US #1s of 2010

I'm torn between Rihanna songs.

"OMG" over "California Gurls"

with the exception of Ke$ha, the most depressing list of my lifetime.

Ke$ha is the worst artist on this list by far. Worse than Far East Movement.

with the exception of ke$ha?

"Tik Tok and "We R Who We R" are the only ones I'm okay about.

I'm torn between Rihanna songs.
― The Reverend, Thursday, December 16, 2010 2:16 PM (3 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

ke$ha is the worst artist of 2010

the only songs here i totally fux with are

1. rude boy
2. like a g6

then we have to go quite tenuous to say anything positive

- i adore the k. michelle cover/remix of "nothin' on you", i think i've been pimping this all year but it really is special
- i think i would like "california gurls" if someone else was singing it
- spending time in miami made me cave into "only girl (in the world)" a bit, or at least get it stuck in my head all the time
- the cooly g remix of "tik tok" is ok
- i didn't hate "imma be" the first few times i heard it
- i loved it when cher lloyd did "nothin' on you" and "love the way you lie" on the x factor

surely it gets better next year?

nah

ke$ha katy perry is the worst artist of 2010 the decade

ke$ha is the worst artist of 2010

― The Reverend, Thursday, December 16, 2010 8:22 PM (1 minute ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

yes. i actually half-expected her to redeem herself à la gaga but she's as intolerable as ever

kinda regret not voting for "rude boy" now

top ten ranked:

Ke$ha, "Tik Tok"
Rihanna, "Rude Boy"
Katy Perry, "Teenage Dream"
Ke$ha, "We R Who We R"
Rihanna, "Only Girl in the World"
Usher, "OMG"
Eminem, "Not Afraid"
Katy Perry, "California Gurls"
Pink, "Raise Your Glass"
Eminem, "Love the Way You Lie"

worst:

Far East Movement, "Like a G6"

How many of these will get any votes?

There are 6 of these like a lot (the 3 Rihanna songs, "California Gurls", "Teenage Dream", "Like a G6"), 3 I'm more or less ambivalent about (BEP, Taio, "Just the Way You Are"), 5 I dislike but usually wouldn't turn off if they came on the radio (B.o.B, "OMG", "Love the Way You Lie", Pink, "Firework") and 3 that are the worst shit ever (both Ke$has, "Not Afraid").

Not the worst rate ever.

top 5
1. Rude Boy
2. Teenage Dream
3. California Gurls
4. Nothin' On You
5. Raise Your Glass

bottom 5
5. OMG
4. Not Afraid
3. Tik Tok
2. Firework
1. Love The Way You Lie

"Nothin' On You" would be my second choice, followed closely by "California Gurls". Pretty sure I could live my life happily without hearing any of the rest ever again.

Either of the Ke$has or "Rude Boy".

Was thinking Taio maybe, but no.

read this line by Maura in the VV today, totally agree (against all odds):

Eminem's "Not Afraid" sounded like he went into the studio to try and remake "All the Young Dudes" as a semi-inspirational anthem -- and succeeded.

i'll take all three of the rihanna solo singles before anything else on the list, and "rude boy" is by far the best of those.

imo "Rude Boy" stands so so so tall above the other Rihannas

really surprised alfred doesn't like "teenage dream", i would imagine it being right up his alley tbh.

maura why

Voting Far*East; "Tik Tok" second place.

I like "Like a G6" insofar as the na-na-na-na-na stuttery part sounds like Stacey Q

Or Latin freestyle. But that makes the song for me.

i wish the dudes' rapping wasn't so BEP-level lame in "like a g6" - if it was just a bit better i think i could really love it quite a lot

the chorus is classic 4eva obv. SLIZZARD

or SLIZZERED, who knows

really surprised alfred doesn't like "teenage dream", i would imagine it being right up his alley tbh.

Her voice is the ugliest, most unerotic thing in pop; and the staccato chorus is like getting kicked repeatedly in the shins.

2nd best mc hammer reference of the year xp

uchkhkkhhhh

pink maybe i guess?

i feel like the genre most of these songs are in should be called "shitsco"

I heard "Only Girl in the World" in a supermarket recently & thought it was the worst thing I'd heard in some time---I couldn't place the artist & was shocked to learn it was Rihanna. What an awful monochromatic mess.

seriously, it bums me out that that song eventually triumphed on the charts

i feel like being opposed to big, brash mersh-dance at this point is kind of pointless? xxp

lol @ me, I actually like/don't mind most of these songs:

Ke$ha, "Tik Tok"
Black Eyed Peas, "I'mma Be"
Taio Cruz, "Break Your Heart"
Rihanna, "Rude Boy"
B.o.B, "Nothin' on You"
Katy Perry, "California Gurls"
Eminem, "Love the Way You Lie"
Katy Perry, "Teenage Dream"
Bruno Mars, "Just the Way You Are"
Far East Movement, "Like a G6"
Ke$ha, "We R Who We R"
Rihanna, "What's My Name"
Rihanna, "Only Girl in the World"
Pink, "Raise Your Glass"

I have no ill will towards any of these and actively enjoy most of them.

