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~~~

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"