional now.

it seems all right. I mean the only reason I come onto pop talk threads ever (=almost never) is to see whether I can catch any of what pop was doing for me as recently as 2001-2002. lotta water under the bridge since then both out in the general culture & with me so obv. lots has changed but since I'd loved pop music & been engaged with the charts for literally decades it was a little surprising to me to find that the best I could say about any high-charting # post-Ignition (remix) is "that's pretty good" (rather than, say, "I only want to listen to that song. only ever, all day" which I'd been doing for ages before). and I think this is less a function of my maturity/dotage than of the evolving landscape, but there's still a lot of people who seem to want to assert this cultural dominance to pop that I really don't think is there at all at this point.

xxxxpost I meant Hot N Cold.

BOOM BOOM POW is an awesome song

― wordy fappinghood (Whiney G. Weingarten), Monday, December 21, 2009 4:54 PM Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

^^^^^

it's ok--i had never listened to it closely until tonight

i'll take most of the elephunk/monkey business hits over it but "boom boom pow" is pretty peculiar structurally for a gigantic, genuine hit.

if you aint heard lady gaga's "poker face" than stop posting about your alienation from the mainstream-by-default what's-left-of-the-pop-music-industry and watch the vid i posted up thread immediately. why? because i want there to be people who hear it before hearing the original.

Did what you said. Super-hard to imagine this catching in people's ears as did Madonna singles of old but I don't have to imagine it because it obviously ACTUALLY HAS HAPPENED.

u so two thousand and l8

cankles otm.

really, if you haven't heard "poker face" i... i... i... i envy you. <3

i'll take most of the elephunk/monkey business hits over it but "boom boom pow" is pretty peculiar structurally for a gigantic, genuine hit.

― da croupier, Monday, December 21, 2009 11:54 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

a lot of people say this and it always makes me wonder if they remember "Fergalicious"

Walken read the lyrics to "Poker Face" for lols but the treatment would work better with the Owl City song. It has all these choice couplets that make anyone laugh if you just say them straightfaced.

He rhymes "a thousand hugs" with "10,000 lightning bugs."

There used to be a stand-up comedian whose schtick was to read the lyrics from Bad Girls straightfaced to the audience.

"Toot toot. Yeah, beep beep."

was it aziz ansari?

a lot of people say this and it always makes me wonder if they remember "Fergalicious"

there's a reason i said "most"

also that's not on elephunk or monkey business anyway

fair enough. i guess when an artist does something weird and then does it twice, i tend to think of it as more of a formula than an anomaly.

xpost -- yeah but i mean for all intents and purposes a will.i.am-produced Fergie single = BEP

wasn't really questioning your preference of one or the other, just the "peculiar" part

yeah just hit me you're talking about my claim it has a novel structure. but i'll stand by - both have techno beats but "fergilicious" feels a lot more distinct in its verse, chorus, bridge, etc
x

No offense to the US thread, but "Down" is probably this year's biggest single internationally too right?

I heard that song *EVERYWHERE*, like 15 different countries...

wiki estimates 3.6M sales globally?

at the very least both Gaga songs and both BEP songs sold more

the Flo Rida one matched it if not outdid it too

I voted "Boom Boom Pow" which is I think is a fine single, nothing epochal but I enjoyed hearing it when it came on the radio 5000fuckingmillion times this spring. The song I've heard the most, though, in a bunch of countries, blasted in public, is "Right Round", but :( b/c that song is dreadful.

ha ok i mustve subconsciously blocked out the bep - srsly not even aware they had an album this year - all the rest of the songs i know

voted poker face cause be serious its the only good song on the list

black eyed peas' indisputable hugeness somehow doesn't feel huge to me the way other people's hugeness does. by sales and persistent presence, they're obviously one of the biggest acts of the decade, but for me at least they just never come to mind (and i haven't seen them popping up a lot in decade retrospectives). they feel more like sort of placeholder superstars -- they'll do until somebody proper comes along.