Usher, "OMG"
Eminem, "Not Afraid"
Katy Perry, "Firework"

These are the fucking end of the world and should be destroyed immediately.

oh wait i'm just now hearing the LIKE THREE SIX remix of "like a g6" - hurrah this gets rid of lots of the bad rapping

"only girl in the world" took me a minute to get but i pretty much openly love it now

xpost don't even know if I'm opposed to it per se, worse things in the world. Shitsco just feels apt.

i'll take shitsco over butt rock, i mean

three Katy Perry songs? Damn.

I voted for Tik Tok, I actually listen to this on my own for enjoyment which is not applicable to any other song there. The Rihanna tracks are so sad and un-fun.

surmounter made you feel like it's the only song in the world, like it's the only one that you've ever loved

(xpost)

i think i'm voting for "what's my name" on account of the drakeless edit i made for myself.

i do think the three rihanna songs are better than anything else here

Ke$ha is the worst artist on this list by far. Worse than Far East Movement.

― o tannenbaum, o judge (crüt), Thursday, December 16, 2010 12:20 PM (23 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

..........

Voting Far*East; "Tik Tok" second place.

― xhuxk, Thursday, December 16, 2010 12:34 PM (9 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

I like "Like a G6" insofar as the na-na-na-na-na stuttery part sounds like Stacey Q

― o tannenbaum, o judge (crüt), Thursday, December 16, 2010 12:34 PM (8 minutes ago)

LOLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL

oh yeah I forgot Drake was on "What's My Name", I guess I do actually have ill will towards that song but I never change the channel when I come across it on the radio (usually because Drake's part is already over, ha)

I guess this is the second year I'll be voting for Tik Tok as #1 of the year. ;-)

there was definitely a widely available drakeless edit of "what's my name?" going around. it's obviously better but the song's still kinda boring.

naw, it's like "rude boy" without the sneer. i like her better without the sneer.

top 5

1. we r who we r
2. teenage dream
3. what's my name
4. rude boy
5. only girl in the world

bottom 5

5. just the way you are
4. raise your glass
3. nothin on you
2. love the way you lie
1. not afraid

naw, it's like "rude boy" without the sneer. i like her better without the sneer.

b-b-b-but if there's anyone who is genetically predisposed to having an awesome sneer, it's Foghorn Fenty

i dunno. i love "rude boy" but i don't quite buy it.

btw can i just point out how much it pains me to see people whose tastes generally overlap with mine endorsing ke$ha?

btw can i just point out how much it pains me to see people whose tastes generally overlap with mine endorsing ke$ha?

i know right, it's been going on all year ;_;

"we r who we r" has a sick chorus, sorry

http://cache2.asset-cache.net/xc/53379549.jpg?v=1&c=IWSAsset&k=2&d=E41C9FE5C4AA0A14940C885E97E770A0F249808EDCE544D4EB6976385B539F83B01E70F2B3269972

"we r who we r" has a sick chorus, sorry

as in, she sounds like she's vomiting? again?

Not endorsing Ke$ha; I'm doing what I did in 2004 with John Kerry.

"Like A G6" was the first billboard #1 for an artist of Asian descent in 47 years, since Kyu Sakamoto's "Sukiyaki" in 1963.

This can't be right...?

as in, she sounds like she's vomiting? again?

― lex diamonds (lex pretend), Thursday, December 16, 2010 12:59 PM Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

rly tho

the melody and vocal of "What's My Name" are kind of unpleasantly hammering to me. i know if i hear it once it'll be stuck in my head annoying me for the rest of the day.

"we r who we r" sounds like it was written expressly to demonstrate how annoying she can make the letter R sound

i recently decided that i really like "like a g6" so prob that

it's one of "rude boy", "like a g6" or "teenage dream" i think

i never feel more misogynist than when a kesha song is playing, sorry

Most of these songs seem written to demonstrate how annoying young women can sound.

foxy brown identified has half-asian, was on "ain't no nigga"

ITT ILM posters suddenly get really old

which wasn't a #1 hit xp

the melody and vocal of "What's My Name" are kind of unpleasantly hammering to me

My problem with "Teenage Dream," "Not Afraid," "Only Girl in the World," and "Raise Your Glass."

pop doesn't have to be subtle, guys

wow "firework" is as brutal as you guys suggest

i can usually be moved by something well done, and 'firework' is pretty immaculately constructed, but... it starts with an 'american beauty' ref and keeps going downhill from there

wouldn't name subtlety as one of the virtues of my top 5 upthread

i just mean like the "HEY BOOOY" and "OOH NA NA NA NA" are the kind of earworms that i want out of my head as soon as they get in there, and the bridge of "What's My Name" is just hellish and incongruous

voted for "Teenage Dream"

I gotta go Peas on this. "Imma Be" is dope "A Milli" rip and I pretty much like every "A Milli" rip

the "don't ever look back" line in "teenage dream" reminds me of something that was a hit when i was a kid. whitney houston? seems like a slightly out-of-date kind of pop belting.

i mean, it's three notes, could be anything, but it's kind of driving me nuts

"OOH NA NA NA NA" is my favorite part :o

Like Ke$ha, the first two Katy Perry songs, the first two Rihanna songs, the rest I just kinda shrug at.

the "don't ever look back" line in "teenage dream" reminds me of something that was a hit when i was a kid. whitney houston? seems like a slightly out-of-date kind of pop belting.

