The Tops of 2010: The Pop Side...(Part 1)
Hey folks, it's a col Sunday night, so I wanted to get going with my recap of the biggest hits of 2010. It was a year that rock took a backseat to teen-oriented dance-pop (as opposed to boy-band pop of a decade ago) and hip-hop styled one-offs. I'm going to take each genre on subsequent posts, but it's fitting to start with the 100 biggest songs on Billboard's pop chart from last year.1. Ke$ha - "Tik Tok" (from the CD Animal)
Hot 100: #1 (9 weeks)
Adult Top 40: #14
Dance Club Play: #11
Dance Airplay: #1 (5 weeks)
European Hot 100: #1 (6 weeks)
UK Singles: #4
Money quote: "Before I leave I brush my teeth with a bottle of Jack 'cause when I leave for the night I ain't comin' back"....
It's only fitting that the biggest hit in the US this year represents the mood best of American pop music in 2010. Take the punk-lite attitude of Pink or Lady GaGa, mix it with a Disney-bop dance beat and process it within a minute of its life with Auto-tune, and you've basically got Ke$ha. Now I have no idea if she can actually sing without production help, but it doesn't matter. This music isn't meant to be any social contract whatsoever, and in that it's freeing. It would also be a flop unless it didn't have a song so laden with hooks that I'm won over unwillingly. "Tik Tok" is nothing but a "let's go out and get shitfaced" anthem that I'm ashamed I want to get invited to. This song was Ke$ha's introduction to the world, and with no agenda or embarassment of vocal shortcomings, steamrolled the year from the get-go.
2: Lady Antebellum - "Need You Now" (from the album Need You Now)
Hot 100: #2
Country Singles: #1 (5 weeks)
Adult Top 40: #1 (9 weeks)
Adult Contemporary: #1 (15 weeks)
Dance Club Play: #15
Dance Airplay: #9
UK Singles: #21
Money quote: "Another shot of whiskey, can't stop lookin' at the door, wishin' you'd come sweepin' in the way you did before"
The second biggest hit is the US last year was more adult, more reflective, and more soulful than "Tik Tok", but don't you just know it still involved being hammered. "Need You Know" was this year's "little country song that could" (see last year's "You Belong With Me"), and it brought the trio from country-newcomer status to adult pop go-to's. Swathing the track in a slide guitar that's more late-70's pop than country, Charles Kelley and Hillary Scott's interplay on the ode to drunk-dialing resonated more true that most stereotypical country fare, and I believe that had more of a role in why this song crossed over so well (from country to pop to adult to even dance). And that four-note piano tag is killer. My only issue with the video is I wish it wouldn't have had such a happy ending for such an emotional song.
#3: Train- "Hey Soul Sister" (from the CD Save Me, San Francisco)
Hot 100: #3
Adult Top 40: #1 (6 weeks)
Adult Contemporary: #1 (18 weeks in 2010)
Country Singles: #52
Hot Dance Airplay: #9
Rock Songs: #33
Triple-A: #2
European Hot 100: #3
UK Singles: #18
Money quote: "I believe in you, like a virgin, you're Madonna, and I want to blow your mind"
2010 was the year that Train escaped the graveyard of semi-alt-rock bands (ex: Third Eye Blind) with basically a minstrel song that incorporated enough randomness in earnest that it ended up being endearing. Name-checking another way-past-expiration-date band (Mr. Mister) and being able to "sell" it to kids not even born when said band was out is quite a feat. Pat Monahan exudes silly without being cartoonish, and the women follow swooning. This song did a reverse "Need You Now", actually peaking first at uber-alternative Triple A radio before building at pop, then adult, then even country and dance. I love the fact that this showed that even middle-aged rock bands still have a shot given the right song and the right moment.
#4: Katy Perry featuring Snoop Dogg - "California Gurls" (from the CD Teenage Dream)
Hot 100: #1 (6 weeks)
Adult Top 40: #1 (9 weeks)
Adult Contemporary: #7
Hot Dance Club Play: #1 (1 week)
Hot Dance Airplay: #1 (3 weeks)
European Hot 100: #1 (3 weeks)
UK Singles: #1 (2 weeks)
Money quote: "Sun-kissed skin so hot it'll melt your popsicle"
This is product. Juicy, delicious product. "Dr. Luke" Gottwald, who was behind "Tik Tok", made a commercial for California that Katy Perry just had to ride in like a surfboard. The bounce-bass that anchors this track is just undeniable (like the 'gurls'), and again, Perry's overprocessed voice fits the totally overproduced track without a bit of irony. A perfect song to laud the land of the big, brash, and the fake (or enhanced), and it makes quite the compelling case to join in. And hey, it even makes Snoop Dogg's family-friendly makeover complete.
