Jmunney's Blog

Yay, back to 40 for the year!  VH1, you’re excused for not including “Get Lucky,” as Daft Punk never made a video for it.  But you are not excused for excluding “We Can’t Stop,” which was a bigger hit than “Wrecking Ball” and indeed a bigger hit than just about every song on this list.

As per usual, my estimation of the quality of the songs follows the original version.

Original Version
1. Robin Thicke ft. T.I. and Pharrell – “Blurred Lines”
2. Lorde – “Royals”
3. Macklemore and Ryan Lewis ft. Ray Dalton – “Can’t Hold Us”
4. Katy Perry – “Roar”
5. Justin Timberlake – “Mirrors”
6. P!nk ft. Nate Ruess – “Just Give Me a Reason”
7. Bruno Mars – “When I Was Your Man”
8. Maroon 5 – “Daylight”
9. Miley Cyrus – “Wrecking Ball”
10. Imagine Dragons – “Radioactive”
11. Taylor Swift – “I Knew You Were Trouble”
12. Avicii ft. Aloe Blacc – “Wake Me Up”
13. OneRepublic – “Counting Stars”
14. Lady GaGa – “Applause”
15. Rihanna ft. Mikky Ekko – “Stay”
16. fun. – “Carry On”
17. Phillip Phillips – “Gone, Gone, Gone”
18. Icona Pop – “I Love It”
19. Paramore – “Still Into You”
20. Demi Lovato – “Heart Attack”
21. Zedd ft. Foxes – “Clarity”
22. Macklemore and Ryan Lewis ft. Wanz – “Thrift Shop”
23. P!nk – “Try”
24. Justin Timberlake ft. Jay-Z – “Suit & Tie”
25. Calvin Harris ft. Ellie Goulding – “I Need Your Love”
26. Capital Cities – “Safe and Sound”
27. Emeli Sandé – “Next to Me”
28. Sara Bareilles – “Brave”
29. Bruno Mars – “Treasure”
30. Haim – “The Wire”
31. Imagine Dragons – “Demons”
32. Olly Murs ft. Flo Rida – “Troublemaker”
33. Anna Kendrick – “Cups”
34. Lana Del Rey vs. Cedric Gervais – “Summertime Sadness (Remix)”
35. Maroon 5 – “Love Somebody”
36. Jason Derulo – “The Other Side”
37. Tegan and Sara – “Closer”
38. Passenger – “Let Her Go”
39. Johnnyswim – “Heart Beats”
40. Ed Sheeran – “Lego House”

Jmunney’s Revision
1. Wake Me Up
2. Royals
3. Clarity
4. The Wire
5. I Love It
6. Radioactive
7. Closer
8. Mirrors
9. Thrift Shop
10. Try
11. Blurred Lines
12. Stay
13. Summertime Sadness (Remix)
14. I Need Your Love
15. Demons
16. Wrecking Ball
17. Gone, Gone, Gone
18. Suit & Tie
19. Heart Attack
20. Safe and Sound
21. Can’t Hold Us
22. Troublemaker
23. Just Give Me a Reason
24. Carry On
25. Heart Beats
26. Cups
27. Applause
28. Roar
29. I Knew You Were Trouble
30. Still Into You
31. Let Her Go
32. Next to Me
33. Love Somebody
34. Counting Stars
35. When I Was Your Man
36. The Other Side
37. Brave
38. Treasure
39. Lego House
40. Daylight

Quality-wise, 2011 was one of the best years for music this century.  I guess what that means is, I was continually satisfied and surprised by the new entries in the musical areas that I listen to (and I listen to a lot of musical areas).  Even when you just look at the Top 40, my impression is that the year was better than average.  But you wouldn’t know it from this countdown.  While I found about 30 songs on the list to be at least bearable (about the same as last year), this year’s bottom feeders are even more plainly awful than last year’s.  Nickelback (worse-than-average Nickelback, that is) and Daughtry both had new tunes, so that tells you something right there.

I am not sure how VH1 could reasonably manage to ignore LMFAO this year.  “Party Rock Anthem” would easily have been the most ubiquitous song of the year if there hadn’t been a song this year that was unfathomably ubiquitous.

Wasn’t there a law enacted in 2007 saying that Rihanna must appear on year-end countdowns like this one each and every year?  VH1, you are in violation of the law.

Remember, my revision is not my interpretation of how big these hits were, it is my judgment of the quality of the songs.  But I am alo interested in discussing whether or not VH1 accurately represented the bigness of the hits, and thus I point out in the margins what songs were ranked too high or too low.

