Number Two Hits

My gut tells me "Need You Now."

1. need you now
2. bad romance
3. gangnam style
4. party in the usa
5. get lucky

Not necessarily the best song, but it's a little silly that "Gangnam Style" didn't hit #1 since it was clearly the most popular song in the country. Still, probably going to vote for one of the Taylors.

I voted for Gangnam Style, due to being kept out of the top place by a lousy Maroon 5 song.

I think ultimately "One More Night" may contend even with "Maria, Maria" for least memorable song to spend 9+ weeks atop the Billboard chart.

depends how you feel about "Blurred Lines."

Blurred Lines is still pretty fun.

Saw the title and thought I'd get to vote for CCR.

Either "Get Lucky" or "Lights."

Runners-up:

Get Lucky
Lights
Party in the USA
Best Song Ever

Fuck You over Get Lucky

Good poll

Heard a muzak version of "lights" 2day on an airplane

"Need You Now" vs "You Belong with Me"

Gonna go w Bad Romance over Need You Now and Get Lucky

i love so many of these songs and i don't care what other people think

voted for "Bad Romance." "Fuck You" and "Gangnam Style" and "You Belong With Me" and "Dynamite" certainly feel like they should've been #1s too, although I don't like them as much.

Airplanes
Gangnam Style
Payphone
Party in the U.S.A.
Dynamite

Billboard still way behind the times regarding data-collecting methodology in their quest to measure the current overall popularity of a song. They took shamefully long to abandon their ironclad rule that a song that wasn't released as a physical single couldn't be a hit. Then they clung to the radio airplay + sales = popularity formula for far too long. They only recently added Youtube plays as a component worth measuring; thus, "Video Games" was a top-10 hit in the UK and ten other countries but #91 in Billboard's world, although it was in reality just as big in America as everywhere else. I'll go with "Gangnam Style" which was inescapable for months, more so than any of the Billboard #1s of the time, yet didn't top the chart.

"video games" being top 10 in the uk is irrelevant to a discussion of billboard's chart methodology because the uk chart is determined 100% by sales. i would also that the song was NOT "in realty just as big in america as everywhere else" -- the radio play it received here was negligible at best, while it appears that many countries in europe (which, again, don't factor online streaming into their official charts) actually played the song quite a bit.

if you want my honest opinion on the whole phenomenon, billboard should have put more time into tweaking the ratio between sales, airplay, and online streaming that determines chart points, because it was fairly obvious to anyone watching the charts that "harlem shake", despite its continued lolzy meme appeal online, was not the most popular song for at least half the time it was #1. if the rule had been in place at the time that "gangnam style" was doing its thing, it would have been #1 for a truly inordinate length of time.

I have never heard "Video Games" anywhere except online and on SNL, and at the time my wife listened to a LOT of pop radio.

Surprising number of really great songs here. I'm fond or very fond of "Get Lucky," "Die Young," "Payphone," "Dynamite," "Replay," and parts of "Run This Town." "Best I Ever Had" has a charm and relatability sadly absent on most of Drake's other hits (though, damn, what a stupid video). "Mirrors" is near-great but so flabby and endless that I change the channel after the first wonderful bars. Never warmed up to "Fuck You" at all. "Bedrock" is kind of in a LOLz category by itself. Never knew it got that high on the Hot 100, I feel like it's kind of forgotten. I'm betting the Haiti fundraiser is horrible but I don't remember hearing it.

The only "should have been #1"s here, for me, are "Bad Romance," "Gangnam Style," and "Party in the USA." Hard now to hear any of them with fresh enough ears to pick a winner out of the three. "Party in the USA" still sounds fresh as hell, but I don't think it ever felt as big as the other two. "Gangnam Style" is pretty fucking awesome and probably the one I get the most enjoyment out of today. Best video, for sure.

Going with Gaga. Lots of different parts to love and to holler along to. Also it was just such an event, probably her peak, just so wild and out there but so confident in its pop dominance at the same time. Have to get back into a moment where she hadn't run that schtick into the ground yet, where this was the first "weird, vaguely 'eastern european' German art-haus Gaga" hit song.

Worst by a mile: "Best Song Ever." Just heard this for the first time recently (along with seeing the execrable video) and jesus christ, gtfo.

No way "Best Song Ever" is worse than "Payphone" or "Replay".

*There's no way, I should say.

Toss up for me b/w "Party In The USA", "I Knew You Were Trouble" and "You Belong With Me". I have a soft spot for "Mirrors" too

voted IKYWT because the goat-screaming still provides thrills 50~ odd plays later

I heard a muzak version of "Video Games" on a flight this summer, thought of you all

get lucky
lights
bad romance
i knew you were trouble

after that, idk

bunch of good songs, voting for "gangnam style" tho cuz that really did deserve #1

"Need You Now" should have been #1 fuck Gangham Steez fuck it hard

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

1 bad romance
2 need you now
3 you belong with me
4 gangnam style
5 best i ever had

voted "bedrock" for the lols

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

oppa!

fuck is "get lucky" going to win ilx poll this year

yes

if only we could remove all the good parts of "Get Lucky" so it could live up to the legacy of past ilx poll winners like "Inspector Norse"

Stunned at Miley getting only one vote, I thought everybody loved that song. Maybe my impressions are distorted from having chaperoned a bunch of study abroad trips over the last few years... it would have been an inevitable "last day of the trip, everybody go nuts" song even if our school hadn't shared two out of the three letters of "USA."

Of course, the trips' other signature songs in the 2010s were "We No Speak Americano," "Barbara Streisand," "Wavin' Flag," Gaga and Rihanna generally, and, oddly, "Bakerman" by Laid Back...so I'm not sure how typical those kids were. We went a little too early in 2012 for "Gangnam Style"; otherwise I'm sure it would have dominated the bus.

inspector norse is >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> get lucky

for real

it's easy to imagine Nile Rodgers inserting a guitar part into "Inspector Norse" too.

Is there a thread that notes down, say, the top ten tracks of each year, or do you have to load the whole thread and scroll? I couldn't tell you how "Inspector Norse" goes or who sings it with a gun to my head, but I'm sure I like it better than baffling winner "You Belong With Me." Nice to see that that mania's subsided a bit, judging from the results of this poll.

Oh, it's on that Todd Terje EP! I liked that! I put that in my "gettin' work done, chillin' out" playlist last year, based on ILM's recommendation. Just never internalized any of the song names. Yeah, that's a good one.

you kinda gotta sift through that thread... i should make a separate thread

i made a separate thread for 2011

How did "We Are the World 25" even get a vote?

man i like 'get lucky' but this is kinda crazy. woulda voted for 'bad romance' over 'i knew you were trouble' and 'need you now'.