its might be because theyre the biggest pile of shit ever and fergies pants are filled w/pee

o hey while im at it whats up w/this vevo shit folks - u go to utube and search for a video and it takes u to some place called vevo where videos pretend to be fully loaded when clearly they are not - i mean come on

lol ice cr?m I was getting pissed off by exactly that just now

hey guys I don't have a TV but I do have a youtube

POKE FACE

i think i only know like four songs on this list by name. right round is hideous, owl city (which i just heard for the 1st time thanks to carles thank you carles) is impossibly more hideous. other ldy gaga is not so good.

oh wait plus empire state is okay

where videos pretend to be fully loaded when clearly they are not - i mean come on

happy to know that it's not my computer!

owl city is really so deeply foul - so much worse even than the bep - i wouldve blocked it out had know wtf it was all abt

YES

i mean can we all get together to agree that this is a profoundly subpar year for #1s in so many diff way - old reliables jay and em basically just suck dick now - nameless fumes of autotune abound - the fuckin black eyed peas x2 in a row - some shit called owl city that is like wtf is that even its prob only there cause of "digital downloads" like people who pay to download shit should have any say that should count against a song cause of stupidity - and the lone bright spot is a new pop star who can be accurately described as "pretty annoying" - just wtf chart youre tryin our patience

i mean can we all get together to agree that this is a profoundly subpar year for #1s in so many diff way

yeah i dont think there's a single person on this board, even the biggest poptimists, who would argue that about 2009's #1s

argue w/ that, that is

as much i can chalk up "whither cultural domination" talk to how much effort it takes to even try to engage with pop as an adult who mostly listens to their ipod and doesn't watch "event" TV, its just a crappy, crappy year for pop. it's especially easy for people to miss stuff when they aren't missing much.

i don't think any of these songs outside of my life and empire are outstanding or anything, but the only one i find intolerable is owl city

it's not even that the music is uniformly hellish (though that can be argued), it's just that there's little to inspire folks who've already got the good jay-z/brit/em and don't feel the need to come to terms with aggro autotune to give most of these songs the dozen or so plays they'd need to hook in. and as it stands, you have to be driven to do it cuz radio/mtv/etc aren't really around to do it for you.

pop burn out isn't a new thing but it's easier than ever to avoid earworms

o hay alicia keys u look dumb stooped over that piano - its not even that impressive lots of people can play one of those

its just so weird jay would even make such a corny ass song after being aspie level concerned w/his legacy for the last 15 years

anyone really that concerned w/his legacy would have retired for more than two years

most of jay's singles for the past 6-7 years have been corny as fuck -- it's more weird that he somehow avoided having one with a big hook people actually like all that time until now

however u feel abt the hook his lyrics and delivery on that song are so by far the lamest shit hes ever done

terrible delivery on that song but really no worse than a lot of songs on BP3

i just mean he's had his pick of any and every beat and chorus money can buy but for years kept fucking around with lifeless tuneless shit like "Blue Magic" and "Lost Ones" just because he could, then mumbles out a few verses over a big shameless Alicia Keys showtune and finally gets the #1 he kept passive-aggressively talking about never having

Why do you keep clowning on "Blue Magic"? I love that song

ladies and gentlemen, the gangsta sub-yankee hotel foxtrot is here

I mean yawn trap rap bandwagon, but that Neps beat is solid

yeah thats an interesting phenomenon in its own right im just having a hard time making it past the jayz sounds like what now phase xp

Also that Jay Sean song almost made my Pazz And Jop ballot, so there

did u digital download owl city

no sweat man just wanted to make clear "I haven't heard any, ain't I cool" is not my kinda look - and anyhow my participation in this thread is actually mainly a viral thing to build excitement for my Christmas album, J0hn D. Sings the #1s of '09

I had to get really fucked up to sing the Owl City one

― Herodcare for the Unborn (J0hn D.), Tuesday, 22 December 2009 02:40 (8 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

Would buy this btw.

i prefer the UK list because at least here we didn't get 3 months of 'I Gotta Feeling' and the really bad stuff (charity songs) doesn't get more than a week or two and is easily ignorable.

