Twostepcub's Best of 2012: Part Eight - #30-#21...

Hey gang, thanks for dropping by, it's time to head into the top-30 of the biggest songs on my personal chart this year. If you haven't yet, you can check out the rest of the list so far by clicking here...

#30 - Rihanna featuring Calvin Harris - "We Found Love"
         from the album Talk That Talk (2011)
         Twostepcubchart peak: #1 (four weeks)
         Weeks on the chart: 20 (in 2012)

Rihanna's new signature song did good by introducing the mainstream to Scottish DJ Harris, while the video basically recreated her relationship complete with a Chris Brown doppelganger. No matter, since the synth hook and "We found love in a hopeless place" tagline were inescapable in the beginning of the year.

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#29 - The Black Keys - "Gold On The Ceiling"
          from the album El Camino (2011)
          Twostepcubchart peak: #10 (three weeks)
          Weeks on the chart: 25

I adored this lo-fi return of garage rock to the rock stratosphere as the duo cavorted with little versions of themselves in the video.

#28 - David Guetta featuring Nicki Minaj - "Turn Me On"
          from the album Nothing But The Beat (2011)
          Twostepcubchart peak: #2 (two weeks)
          Weeks on the chart: 22

A lot of EDM enthusiasts deride the French DJ's music for it's mainstream leanings, but it's his expert way with a pop hook that helped make the genre as big as it is. And no matter who he works with, he transforms them into a club deity, even using computer tricks to make Nicki Minaj into the belter she it in the epic club twirler. 

#27 - Kelly Clarkson - "Stronger (What Doesn't Kill You)"
          from the album Stronger (2011)
         Twostepcubchart peak: #7 (two weeks)
         Weeks on the chart: 25

The very first American Idol proved she still reigns supreme with this self-empowerment anthem that cribs from Nietzsche and a video that crowd sourced its own flash mob. Her vocals clearly exude the renewed confidence she has in her career, and that's awesome.

#26 - Karmin - "Brokenhearted"
          from the EP Hello (2012)
          Twostepcubchart peak: #3 (two weeks)
          Weeks on the chart: 24

The duo that brought the term "swag-rock" to the music world, Karmin graduated from making YouTube covers of hip-hop songs to this jubilant pop masterpiece that one giant earworm that I couldn't keep from hitting "repeat" for. Between this song and Jessie J's "Domino", my quota for power-pop for my next picnic is set. Hipsters be damned!

#25 - Ellie Goulding - "Lights"
         from the album Lights (2010)
         Twostepcubchart peak: #1 (one week)
         Weeks on the chart: 24 (in 2012)
       

If there's one "little song that could" success story I was ecstatic about, it was the slow but sure conquest of British singer Goulding's single that originally didn't even make the top-40 in the UK, but spent all year climbing the American pop chart all the way to #2 in Billboard. Not bad for co-writer Richard Stannard, the man who helped write the Spice Girls' "Wannabe". But chalk this up to Ellie for her musicianship and not relying to vocal acrobatics to put across an amazing performance.

#24 - Katy Perry - "Wide Awake"
          from the album Teenage Dream - The Complete Confection (2012)
         Twostepcubchart peak: #5 (two weeks)
         Weeks on the chart: 24

The eighth and final single from the Teenage Dream revamp, Perry's most mature single came right at the time that her marriage to Russell Brand was dissolving. It proved Perry as a serious artist, although the video showed she definitely knew that path she took to get to this point.

#23 - The Wanted - "Glad You Came"
         from the EP The Wanted (2012)
         Twostepcubchart peak: #5 (four weeks)
         Weeks on the chart: 24

As a guy who prefered the Wanted over One Direction if made to choose, I'm surprised the breakthrough single for the boys was this song, rather than "All Time Low" or "Gold Forever", but the singable chorus with the Romanian-dance-inspired backdrop that to me seems the successor to last year's "Mr. Saxobeat". Either way, The Wanted's more developed musicality proved to be the bigger single, but the tweens flocked to 1D for their album, making them the "winners" in the media.

#22 - Train - "50 Ways To Say Goodbye"
          from the album California 37 (2012)
          Twostepcubchart peak: #6 (one week)
          Weeks on the chart: 25

Yes, Train is really corny. Really corny, with them wearing their name-dropping, Meg Ryan movie watching personas on their sleeve. But beyond the mariachis that reeled me in, I have to give them props for succeeding as older pop stars in such a youth-obsessed medium.  And then there's the Hoff.

#21 - Flo Rida featuring Sia - "Wild Ones"
         from the album Wild Ones (2012)
         Twostepcubchart peak: #4 (one week)
         Weeks on the chart: 30

Australian singer/songwriter Sia Furler went from being the underground indie-pop siren that soundtracked the final Six Feet Under to pop go-to girl this year, and her faceless turn on the Florida rapper's big song that made this record. If only they could've had her in the video, as well. In fact, a reprise of the song by Jack Back with more Sia and no Flo topped the dance chart and made my personal chart's top-30.

Well that's it for part eight...I'll be back tomorrow with the closest thing to an instrumental on my top-100 of the year, the triumph of a busker, and Bing! a hit!