"Boys of Summer"?

Don Henley def knows something about teenage dreams

90% of "a milli" rips suck ("i'mma be" is ok)

"Imma Be" song makes my skin jump with revulsion as i reach for the radio dial. feel like we could have a poll thread about "A Milli" rips but there must be thousands now.

this list is so much better than last year's: US #1s of 2009

holy lols

who voted for "Crack A Bottle"?????????????????????

man why the fuck wasn't "airplanes" a #1? can anyone tell me what blocked it?

"Rude Boy" is the least awful song on this list.

this list is really like 20x better than last year's, def

i'm a huge fan of "fireworks" -- had no idea it was so hated

"OMG" blocked "Airplanes" from #1

srsly fuck "OMG"

wow o wow

shoot it in the face like POW POW POW

it's the content really. songs have an imagined context/audience. seems like that one is designed to be the finale for every senior graduation slide show.

xp re "fireworks"

it's katy at her most obnoxiously shouty (which is saying something) and i hate self esteem songs

"OMG" blocked "Airplanes" from #1

― some dude, Thursday, December 16, 2010 4:29 PM (1 minute ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

oh really? i was just fucking with billboard's weird visualizer and it seems like it was california gurls

cali gurls i'm ok with, but if it was omg then fuck that just fuck it

you might be right cad...the wiki entry said "OMG" blocked it but since "OMG" directly followed "Nothin' On You" to #1 that seems unlikely. maybe "OMG" was just the #1 the week "Airplanes" had a big iTunes sales surge or something.

literally could not give a shit about anything except two of the kesha joints and two of the perry joints - fuk music

guys the song is called "Firework," stop trying to make it seem slightly less punchable by calling it "Fireworks"

that's my fault, sorry

if it were the way i sing it in the car (that is, "fuck your butt" instead of "fie yur work") it would better all around

wait this pink song really uses "why so serious" as a lead-in to the chorus?

god i hate pink. i hate pink so much.

reading the lyrics to "Firework"...this seems less 'motivational' than 'a recruitment theme song for terrorist organizations'

by my count, the credits break down like this

dr. luke: 4 (teenage dream, california gurls, tik tok, we r who we r)
stargate: 4 (firework, rude boy, what's my name, only girl in the world)
max martin: 2 (raise your glass, california gurls)
will.i.am: 2 (imma be, omg)
the smheezingtons: 2 (nothin on you, just the way you are)
alex da kid: 1 (love the way you lie)
boi 1-da: 1 (not afraid)
the cataracs: 1 (like a G6)
taio cruz: 1 (break your heart)

xp the video seriously features, like, a fat girl in her underwear jumping into a pool, as some kind of affirmation.

if it were the way i sing it in the car (that is, "fuck your butt" instead of "fie yur work") it would better all around

― goole, Thursday, December 16, 2010 3:35 PM (2 minutes ago) Bookmark

i'm sure that katy perry is pissed that the song doesn't actually go like this

teenage ream

"Baby you're a fuck your butt"????

lol, we could do a separate t/s

which song became more offensive when it tried to attach itself to IT GETS BETTER

- we r who we r
- firework

oh jesus

Haha ok Jay Sean FROM LAST YEAR is of Indian descent. I knew that factoid up thread was jacked.

the funny thing about "firework" is that it's pretty much a rip off of kelis' "fourth of july" which of course no one cared about

well I would have to say "Firework" because encouraging bullied gay teens to blow themselves up isn't very nice

Haha ok Jay Sean FROM LAST YEAR is of Indian descent. I knew that factoid up thread was jacked.

― i love you but i have chosen snarkness (Steve Shasta), Thursday, December 16, 2010 3:40 PM (6 seconds ago) Bookmark

shasta we had this exact discussion like two months ago

i think "i'm not afraid" should have attached itself to it gets better

and i hate self esteem songs

― call all destroyer, Thursday, December 16, 2010 1:31 PM Bookmark

goes for "not afraid", too

yup!

ok, just checking

i think "rude boy" should have tried to attach itself to it gets better

lot of "omg" hate itt -- it's been played out for sure, but at the time it seemed like the song of 2010. it definitely seems try-hard listening to it now: the soccer chanting, generic club synth, over-autotuned production, weak verses, etc. it just came at the right time, i guess

never heard "firework" before, don't know how i missed it but i'm not that upset

teenage ream

bad mental image............