"3" is OK. like Poker Face and Boom Boom Pow. Empire State Of Mind is starting to grow on me just for the chorus but meh. Not heard Owl City.

I mean yawn trap rap bandwagon, but that Neps beat is solid

― wordy fappinghood (Whiney G. Weingarten), Tuesday, December 22, 2009 1:46 AM (6 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

'trap rap bandwagon'??? really dude? have you heard a jay-z record?

LOVE:
Lady Gaga, "Just Dance"
Lady Gaga, "Poker Face"
Black Eyed Peas, "Boom Boom Pow"

LIKE A LOT:
Black Eyed Peas, "I Gotta Feeling"
Owl City, "Fireflies"
Jay-Z, "Empire State of Mind"

LIKE:
Kelly Clarkson, "My Life Would Suck Without You"
Flo Rida, "Right Round"

YEAH, WHATEVER:
Eminem, "Crack a Bottle"
Jay Sean, "Down"
Britney Spears, "3"
Jason DeRulo, "Whatcha Say"

I Gotta Feeling >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Boom Boom Pow

yeah, I Gotta Feeling is shamelessly corny and dramatic and full of "moments" but god damn it beats Boom Boom Pow by a million miles

so taylor swift wasnt a #1 this year? fuck this gay earth

I listened to the Black Eyed Peas songs last night for the first time, and man they're generic sounding. Voted Poker Face, but I like the chorus of Empire State of Mind too.

good or bad, I'd hardly accuse either BEP song of genericism

i mean can we all get together to agree that this is a profoundly subpar year for #1s in so many diff way - old reliables jay and em basically just suck dick now - nameless fumes of autotune abound - the fuckin black eyed peas x2 in a row - some shit called owl city that is like wtf is that even its prob only there cause of "digital downloads" like people who pay to download shit should have any say that should count against a song cause of stupidity - and the lone bright spot is a new pop star who can be accurately described as "pretty annoying" - just wtf chart youre tryin our patience

― ice cr?m, Tuesday, December 22, 2009 2:02 AM (9 hours ago) Bookmark

nah gaga owns, bep owns

ure not very 3008

x-post

they sound like songs to help people shop and are reliably catchy, tho I can't actually remember how either of them goes today

srsly memorability isn't really their weak suit: one goes I GOTTA FEELING the other goes BOOM BOOM POW

oh yeah! great tunes

lone bright spot is a new pop star who can be accurately described as "pretty annoying"

;_;

reasons i like Boom Boom Pow and dislike I Gotta Feeling lie as much in their genre affiliation as on their own terms. that said, with BBP i like the opening sound and the way it drifts in, Fergie's OTT "people in the plaayce" moment and a couple of other things whereas i thought nothing stood out about IGF - my own bias of course. The END album pretty much sucks either way imo.

plus is it me or does Fergie get better looking with each video?

"Pokerface", just ahead of "Fireflies".

nah she looks like a cave troll http://img5.travelblog.org/Photos/41153/355915/t/3241924-Phili-s-Cave-Troll-0.jpg

also the BBP video is good for copying the CGI heads thing off Kraftwerk's 'Music Non-Stop'

http://img.skitch.com/20080717-thi2hebitupn2gp5q7enip66du.preview.jpg

i mean can we all get together to agree that this is a profoundly subpar year for #1s in so many diff way - old reliables jay and em basically just suck dick now - nameless fumes of autotune abound - the fuckin black eyed peas x2 in a row - some shit called owl city that is like wtf is that even its prob only there cause of "digital downloads" like people who pay to download shit should have any say that should count against a song cause of stupidity - and the lone bright spot is a new pop star who can be accurately described as "pretty annoying" - just wtf chart youre tryin our patience

― ice cr?m, Tuesday, December 22, 2009 2:02 AM (9 hours ago) Bookmark

nah gaga owns, bep owns

ure not very 3008

― doomed... to fart (cankles), Tuesday, December 22, 2009 11:27 AM (16 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

omg no i am so the most 3008 poster on this whole bord

lol @ poptimists fronting for owl city in any capacity

man these are terrible
i'll be the only one voting for britney i guess

they sound like songs to help people shop and are reliably catchy, tho I can't actually remember how either of them goes today