#5: Usher featuring will.i.am - "OMG" (from the CD Raymond vs. Raymond)
US Hot 100: #1 (4 weeks)
Adult Top 40: #37
R&B Singles: #3
Dance Club Play: #3
Dance Airplay: #2
European Hot 100: #6
UK Singles: #1 (2 weeks)
Money quote: "Honey got a booty like pow pow pow"
After 3 singles from Raymond vs. Raymond, Usher strikes gold with a thumpy dance track that's low on soul and high on funk, with a robotic background that is a really a simple one-off come on to a girl about her curves. With the vocal processing it's hard without the video to tell where Usher stops and Black Eyed Pea will.i.am starts, but the song really isn't about that. It's about shakin' that azz, and it gave more R&B artists cover to get more "dancey".
#6: B.o.B. featuring Hayley Williams - "Airplanes" (from the CD The Adventures Of Bobby Ray)
US Hot 100: #2
R&B Singles: #65
Adult Top 40: #26
Dance Airplay:#9
UK Singles: #1
Euro Singles: #18
Money quote: "Can we pretend that airplanes in the night sky are like shooting stars"
Bobby Ray Simmons Jr, aka B.o.B., recruited rock band Paramore's lead singer Hayley Williams for his second single. With a non-traditional rock-drum backdrop (a la Eminem in his pensive state), the rap about being jaded by fame seems a little weird from someone who probably recorded this without much of a history to begin with. No worries, because nothing's really memorable except the repetitive chorus. Atmospheric, for a rap song, though, and quite different from "Nothin' On You".
#7 Eminem featuring Rihanna - "Love The Way You Lie" (from the CD Recovery)
US Hot 100: #1 (7 weeks)
R&B Singles: #7
Adult Top 40: #29
Dance Airplay: #13
UK Singles: #2
Euro Hot 100: #1 (5 weeks)
Money quote: "Just gonna stand there and watch me burn, but that's alright because I like the way it hurts"
Speaking of a rock-based drumbeat on a rap song, here's Eminem in his current signature song, channeling all the rage that was puerile before into a scary whirlwind. Add the shock value of true-life abuse victim Rihanna not playing victim nor a sympathetic figure in this storyline. The epic video with a totally non-Hobbit Dominick Monaghan with Megan Fox drove it into classic territory. This song brought Eminem into the realm of soccer moms knowing one song of his. And at least this time it's a worthy track.
#8: Lady GaGa - "Bad Romance" (from the CD The Fame Monster)
US Hot 100: #2
Adult Top 40: #7
Dance Club Play: #1 (2 weeks)
Dance Airplay: #1 (1 week)
Adult Contemporary: #20
Euro Hot 100: #1 (2 weeks)
UK Singles: #1 (1 week)
Money Quote: "I want your ugly, I want your disease, I want your everything, as long as it's free"
Stefani Germanotta proves not to be a flash in the pan as her first single from her EP The Fame Monster became a phenomenon, in part due to the epic video that accompanied the song. Gaga pulled no punches, with non-pop-friendly lines like "I want your disease" and "I want your leather-studded kiss in the sand". But the hook-laden dance track even found a home on AC radio, so no one is safe.
#9: Taio Cruz - Dynamite (from the CD Rokstarr)
Hot 100: #2
Dance Club Play: #1 (1 week)
Dance Airplay: #1 (1 week)
Adult Top 40: #5
Adult Contemporary: #21
UK Singles: #1 (1 week)
Euro Hot 100: #3
Money quote: "I throw my hands up in the air sometimes, saying 'Ayo, gotta let go'"
British R&B singer Taio Cruz has been the biggest success in the UK soul crossover to the US this past year, placing two songs in Billboard's Hot 100 top 10. "Dynamite" was the second, and while it wasn't the charttopper, it proves to have more staying power, due to it's singalong chorus and party vibe. It's also one of my six-year-old niece's favorite songs of last year, so that counts for something.
#10: Taio Cruz featuring Ludacris - "Break Your Heart" (from the CD Rokstarr)
Hot 100: #1 (1 week)
Dance Airplay: #1 (1 week)
Dance Club Play: #5
Adult Top 40: #18
Adult Contemporary: #24
UK Singles: #1 (3 weeks in 2009)
Euro Hot 100: #2
Money quote: "If you fall for me, I'm not easy to please"
Taio's first hit came almost a year after hitting the top in his home country, and he had the help with 2010's go-to non-Latino guest rapper, Ludacris. He's telling us he's a 'bad boy', but in such a happy, Wayne Brady-ish way that he won over the female American audience.
Comments