lot of "omg" hate itt -- it's been played out for sure, but at the time it seemed like the song of 2010

No it didn't! At the time, it sounded like a weak BEP reject that shouldn't have even been a b-side, let alone a lead single. The problem is that lots of people went "lol 'boobies'" and the fucking thing wouldn't just die already.

yeah, i dont think it ever sounded like the song of the year

yeah but you thought tapes 'n' tapes made the song of the year, amirite?

it sucked when it came out

i mean it definitely doesn't sound like anything special now. it was just so ubiquitous at the time that it's hard to separate it from the associated time period, if that makes sense

basically my first reaction to the song was "Oh Oh Oh-Oh Oh-Oh SHUT THE FUCK UP"

*drives car off cliff*

Out of a not very stylistically varied list, I am picking "The Only Girl In The World". Rihanna has made some rather great pop songs lately.

lol

don't agree with geir's pick but he's right, most of these overall do sound stylistically similar

I love this list. The cream and the shit, virtually indistinguishable.

I know it to be so when I'm considering voting BEPs.

it is kinda on some minute variations ish. no wacky outliers like owl city

"Dynamite" should be on this list ;_;

"California Gurls" was my number 1 bump in the car song of 2010 though so I expect I'll vote for that.

My only real issue with "OMG" is that it's such a waste of Usher.

Like A G6" was the first billboard #1 for an artist of Asian descent in 47 years, since Kyu Sakamoto's "Sukiyaki" in 1963.

This can't be right...?

Yvonne Elliman of Saturday Night Fever fame is half-Asian and scored a number one with "If I Cant Have You" in 1978.

My only real issue with "OMG" is that it's such a waste of Usher.

I wish "There Goes My Baby" had been a bigger pop crossover.

I honestly loved "California Gurls" without ever listening to the lyrics, then made the mistake of doing that. I have no similar excuse for "Firework," but there it is in my Top 10 after hating it at first then always wanting it next on the radio. I'd defend "Love the Way You Lie," nothing else here made much of an impression.

Paula Abdul is half-Syrian and Freddie Mercury is from Zanzibar. They've had number ones. I'll shut up now.

the Asian island of Zanzibar!

(yeah, I know he's of Persian descent)

i love "OMG" -- i think the fact that it sounds exactly like BEP and nothing like contemporary usher is a good thing!

that's a fun song imo & it's catchy as fuck, idk -- NO HERBO but i've been known to pop & lock to the "oh oh oh oh/ uh oh oh oh" part

i'm not really sure if there's agl available for usher at the moment, but "rejected by apl.de.ap and taboo" sure as hell isn't it

i feel like i would have no idea what would win a poll of usher's singles from the 'raymond vs. raymond' album & beyond, so i'm gonna poll them

haha i've been thinking of doing that for a minute

1) teenage dream
2) tik tok
3) rude boy
4) omg
5) break your heart
...
13) raise your glass
14) just the way you are
15) love the way you lie
16) firework
17) not afraid

surely it is no coincidence that the titles of 14 and 15 line up perfectly

my biggest disappointment with "firework" is that the big girl who jumps in the pool makes such a wimpy splash :(

I don't dislike any of these. The two most recent Rihannas are a bit of a yawn and i can take or leave Eminem. Otherwise, tick VG. Voted Ke$ha.

if ke$ha wins this i'm SBing you all

rev, buddy, i will stan for rihanna any day, but ke$ha was soooo much more thrilling in 2010

(and i *hated* her until mid-year or so)

i don't even stan for rihanna, she just put out better songs than anyone else on this list. ke$ha makes me want to arm myself for the coming apocolypse.

really, i can't even stand her for 2 seconds.

she makes me feel like 15 alex in nycs

wtf is "thrilling" about ke$ha

rihanna made one of the year's most underwhelming/disappointing albums and STILL beats her easily

Ke$ha for life!

in prison

What a bizarre set of songs. Voted G6 because it has the fewest elements that actively piss me off.

I still can't listen to "Firework" and not hear "let your callus burst." I'm sorry.

"OMG" = still the most depressing song of 2010, and that's with "Rude Boy," "Only Girl" and Eminem in the running.

I've only heard "Firework" a couple of times and so whenever I read the title I think of Drake's "Fireworks."

rev, buddy, i will stan for rihanna any day, but ke$ha was soooo much more thrilling in 2010

(and i *hated* her until mid-year or so)

― i genuinely thought when i first joined that he was the admin (ilxor), Friday, December 17, 2010 9:25 AM (1 hour ago) Bookmark

i'll stump for "we r who we r" as a classic, but no

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

rev, buddy, i will stan for rihanna any day, but ke$ha was soooo much more thrilling in 2010

The only reason to stand up for Rihanna would be her output from 2007 onwards. Not much to boast about before that.