― Dominique, Tuesday, December 22, 2009 8:28 AM (31 minutes ago)

bitin my tongue over here!

i fail at logic. but also, I have only heard these songs once, and never came close to liking a BEP song before

BEP might be my biggest 'liked that one, haaate this one' type act over the years

BEP is the Kraftwerk of the late 00s.

should i check out their first record then?

lol

their first record is rawkus era backpack rap without rawkus skillz. "joints & jam" is an all-time classic tho

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HJimFvjra78

Probably the best list of American #1s in may years, actually. Electro is slowly taking over the world, and makes even R&B sound better than before.

despite bep being #1 forever, lady gaga seemed to be the most ubiquitous this year. i only heard 'boom boom pow' for the first time when i decided to look it up on youtube, and that was already once 'i've got a feeling' had surpassed it.

i think 'empire state of mind' is the best out of all these songs, but the jay z verses are embarassingly bad AND THEY JUST KEEP GOING ON FOREVER. weird thing is there are like a dozen songs that only hit top-five this year that blow all of these out of the water, it's like somehow people just flipped out over all the wrong songs.

"poker face"... awful year tho

yeah my favorite part of "Empire" is the bridge, and it always irritates me if I keep the song on just to hear it and I get to that third Jay verse and i'm like "christ, really? you again?"

"Poker Face."

Part 35 of an ongoing series. Songs are only included in the first year they reach the top spot. Years covered: 1941 1944 1945 1949 1950 1952 1956 1957 1960 1961 1963 1964 1965 1968 1969 1970 1975 1976 1978 1980 1981 1986 1987 1988 1989 1992 1995 1998 2000 2001 2005 2006 2007 2008

so like can this be a poll too^

lol @ poptimists fronting for owl city in any capacity

Who fronted for Owl City? Everything I've ever read about it, even positive stuff, has been pretty obviously ambivalent.

Tik Tok will be #1 next week, luckily no one here would have voted for it so crisis averted. I would put it on the top half of my list though.

I actually really like "Whatcha Say"

shasta, enbb, and curtis ALL OTM

fireflies is possibly the most horrible thing i have heard all year, and i have heard some horrible things

proof: I have just heard the most horrible thing

I think "Whatcha Say" is the worst of these. At least the other awful ones take a bit to establish their awfulness. "Whatcha Say" just throws it in your face right away.

o i thought that was a new postal service single

upthread I called "Fireflies" the 5th best (or 8th worst) of these songs, I guess that counts as fronting in some capacity, although I think the chorus hook is pretty good and it's only partially as embarrassing as everyone made it seem before I heard it.

I like Watcha Say a lot but the lyrics are like O_o

man that derulo dude is really a wannabe shaffer clone huh

"down" is kind of a cool song but lol jay sean should get better looking/less awkward or stop making music videos

(says the terius stan)

I think "Whatcha Say" is the worst of these. At least the other awful ones take a bit to establish their awfulness. "Whatcha Say" just throws it in your face right away.

I had never gotten far enough into that fukkin boring-ass imogen heap song to hear the part that was sampled for the hook so I didn't really cringe when I first heard it. It's a catchy hook. "Whatcha Say" is basically doing nu-kanye 100x better than nu-kanye

Yeah, the world really needed another "I know I fucked *her* baby but I love *you*" song."

I have no idea what the Imgoen Heap song sounds like. That hook is just blatantly awful, though.

Maybe I should try a different adjective soon.

Yeah, the world really needed another "I know I fucked *her* baby but I love *you*" song."

― uninspired girls rejoice!!! (Hoot Smalley), Thursday, December 24, 2009 12:39 PM (2 hours ago)

it wouldnt make your post any more right, but you might have wanted a couple commas in there somewhere

hahahaha

Uh, how am I wrong? (Substantively, not grammatically).

u are wrong, for wanting to fuck, a baby

fucked, her, baby, gay, awful, house, music

okay, I just listened to the Imogen Heap song and it's just as bad or worse

Hey, DeRulo fucked the baby. I didn't!

whatchoo say?

voted 'whatcha say', it was an interesting moment of cognitive dissonance which after a second of thought made great commercial sense, which for a billboard #1 is good going i reckon

Voted "Empire State of Mind" but I like "Fireflies". I totally prefer upstate to downstate so maybe I should have voted Owl City instead.

