US #2s of 2015

dear god what a trash fire of nonsense

"Trap Queen" by default for being the only song here that isn't 100% terrible

This has more songs I like a lot than the other one. "Sugar" is from a deep inner circle of lite-funk hell tho.

Trap Queen > Hotline Bling > Sorry >>>>>>> Thinking Out Loud >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Sugar

principles: voting against drake because "hotline bling" has been rolling on repeat up in my head for so long i can't remember what was there before

who actually likes maroon 5 is my question

xp

Drake's gonna win isn't he

this is "Trap Queen" by miles, followed by "Sorry."

I can understand the appeal of select Maroon 5 songs but their ascendancy to "the American U2" baffles me

I liked most of the singles off their first two albums, but since then dear god.

I've probably had "Hotline Bling" stuck in my head more than any other song this year tbh.

since the first two albums there is no god

trap queen, but none of these songs is terrible. better list than the #1s

hotline bling is really really great

trap queen is too but at the moment I am a little maxed out

fuck the rest though mostly garbage

I didn't mind "Moves Like Jagger" that much at the time but if I'd known what would follow...

definitely predicting a trap queen victory, ILM mostly hates drake with a few exceptions it seems

i like drake that song is just played out for me

I'll admit that "Hotline Bling" is the catchiest sombitch in this poll.

I fronted on "Sorry" until I heard it at 2:30 in a club

It's way better than "What Do You Mean"

How were there only five #2 hits for the whole year?

Billboard, man.

Usually there are less #2 hits than #1 hits in any given year because a certain number of the songs the reach the second slot eventually ascend to the top. But the upper reaches of the charts are definitely in a stagnant time.

Hotline Bling might be the best song of the decade

i think the influence of streaming is behind the slowdown at #1 and #2. songs that were big on Spotify stayed in the top 5 for way longer than they usually did in the days when radio would give most songs a 3-month window and iTunes would give songs a very brief sales spike.

"Sorry" over "Hotline Bling"

I would swap "Thinking Out Loud" and "Sugar", but otherwise I agree with Rev's rankings.

I fronted on "Sorry" until I heard it at 2:30 in a club

totally agree.

pitting trap queen against hotline bling = a poll specifically designed to torture my wife.

i'll go w/trap queen. "where are u now" was the one bieber song i liked this year and i don't get to vote for it in the #1s or #2s polls : /

This is two polar extremes so far apart it ain't funny, with Hotline Bling somewhere in the middle.

Sorry is great and has the advantage of still being fresh. It gives me a little rush every single time just thinking about it in my head, but Trap Queen has given me that rush throughout a huge part of the year, so gotta go with that.

Over on the other side: Ed Sheeran over Maroon 5, who manage to continue to drift under the radar.

(Interesting collection of male sex symbols du jour as well)

trap queen > sorry >>> hotline bling > sugar > thinking out loud

lol at the idea of Ed Sheeran as a sex symbol

two songs i properly like here! obv the answer is "trap queen" (though i feel like massive popularity did it no favours) but i too fronted on "sorry" until i heard it at a house party at 2am, also belatedly realised its reggaeton influence after hearing the j balvin remix

"hotline bling" is catchy but so are many better songs with non-repulsive performers including one here

between the weeknd, bieber and drake...idk i lurk and hate-read a lot of really awful, misogynist bro-ey messageboards and hearing the exact language in the pop charts sort of freaks me out beyond just right-on policing

this is "Trap Queen" by miles, followed by "Sorry."

― The burrito of ennui (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, December 16, 2015 7:12 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

idk i lurk and hate-read a lot of really awful, misogynist bro-ey messageboards

― cher guevara (lex pretend), Thursday, December 17, 2015 3:46 AM (3 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

which ones and why

yeah between this bullshit and meghan trainor's modcloth retroisms and taylor swift's tightened grip on the Alpha Blonde throne (not to mention all the slice-and-dice demographic thinkpieces that blurred into a great big reinforcement of white male default status) 2015 was a bad year for gender in pop

which ones and why

forum dot bodybuilding dot com, and i ask myself why every time (i think i may have found it bc it was a top google result for gay-for-pay)

and others that i stumble across but don't go to regularly, mostly sports-related

lool ok

"hotline bling" is catchy but so are many better songs with non-repulsive performers including one here

it's odd to read this and then see you saluting Bieber

that's why i said one here not two

lol touche

also, "hotline bling" is a very...memey song in that it doesn't feel like there's much there beyond the catchiness, that momentary vine-length hook that gets stuck in your head - it was telling how much erykah improved it without even doing too much to it, just through her delivery

whereas "sorry" is catchy but also really well arranged and structured (the double build in the chorus is key), and i think the lyrics are extremely unappealing but i can't imagine a different performer or delivery that would make the song better? maybe a judicious guest verse - nick jonas's "jealous" was similarly dubious lyrically and getting tinashe on the remix worked wonders

it's not like caving into "sorry" is an aspect of my taste i am enjoying

always and 4eva disbelief in "guilty pleasures" but "sorry" is this year's "fancy" in coming closest