I didn't use to be into Stargate before, but the way they have managed to improve American pop R&B by making it way more melodic and 80s influenced is no less than impressive.

how do i install killfile?

this was a fun thread

geir you're an idiot

rihanna hasn't been r&b since 2007 anyway

i love geir saying that someone with a 6 year career has 'only' been noteworthy for the last 4 of them, like woah dude, thanks for the bold statement

what's my name w/o drake would be the best for sure. idk, for a second there it seemed like they had cut him out of the single version? i remember that youtube

kind of weird to see people who're not rejecting all of these songs out of hand having such strong feelings about one or two in particular. i feel like with this stuff you either take it or leave it, seems kind of retarded to like "like a g6" & to actively hate, like, "omg" or w/e. at first i was pretty repulsed by this style & how ubiquitious it was suddenly, (obv it is not new but i think is the year it really dominated the world). but a lot of these are big jams & eventually you just have to accept that a jam is a jam

uhhh doesn't that just mean ppl are listening more closely than you

songs of similar style can be of varying quality

strange concept, i know

i mean there are definitely songs here i like less than others & have less of an effect on me, obviously there is variation and if i was in the mood i could make a list or whatever, but i don't think there is such extreme variation in quality going on aside from eminem which is kind of different anyways

like i can understand someone saying something like alfred's first post, but i don't rly get djp's

don't want to speak for djp but that may be called "exaggerating for effect"

alfred's post is way more o_O to me than dan's

it's like when people like early beatles singles but randomly hate "please please me" or someting. i dont get that shit

LIKE A CHEESESTICK LIKE A CHEESESTICK LIKE A CHEESESTICK

also i take offence to accusations of not listening closely since i have been exposed to like 30 hours of top 40 radio per week
since i started working my job in april & i think i rly took advantage of the billions of times i heard each one of these

flattening effect imo

ha, good point

if 'teenage dream' had slightly better production or if it came out at a time when the default sound was a little more attractive to me i could really like it, it's like the song equiv of a butterface which is fitting i guess. 'rude boy' is the only rihanna up there that's not awful imo. that and 'like a g6' are the only ones up there i like really, the katy perrys the only other ones i can fucking stand really. looking at that list lady gaga's vorp is thru the roof.

rihanna hasn't been r&b since 2007 anyway

I suppose most other major R&B acts haven't either then. Thanks to Stargate and Lady Gaga's influence.

Not that that is a bad thing in any possible way, but note then that I suppose you didn't think Michael Jackson or Lionel Richie were R&B in the 80s either.

not difficult to see that Rihanna has been a pop artist for the last few years

its difficult if you're some aspie nazi living at the north pole

Geirbbels

geirbbels claus

not difficult to see that Rihanna has been a pop artist for the last few years

Hasn't mainstream R&B been pop for the past 10 years anyway?

here's another example

R&B: There You Go by Pink
Not R&B: Like a Pill by Pink

Pink started out doing a few R&B songs, but thankfully soon left R&B behind forever and became powerpop instead. A good move obv.

sweet cool geir derail u guys

a thought i have been percolating about pop music 2010 & my perplexity at my own enjoyment of a lot of it is that while stylistically it's between somewhat- to considerably repulsive it's still often functionally very good & the songs are undeniably effective. kind of like how i love stylish and cool sounding rock bands yet sometimes you are just moved to rock out by some totally corny stuff because compositionally it's got it right and it just compels you to rock out. that's how i feel about this stuff. production-wise, vocal style-wise, i can't honestly advocate against its destruction, but the huge melodies are there and they work

flopson and jetsam

I suppose most other major R&B acts haven't either then. Thanks to Stargate and Lady Gaga's influence.

first of all, tons of major acts have been decidedly r&b -- trey songz, ne-yo, the-dream, monica, keyshia cole etc i really don't need to go on

secondly, you're acting like every stargate production is totally 80s euro pop -- they do straight r&b productions as well

flopson's post is bordering a bit too much on "guilty pleasure!" for me

Pop music in 2009-10 has been better than it has been for ages. Other than the mid 90s Britpop boom (which was always an outsider genre to the rest of what was going on in the hitlists even then), this may be the best era for plain mainstream pop since the mid 80s. Because it sounds like the mid 80s.

It still needs to tone down the exaggerated compression a big, big bit, and trying to write original songs instead of copying Lady Gaga might also be a good idea, But the general mid 80s feel of recent pop makes it better than for a very, very long time.

maybe switch out ne-yo for t-pain in my post, even tho ne-yo has had his fair share of straightlaced r&b hits obv

first of all, tons of major acts have been decidedly r&b -- trey songz, ne-yo, the-dream, monica, keyshia cole etc i really don't need to go on

Those acts aren't crossing over to our market anymore at all. They used to when R&B was popular here, but the kids here are not into R&B anymore, so they get ignored.