(Not that Owl City is from upstate NY or anything.)

songs that peaked at #2 that were just as ubiquitous as any of the #1s and also way better: "Blame It", "Run This Town", "Best I Ever Had"

my sympathies do not lie with derulo in "whatcha say"

So I'm listening to this Fireflies song for the first time. This is the wussiest vocal performance that any human being has ever recorded. "I get a thousand hugs from ten thousand lightning bugs"?

basically

worst #1s ever, boom boom pow obv winner

I get a thousand hugs from a thousand lightning bugs/I smoke the dank nugs/I shop for Persian rugs

shoulda called me in for lyric fixes tbh

i want to touch huge juggs

my sister's dogs are pugs

Eminem has to be incredibly embarrassed about his song being as fucking awful as Owl City

also now I am wishing that fucking song went "I get a thousand hugs/But slap bitches wearing Uggs"

ok I went and listened to this song just out of curiosity

fuck the world tbh

So I'm listening to this Fireflies song for the first time. This is the wussiest vocal performance that any human being has ever recorded. "I get a thousand hugs from ten thousand lightning bugs"?

― Mr. Snrub, Saturday, December 26, 2009 11:12 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark

for some reason this made me lol like hecku

TS: "Fireflies" vs. "A Horse With No Name"

There were plants, and birds, and rocks, and things...

guessing people prefer ersatz neil over ersatz ben

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lvSY4NYkySM

It's twee as fuck, and I'm not claiming it to be great or anything, but I think "Fireflies" is a perfectly decent commercialized Postal Service/Magnetic Fields song. (I kind of need to think of it as a children's song.) I like the synth sounds and the clear unaffected enunciation. My defence of it says more about the competition than it says about Owl City TBH. Perhaps if I were anything close to a Postal Servicen (or even Magnetic Fields) fan, I would hate it the way most people here seem to?

No, I think you're just more immune to how irritating it is; I'm not a huge Postal Service/Magnetic Fields person and every time I hear "Fireflies" I want to give it 1000 punches.

Sure. I mean, Lady Gaga and the Black Eyed Peas often turn me off in a pretty comparable way.

I can explain how angry that fireflies song makes me. Dan OTM. I want to punch the dude singing it so hard. ugh.

oh, never heard:
...
Jason DeRulo, "Whatcha Say"

― ┌∩┐(◕_◕)┌∩┐ (Steve Shasta), Monday, December 21, 2009 6:54 PM (6 days ago)

fyi i hear this song at least once a day since posting this!

I'm not a huge Postal Service/Magnetic Fields person and every time I hear "Fireflies" I want to give it 1000 punches.

― Restless Genital Syndrome (HI DERE), Sunday, December 27, 2009

100% OTM

1000 punches from 10,000 ilxors

slugs, even

i'd like to think that 10,000 ilxors could get in a few more slugs than that

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

My friend was bellydancing at the Renaissance Fair here this year so I went to see her. It was all a bunch of generic instrumentals & then they put on "Boom Boom Pow" and go like absolutely loco on the dancing, which up to then had been pretty bland. After the song ended, one of the dancers said, "We're never getting invited back here again, I hope you liked it!"

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

so u guys mean to tell me that if 'boom boom pow' comes on when yr not drunk in some club somewhere you'll still take it over that owl city song? wow

is that what you mean to tell me? i can't believe you mean to tell me that!

fuck an owl city

The only song here comparable in awfulness to Owl City is Eminem's.