I'm not a Drake fan and I don't think I listened to hotline bling on purpose until Erykah redid it, but Drake deserves a lot of credit for that chorus melody which has been firmly lodged in my brain since July.

Anyway, I voted for Trap Queen

Hotline Bling is really catchy but feels strangely slight, I guess because of how it feels like an endless cycle of hooks more than verse-chorus-verse? Gives it a sort of commercial jingle quality which is perfect for vine as lex said

lol at the idea of Ed Sheeran as a sex symbol

― boring alt-reality reverend (The Reverend), donderdag 17 december 2015 9:29 (10 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

well, perhaps, but...
http://www.mirror.co.uk/3am/celebrity-news/ed-sheeran-thinks-improved-sex-5870851

i like all these songs!

1. hotline bling
2. sorry
3. trap queen (my least fav of the big fetty hits)
4. thinking out loud (pop radio classic of 2015 on some the fray shit)
5. sugar (i wanted this to be way better than it was, still pretty tight tho)

4. thinking out loud (pop radio classic of 2015 on some the fray shit)

word

If Muammar Gaddafi wrote "Hotline Bling," I'd still like it. Who cares who sings it? The hook is all time.

#2's each and every one of 'em.

I've liked every Fetty hit less, which makes him a classic #2 wonder

i love the idea that the lex reads bodybuilding forums

If Muammar Gaddafi wrote "Hotline Bling," I'd still like it. Who cares who sings it? The hook is all time.

― flappy bird, Thursday, December 17, 2015 9:02 PM (2 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

because the performer and what he brings to the song is a pretty inescapable part of it beyond the melody?

i like the erykah badu version a lot but weirdly what that tells me is that it's not some godhead pop song, just catchy but not life-changing

lol at the idea of Ed Sheeran as a sex symbol

― boring alt-reality reverend (The Reverend), Thursday, December 17, 2015 8:29 AM (15 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

https://41.media.tumblr.com/948846eb354eec952e6edea18ef10a4e/tumblr_mqc51w2xJf1sn1pj0o1_500.jpg

IIf Muammar Gaddafi wrote "Hotline Bling," I'd still like it. Who cares who sings it? The hook is all time.

― flappy bird, Thursday, December 17, 2015 4:02 PM (5 hours ago) Bookmark Fla

otm, th production too is pretty outstanding

hook sucks, whole song sucks, fuck "Hotline Bling"

yup

some dude curious what u think of the erykah version?? whole lot of people who hate drake still seem willing to grant something to the song esp when hearing versions done by other folks

i didn't hear her version until i listened to the whole mixtape, which just bummed me out, drake covers, multiple guest appearances by a drake impersonator, one really good song at the end but a lot of really ephemeral stuff leading up to that. hearing erykah sing something is inherently better than hearing drake sing it but i don't really care for any of the various versions of HB.

I like most of these, but Trap Queen easily.

I didn't mind Badu's version if I were listening in a vacuum, but it bums me out when an artist like her who can never sell his numbers has to legitimate a candy ass like Drake.

Did anyone see the awesome use of Hotline Bling in the last American Horror Story?

hmmm im a few behind so will look fwd to

Badu's version is legit in my top 3 pieces of music this year

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

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

duh

wow 4 mouths still remember the taste of ed sheeran's love

i wince mentally each time i hear that line

I'm glad there were four, lol. I was one of them.

I mean, that line can be about kissing, come on. There's a lot more to that song anyway.

Maroon 5, "Sugar" 6

https://media.giphy.com/media/xyPmHxOoIc9Hi/giphy.gif

i totally think that line is about kissing fwiw and it's totally consistent with the anatomical theme of the rest of the lyrics, it just gives me a weird body horror vibe.

"sugar" actually seems pretty good if one compares it to the atrocities that are the other singles maroon 5 has been releasing over the past couple of album cycles

i don't believe for 1 second that the "sugar" haters itt didn't enjoy that chorus at some point this year

hm it kinda gets ruined by his yelped ad libs