R&B will of course never disappear, but the best it could do was to disappear back into the obscurity of the R&B charts and stay there without ever crossing over to the pop market. About time it also takes hip-hip with it the same way though.

hip-hop even

drake, another example

i guess i'm just not that concerned about what crosses over into sweden

I mean, the more hip-hop influenced R&B style pioneered by the likes of Mary J. Blige existed in the US market for more or less the entire 90s, but didn't really cross over to the European market until the very end of the 90s.

flopson's post is bordering a bit too much on "guilty pleasure!" for me

― a snooki and a killer (J0rdan S.), Wednesday, December 29, 2010 10:24 PM (3 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

i have to admit the almost suffocating vibe of desperate clubbing permeating almost that entire list does capture what 2010 felt like all too well. it's like a concept album based on sorry i missed yr party.

"We R Who We R" just ahead of "Rudeboy"

i think judging american pop on how it crosses over to tiny european countries is a bit foolhardy, but w/e

flopson's post is bordering a bit too much on "guilty pleasure!" for me

― a snooki and a killer (J0rdan S.), Wednesday, December 29, 2010 10:24 PM (3 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

nah its not like that, at least i feel like it's not. although, whatever, cant front like im more popist than i am. words spoken thus far have been from the heart and i feel my appreciation is genuine

i just think that this year pretty some bad luck w/ production trends was salvaged by really great writing and using the style for what it does best, unabashed bangers with a lot of thump & huge melodies

Apart from the Brits' two golden pop ages in the mid 60s and early 80s, American pop has always crossed over here to the European market to a dominant extent, only with R&B mostly doing not so well in Europe as in the US. The thing now, however, is the UK seems to be completely lost in terms of managing to coming up with exportable talent (blame Pop Idol and its likes!), so it is actually strange if what gets popular in the US doesn't come here. Simply becase the UK has hardly anything to offer at all until the Brits (and all other Nations) quit these stupid reality talent shows and start searching for more unique pop talent instead.

i do think that housey dr. luke stuff was way better this year, but i don't know why that was

geir i don't really think you're gonna be able to convince anyone here that what cracks latvian top 40 or whatever remotely fucking matters.

i mean seriously xhuck's "i went to an fye in idaho and they said they sell more bob seger than rihanna!" spiel is stronger.

geir i don't really think you're gonna be able to convince anyone here that what cracks latvian top 40 or whatever remotely fucking matters.

But the UK chart does, and even with a lack of home talent, the Brits tend to go for the same 80s influenced hits that the rest of Europe does.

wtf are you guys even arguing him for -- Bush isn't president anymore!

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

Ke$ha, "Tik Tok" 15

smh

Yeah, especially when We R Who We R is in the running as well. Shoulda been flipped.

Tik Tok got robbed. <3 Rih, but this was Ke$ha's year.

i don't understand the thought that "we r who we r" is better than "tik tok." "tik tok" is... awesome. it bombards the listener line after line with lyrics that will invariably piss you off and make you weep for the world or make you laugh, depending on who you are. "we r who we r," on the other hand, has lyrics about "making hipsters fall in love." "tik tok" deserves every one of its 15 votes AND MORE (though i didn't vote for it so idk why i care enough to defend it).

Lyrics aside, I just think "We R" is a better-constructed song. *shrug*

you guys are just arguing about different layers of hell

i have to admit the almost suffocating vibe of desperate clubbing permeating almost that entire list does capture what 2010 felt like all too well. it's like a concept album based on sorry i missed yr party.

― balls, Wednesday, December 29, 2010 9:30 PM (2 days ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

haha "2010: desperate clubbing" is about right

yeah

it's like what clubbing is like in the imaginations of 11 year old girls who can't wait to be sluts

2011 rolling pop thread should be called "desperate clubbing"

2010: House finally breaks US mainstream?

1990: house finally breaks us mainstream

2010: the repercussions of jersey shore

1990: house finally breaks us mainstream

lol, had no idea that Maxi Priest song went to #1.

not much house here
― Siegbran, Saturday, January 1, 2011 12:19 PM (5 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

vogue? plus there were tons of mainstream house hits then that may not have gone #1 but were all over the charts

Deeeeeeee groovy

Am I missing anything here?

05. Vogue » Madonna Madonna - The Immaculate Collection - Vogue
13. Pump Up The Jam » Technotronic Technotronic - Pump Up the Jam - The Album - Pump Up the Jam
42. Back To Life » Soul II Soul Soul II Soul - Volume I - Keep on Movin' - Back to Life
73. Get Up! (Before The Night Is Over) » Technotronic Technotronic - Pump Up the Jam - Get Up! (Before the Night Is Over)
81. Everybody Everybody » Black Box
85. C'mon And Get My Love » D-Mob With Cathy Dennis

vogue? plus there were tons of mainstream house hits then that may not have gone #1 but were all over the charts

The airplay factor in the American charts made it virtually impossible for house songs to go #1. "Pump Up The Volume" apparently was one of the bestselling singles of 1987 in the US, yet was nowhere close to the top of the charts.