Mr. City has Mr. Derulo to thank for not being the worst shit in this particular toilet

Lady Gaga is that popular? I should give her another try. I just remember those songs as being some monotonous shit.

rah rah rahahahaha

rama ramamaaa

Mr. City has Mr. Derulo to thank for not being the worst shit in this particular toilet

not a booster of that song but it doesn't irritate me nearly as much as Owl City or Eminem do

I'm kind of startled that Jay-Z won this tbh

Yeah the Jay-Z came out of leftfield, who voted for it?

Some neat sock-work with the "you really like BEP for serious not just ironically?" there, takes me right back.

xp i was too at first but looking at the other options you sort of have to either like lady gaga or grudgingly go with jay-z

Big lights will in-spi-ah you!

BEP didn't help themselves with being both super-polarizing and having two incredibly different singles on the list (I sometimes feel like I'm the only poster here who likes both of them).

I hoped that Roboslut Britney would have beaten the two inferior Gaga singles but I knew that wasn't going to happen.

Some neat sock-work with the "you really like BEP for serious not just ironically?" there, takes me right back.

― Shart Habit to Break (Noodle Vague), Tuesday, January 5, 2010 10:43 AM (13 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

yeah it's totally implausible that 18 people on a message board liked the songs that were #1 in the country for literally half of the past year, must be some kind of conspiracy

xpost

Nah I like both BEP singles too. Been playing The E.N.D. quite a bit over the holidays.

I think the hardest I've laughed this year was the first time I heard "Boom Boom Pow" in the car when Fergie does that whole hype thing and ends with "Will.i.am drop the beat now!!!!!!!!" only for, like, a Mortal Kombat soundtrack leftover to start playing (I imagine BEP standing in a huddle grooving back and forth during thi part, high fiving each other and looking "fierce")

Every single track BEP released as a single off of that album is fucking great IMO. I got very stoked when I heard "Imma Be" on the radio in late December.

"Fireflies" is really not all that objectionable to me. The lyrics are probably silly, but so are Ben Gibbard's.

^^^^ what i've been saying all along. "such great heights" may not have any references to hugs but it's still pretty cloying.

I avoid The Postal Service, too!

i think what makes fireflies so objectionable is that the postal service already exists?

already exists, already completely sucks, we don't need them reimagined as a chart-topping popular act

i think what makes fireflies so objectionable is that the postal service already exists?

But I don't get that. If I like the Postal Service's formula, why wouldn't I want to hear something similar?

I agree with the spirit of that argument, but sometimes the popular version of something removes a vital ingredient from the original that keeps the original from being overbearing. Whether that is what happened here is obviously up to the individual listener.

too many fireflies here imo; like maybe eight thousand would be ok

I said this on singles jukebox a while back, but while the voice and bleeps recall postal service, the songwriting on "Fireflies" is really more of a mall-emo thing. it could be an autotuned angels & airwaves remix by BT (Jimmy Tambarello would have given it a more interesting beat). And if Ben Gibbard has lines as bad as "leave my door open just a crack cause i feel like such an insomniac" don't tell me cuz I haven't noticed them.

I'm not saying I like "Fireflies" as much as I do the Postal Service, but the OMG DO NOT WANT line only makes sense to me if you're already predisposed against both.

i dunno, I can see why a Nirvana fan would say OMG DO NOT WANT to Puddle Of Mudd even though I dig both and think they share a lot of qualities. If you like something, you might not want to hear a dumbass ape and homogenize it.

See, to me, the main ingredient that "Fireflies" removes is the precious clever-cleverness of The Postal Service. It packs a little more of a stadium rock punch too.

3xpost

Tik Tok will be #1 next week, luckily no one here would have voted for it so crisis averted. I would put it on the top half of my list though.

― musically, Wednesday, December 23, 2009 4:53 PM (1 week ago)

would have voted for tik tok over the rest of this!

I only realized what song "Tik Tok" was this weekend; whenever I heard it on the radio, it was always at a point when the DJ wasn't announcing what songs were being played.

it was the last #1 of 2009, these preemptive polls are wack.

Not the last #1 of 2009 -- the Billboard issue in which it first hit #1 came out in 2009, but the cover date is Jan. 2, 2010.

Yup. I already explained that upthread.

(isn't there one chart week left?)