twist what geir says and you have a semblance of a point - late 80s thru some point this century adult contemporary airplay is a crucial element for hitting #1, not absolutely necessary but not having it would present a challenge. if you can get ac airplay AND cross over to r&b radio (or more likely vice versa) you can dominate the #1 spot - then you're boyzIImen, you're whitney houston, you're mariah carey to an extent. r. kelly chased this demon from 'i believe i can fly' until the tape broke. that model isn't really present above and ac just isn't the factor it was; the hugest ac songs of 2010 - lady antebellum, train - peaked just shy of #1 (and they were HUGE on ac - the ac still does #1s like the 90s, huge 14 week runs and shit), same thing w/ 2009 (taylor swift, jason mraz). the last ac #1 to also top the hot 100 was 'bleeding love', that last one before that was 'bad day'. i'm not sure the last time someone had a #1 w/ the ac/r&b model but my guess is 'we belong together' (who has the #1 ac song at the moment btw). my guess is w/ boomers (finally) aging themselves out of being a demo anyone would want to program towards radio has shifted toward millenials w/ power hot 100 type stations, which tend to play the above and generally just the above on a loop. there is no way something like 'like a g6' hits #1 in 1987 or 1997, but in 2010 it's not remotely surprising.

^^good post

"pump up the jam" was a #2 hit in the US, and as i just posted, the 13th biggest hit of 1990

oh n/m i read that wrong. "pump up the volumje", not "pump up the jam"

that one hit #13

I don't think you need to reach the adult contemporary audiences, but you need for radio DJs to feel that the song fits on the car stereo or whatever, not just in the clubs. Which obviously was no advantage for house music.

geir what was the last year the 3 biggest ac hits didn't hit #1 and what was the last year before that the 3 biggest hot 100 hits didn't cross over to ac? also lol at 'radio djs' having any role in what gets played on the radio since at least 10 years before house music existed. get a clue son.

note: when referring to radio i'm reffering to american radio. not really looking to go into yr whole 'the billboard hot 100 is primarily influenced by latvian radio' theory again.

also soundscan changed everything right after 1990. no more "shipped = sales" BS that the industry perpetuated.

http://991.com/newgallery/Stakka-Bo-Here-We-Go-303129.jpg

sub in playlist directors for djs and geir's post still works

true, that's more of an impact on the album charts (where the industry was shocked to learn that actually country and rap and metal are crazy popular), but stuff like 'wild thing', 'push it', 'pump up the volume', 'pump up the jam', etc would've only benefited from more accurate accounting. tbh i know alot of ppl hate the us singles charts weighing airplay but i actually prefer that model to the uk model, definitely more accurate measure of 'what is the biggest song in america this week', more honest account of how ppl actually encounter/engage w/ music. obv it could be tweaked and other factors maybe weighed but it seems less prone to distortion than the uk chart.

house music has always sounded fine on my car (factory) stereo, no idea what you ppl are driving. loudness wars comes into it somewhat i guess - nonjersey shore house uses a different sonic palette than the above and even if it started putting out 'lost my job/getting drunk tonight/yay' songy songs w/ whatever the deephouse equiv of uffie would be there's still no way wolf + lamb steez hits top 40. it's funny but back when the ed banger bloghouse shit first hit i found it really fun and refreshing, was the first dj in athens to play 'd.a.n.c.e.' (when it was a demo, who wants to touch me etc) and was very happy when it blew up, and didn't hesitate to defend this stuff to my minimal loving friends that hated this shit even more than they hated dfa shit, and now it's a few years later and that shit is ALL you hear in the club (in athens at least), on the radio, at parties to an extent, and i feel like i'm some guy that pushed hitler out of the way of an oncoming car in 1929 or something.

geir what was the last year the 3 biggest ac hits didn't hit #1 and what was the last year before that the 3 biggest hot 100 hits didn't cross over to ac?

In the US, it seems to me that at least the past 10 years have been largely about hits crossing over from the R&B charts. The 80s were different though, by then it was AOR that dominated the US market. Which is related to adult contemporary, but not quite, as AOR "rocked" more than adult contemporary would do.

But sure, there are usually 2-3 big ballads doing well, and if the beat is not too obvious, those big ballads will easily appeal to 50 year-old housewives as well.

so the beat has to be hidden?

you didn't actually answer the question geir. you can read right?

for that matter what was the last year the 3 biggest hot 100 hits crossed over to aor or active rock radio? i can't picture a case where this happens post-mtv.

"teenage dream" was robbed!!!!

what was the last year the 3 biggest ac hits didn't hit #1 and what was the last year before that the 3 biggest hot 100 hits didn't cross over to ac?

last year and last year, respectively. I don't think you and Geir are really saying anything incompatible? I'm not sure what your argument is.

last year when any of the 3 biggest AC hits hit #1 was 2006 when James Blunt & Daniel Powter did.

last aor or active rock track to hit #1: nickelback - 'how you remind me' 2002

last year 3 (or more) aor or active rock tracks hit #1: 1988 - 'love bites', 'bad medicine', 'sweet child o mine', 'every rose has its thorn' (only 'sweet child o mine' makes the years 5 biggest hot 100 hits and it's fifth).

1982 (the year after mtv goes on-air) is the last year w/ 3 aor or active rock tracks in the top five hits of the year - survivor, joan jett, j. geils band - but two john cougar hits are at 6 and 7 so it seems very fair to say that getting major aor play in 1982 meant a real likelihood of hitting #1 in the same way that winning the sec = a real likelihood at the bcs championship. at the same time 1982 is the most recent year where you can say this, post 1982 it is simply not true.

bah i meant the last year the 3 biggest ac hits hit #1 and then the last year before that the 3 biggest ac hits didn't hit #1. one thing i'm noticing looking at these charts right now: hall and oates (talk about crossover) have still been having hits and i have somehow not been hearing them. also every christmas (or more accurately the week after christmas) some holiday song is number one, like it's the 40s or something.

also the amount of country to ac crossover is much higher than i realized (and i live in the south) and something i haven't really seen remarked upon. it's a mama grizzly format pretty much.

so the beat has to be hidden?

Before contemporary RnB, ballads didn't have a beat.

Try again.

OK, let's have a look at Lionel Richie's development here:

Archetypical slow pre-contemporary-RnB-ballad:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b_ILDFp5DGA

Typical contemporary slow RnB ballad:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s47n8E2BuWc

The first one you couldn't dance anything but slow dancing to. The latter you can dance the exact same of dance to that you can to midtempto songs.

And the point is, the latter is still supposed to be among his slow, silent songs. He just doesn't make the kind of "drumless" songs like "Hello" anymore because R&B acts aren't supposed to do so anymore.

Just heard "Like a G6" yesterday. Applebee's should totally rewrite it as "like a cheese stick" for an ad campaign.

Jeez ppl this discussion isn't getting better. Point I was trying to make: I've been coming to the US regularly since the early 90s, I go out w/ colleagues, relatives and friends, drive around listening to radio & talk to ppl about music - and as a regular Eurodude it always surprised me that the house tunes that were ubiquitous all over the world were so ghettoized in specially labeled Euro/house/trance nights and specialist radio channels. Among US friends/colleagues the whole lifestyle of going clubbing and dancing yr face off on the floor to 130+ bpm tunes til 4 was def not a shared experience like it was among Europeans/etc growing up in the 90s/00s. This year was the first time I really noticed the Euro house sound of Guetta et al being *everywhere*, in background music in stores, etc and w/ the attitude that it's cool to go clubbing, instead of "look it's Madonna doing a silly dance with some NYC gay dudes, and hey, some more people doing silly dances with Bootsy in 70s costumes".

Now back to yr scheduled programming: argueing with Geir.

i kind of agree w/ the point that in the early 90s there was a big pop-dance crossover moment, tho

yeah, it went quickly though, enough so that by 97 i could be ecstatic that something as house as 'together again' could go #1. and of course unclaimed dance music like la bouche, dj sammy, whatever has kept a presence on the radio and in certain clubs. tbh i'm not really sure what the difference is sonically between that and jerseyshore shit like guetta. not sure who you were hanging w/ in america but ppl definitely did go out to the club and dance until 4, the breakadawn, or, in atlanta, 8 in the morning. the difference is they didn't dance to house (whatever def you want to use) really. they danced to hip-hop.

don't even want to get into how the fuck ke$ha is cooler than madonna, nyc gay dudes, dee-lite, or bootsy collins.

you couldn't even have dancing til 4 here (WA) if you wanted to, the bars/clubs have to close at 2 :(

yeah athens is like that now, it used to be last call was 2 but the clubs did late night disco and closed whenever they felt like but a few fights shut that down about ten years back so now its the burgeoning afterparty scene which is better really though i still bitch about them outlawing late night disco.

ppl definitely did go out to the club and dance until 4, the breakadawn, or, in atlanta, 8 in the morning. the difference is they didn't dance to house (whatever def you want to use) really. they danced to hip-hop.

Americans more puritanical than pagan-rooted europeans shockah

americans more puritanical than catholic europe

siegbran what is yr point then cuz you were saying that clubbing wasn't a thing stateside but it was, ppl in atlanta or houston or miami or la just weren't listening to the same thing ppl in helsinki or amsterdam or berlin or whatever were. different continent, wildly different demographics = different aesthetics. shocker. "nobody listens to techno". and the same is true today - how many euro acts on that list above? still not sure how ke$ha is cooler than madonna and dee-lite or how doing the stanky leg is puritanical. feel free to clarify. 2010 = the year house broke still makes less sense than 2002 = the year grunge broke.

not completely sure dee-lite counts as house tbh

also "how many euro acts on that list above?" -- isn't that the point? not saying that house music has never crossed over, but there is something pretty striking about the uniformity of sound across these records, and also they feel more kinda trancey/ravey, which is something something different from 'vogue'

"Vogue" is a pop song with verse and chorus and all. Yes, it is house influenced, but surely not house.

House = has verses and choruses, all that. Middle 8 is optional.

http://www.cartoonstock.com/lowres/hsc0448l.jpg