― hellzapoppa (tipsy mothra), Monday, December 21, 2009 1:43 PM Bookmark

nope. billboard charts are dated by the end of the upcoming week. last thursday's chart is dated "for the week ending dec. 26th"

― otm da hoosmarker (The Reverend), Monday, December 21, 2009 2:10 PM Bookmark

still seems kinda funny to go on print dates when everyone was going around calling "Tik Tok" the #1 song in the country for the last week of December, though

Eh, not really -- that's the way it's always been.

Can we spend some time talking about "Tik Tok" which is trashy and awesome?

http://www.billboard.biz/bbbiz/content_display/industry/e3idbd92851d6a66e3580b6408e48771dc5

Ke$ha Clocks Her First Hot 100 No. 1
December 23, 2009 - Retail

By Silvio Pietroluongo, N.Y.

Newcomer Ke$ha takes her first solo chart single “TiK ToK” to the top of the Billboard Hot 100 (2-1), set to be released on billboard.biz on Thursday, (Dec. 24). She’s the first female vocalist to rise to No. 1 with her debut single since Lady Gaga stormed the list with “Just Dance” in January 2009.

“TiK ToK” is actually the second Hot 100 No. 1 to feature vocals by the 22-year old. She had a non-credited appearance on Flo Rida’s six-week chart-topper “Right Round” earlier this year. “TiK ToK’ is the first release from Ke$ha’s debut set, “Animal,” which hits retail on January 5.

“TiK Tok” also moves 2-1 on Digital Songs with 221,000 downloads (up 40,000) and is the Digital Gainer on the Hot 100. The song’s weekly total is the highest sum since Britney Spears’ “3” posted 254,000 on the chart dated Oct. 24. “3” remains in the Hot 100 top 10, falling 9-10 this week.

Nothing in that post contradicts what I said.

O, why would he say "earlier this year" instead of "last year"?

Can we spend some time talking about "Tik Tok" which is trashy and awesome?

as trashy famewhore paeans to getting wasted go, it's got nothing on

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Xx6aBfRlUo

tbh ke$ha is beyond the pale even for a famewhore appreciator like me - she doesn't seem to have any sense of rhythm, she sort of lurches around the beat emphasising random words and never quite hits it, which means that the song just isn't remotely catchy, and the autotune slather is just grating.

also when she came over to the uk she apparently pushed past a toilet queue in wherever her showcase gig was to piss in the sink :(

hahahahahahaha

http://community.livejournal.com/ohnotheydidnt/40530466.html

Not really feeling that song btw; it sounds like a Danity Kane reject to me.

I don't disagree with anything you've said re: Ke$ha's sense of rhythm on "TiK ToK" but, given that she sounds like a completely different, actually musical person on "Right Round", I assume that's a stylistic choice.

tbh good on her for apparently living her art, it's a terrible song but i have to kind of respect it for being one of the only pop hits about getting wasted that itself actually sounds drunk

"drink in my cup"!!!

which has the far better video too...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yNlx5WAi8ug

okay yes "Drink In My Cup" is great

O, why would he say "earlier this year" instead of "last year"?

Because the article itself was posted in 2009. Doesn't change the fact that the chart it's referring to is a 2010 chart. It's like car models or fashion lines.

haha id never seen that video before - it's pretty dope - lmao at terius tho

Because the article itself was posted in 2009. Doesn't change the fact that the chart it's referring to is a 2010 chart. It's like car models or fashion lines.

― Hoisin Murphy (jaymc), Tuesday, January 5, 2010 1:12 PM (1 hour ago)

uh.. in fashion you always refer to the season a product refers to (fash: sp10,fa11, etc.) I'd assume the same is true for cars (the 2010 280xz)? analogy fail.xls

let's simplify this with some logic because i have time to kill:
(1)an article written by Billboard on 12/23 says: "Newcomer Ke$ha takes her first solo chart single “TiK ToK” to the top of the Billboard Hot 100 (2-1), set to be released on billboard.biz on Thursday, (Dec. 24)."
(2)if the single hit the top of the charts on 12/23-24, why isn't it reflected as such on the chart that "the Rev" claims closes on 12/26?

http://www.billboard.com/#/charts/hot-100?chartDate=2009-12-26
http://www.billboard.com/#/charts/hot-100?chartDate=2010-01-02

will you shut up now

if the single hit the top of the charts on 12/23-24, why isn't it reflected as such on the chart that "the Rev" claims closes on 12/26?

Because the chart that carries the date 12/26/09 was released on 12/17.

Also:

ROCK AROUND THE CLOCK: A new decade brings a new No. 1 to the Billboard Hot 100, as rookie Ke$ha rises 2-1 with "TiK Tok."

The 22-year-old, born Kesha Rose Sebert, is the first solo female to ascend to the summit with a maiden chart entry since Lady Gaga, who led with "Just Dance," the first new No. 1 of 2009.

(Ke$ha is not credited on Flo Rida's 2009 No. 1 "Right Round," although she sang on the song's chorus).

...

DESIGN OF A DECADE, PT. 1: As this week's charts are dated Jan. 2, 2010, "TiK ToK" earns the honor of first Hot 100 No. 1 of the new decade.

jaymc: i think a more apt analogy would be magazines that are dated for the future but released a month early.

hi dere: gargle on my left nut. i understand what charted when, just not why billboard would be publishing such vague press.

i think a more apt analogy would be magazines that are dated for the future but released a month early.

Well, that's hardly an analogy. Weekly magazines are like ... monthly magazines!

zmg replace the first "magazines" with "weekly retail sales charts" and i think you're totally on to something!!!11 and here as a reward, you can gargle on my right nut.

who wants to gargle shasta's dick? real estate over there is getting snapped up in an instant? this one is a hot property!

lady gagargle

"weekly retail sales charts"

...that are published in magazines. (And you mean sales/airplay charts, since this isn't the U.K.) I mean, maybe it's just because back in junior high, I used to go to the public library and Xerox the Hot 100, but I think of the chart first and foremost as the property of the magazine, even if the magazine has an online component that puts out press releases in advance of each issue's publication.

that drink in my cup song is really good lex!

this thread was better before the argument about how magazines are dated fyi

haha matt, electrik red's album has been the r&b crew's hype of choice for the past 6 months! check it, it's all as good as that -

Electrik Red- How to be a Lady Vol.1 Terius 'n' Tricky make girl-pop magic
Electrik Red - How To Be A Lady: Vol. 1 - P is for Poll

ah yeah i remember seeing some posting abt electrik red but tbh i don't really check much of the rnb threads, i should do that more often i guess

tbh good on her for apparently living her art, it's a terrible song but i have to kind of respect it for being one of the only pop hits about getting wasted that itself actually sounds drunk

― some dude, Tuesday, January 5, 2010 3:43 PM (4 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

"drink in my cup"!!!

― lex pretend, Tuesday, January 5, 2010 3:48 PM (4 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

Yes, yes, yes. Love Drink in My Cup, except EXCEPT it is not about being drunk. Drink in My Cup is about Cough Syrup is it not? Between all the DRANK and the occasional screwed vocals and the generally woozy beat, it seemed to be a paean to sizzurp.

it's more of an all-encompassing paean to substances generally!

including the booze that plays a significant role in the video

Shasta, if I was going to do that, I'd have to be consistent and adjust all these polls by a week, which not only have I not done in the past, but isn't worth worrying about for the sake of satisfying some pedant. If the wikipedia page, which goes by official chart dates, says something reached #1 on a specific date, then that's the date on which it reached #1 for the purposes of these polls.

it's more of an all-encompassing paean to substances generally!

― lex pretend, Wednesday, January 6, 2010 1:18 AM (1 hour ago) Bookmark

it's just depressing because i know in my heart of hearts that i was pumping the jam all new years eve of 2009 to the #1 song in the country and some database librarian is trying to take this away from me.

u so two thousand and l8

― doomed... to fart (cankles), Tuesday, December 22, 2009 1:20 PM (1 month ago) Bookmark

ot fucking m

i would like to change my vote to "whatcha say"