Original Version
1. Adele – “Rolling in the Deep” (should be higher)
2. Bruno Mars – “Grenade”
3. Katy Perry ft. Kanye West – “E.T.”
4. P!nk – “F****** Perfect”
5. Foo Fighters – “Rope”
6. Mumford & Sons – “The Cave” (should be lower)
7. The Script – “For the First Time” (should be lower)
8. Cee-Lo Green – “F*** You” (should be higher)
9. Foster the People – “Pumped Up Kicks”
10. OneRepublic – “Good Life”
11. Gym Class Heroes ft. Adam Levine – “Stereo Hearts”
12. Adele – “Someone Like You” (could be higher)
13. Bruno Mars – “The Lazy Song”
14. Katy Perry – “Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F.)”
15. Maroon 5 ft. Christina Aguilera – “Moves Like Jagger”
16. Britney Spears – “Hold It Against Me”
17. Lady GaGa – “Born This Way”
18. Ke$ha – “Blow”
19. Coldplay – “Every Teardrop is a Waterfall”
20. Kelly Clarkson – “Mr. Know It All”
21. Christina Perri – “Arms” (should be lower)
22. Hot Chelle Rae – “Tonight Tonight” (could be higher)
23. Pitbull ft. Ne-Yo, Afrojack, and Nayer – “Give Me Everything” (should be higher)
24. The Band Perry – “If I Die Young”
25. Gavin DeGraw – “Not Over You” (should be lower)
26. Beyoncé ft. J. Cole – “Party” (has no business being anywhere near this list)
27. Train – “Save Me San Francisco”
28. Jason Derülo – “It Girl”
29. Andy Grammer – “Keep Your Head Up”
30. Red Hot Chili Peppers – “The Adventures of Rain Dance Maggie”
31. David Guetta ft. Usher – “Without You”
32. Nicki Minaj – “Super Bass”
33. Colbie Caillat – “Brighter Than the Sun”
34. Nickelback – “When We Stand Together”
35. Britney Spears – “Criminal”
36. Grace Potter & the Nocturnals – “Paris (Ooh La La)”
37. Demi Lovato – “Skyscraper”
38. The Civil Wars – “Barton Hollow”
39. Jessie J – “Domino”
40. Daughtry – “Crawling Back to You”

Jmunney’s Revision
1. Rolling in the Deep
2. Pumped Up Kicks
3. Someone Like You
4. Paris (Ooh La La)
5. Rope
6. E.T.
7. Super Bass
8. Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F.)
9. Blow
10. F*** You
11. Every Teardrop is a Waterfall
12. The Adventures of Rain Dance Maggie
13. Without You
14. The Cave
15. Barton Hollow
16. Mr. Know It All
17. Domino
18. Good Life
19. Give Me Everything
20. Born This Way
21. Moves Like Jagger
22. Brighter Than the Sun
23. Grenade
24. Hold It Against Me
25. Criminal
26. Tonight Tonight
27. Skyscraper
28. Keep Your Head Up
29. F****** Perfect
30. If I Die Young
31. Save Me San Francisco
32. Stereo Hearts
33. For the First Time
34. Arms
35. Party
36. When We Stand Together
37. The Lazy Song
38. Not Over You
39. Crawling Back to You
40. It Girl

Top 20 Countdown is taking a few end of the year weeks off to make room for the Top 40 of the year countdown, but that’s no reason for me to skip my revising.  I have never quite been able to figure out how VH1 determines the order of its Top 40 of the year.  It must have more to do than with just how the videos performed on the Top 20, if that even really matters at all.  The list is ostensibly a measure of how big a hit these songs were, which is hard to objectively measure perfectly.  As far as I am concerned, it is about ubiquity, and VH1 appears to agree, for the most part.  In addition to my normal revision in terms of the quality of the songs, I am also including some thoughts on how big I measured these hits to be, by noting those that charted too high or too low.  It is worth mentioning now that I do not know how “Teenage Dream” or “Nothin’ on You” missed the cut.  For the record, “Teenage Dream” would have been number 1 on my revision if it had made the countdown (and everything else remained the same).

Original Version
1. Train – “Hey Soul Sister”
2. The Script – “Breakeven” (should be lower)
3. Katy Perry – “California Gurls”
4. Adam Lambert – “Whataya Want From Me” (should be lower)
5. Lady GaGa – “Bad Romance” (could be higher)
6. Lady Antebellum – “Need You Now”
7. Usher ft. will.i.am – “OMG”
8. Eminem ft. Rihanna – “Love the Way You Lie”
9. P!nk – “Raise Your Glass” (should be lower)
10. Bruno Mars – “Just the Way You Are”
11. Ke$ha – “Tik Tok”
12. B.o.B ft. Hayley Williams – “Airplanes”
13. Rihanna – “Only Girl (in the World)”
14. Michael Bublé – “Haven’t Met You Yet”
15. Taylor Swift – “Mine”
16. Jay-Z ft. Alicia Keys – “Empire State of Mind”
17. Christina Perri – “Jar of Hearts” (should be lower)
18. Maroon 5 – “Misery”
19. John Mayer – “Heartbreak Warfare” (should be lower)
20. Katy Perry – “Firework”
21. Paramore – “The Only Exception”
22. Drake – “Find Your Love”
23. Daughtry – “September”
24. Jason Derülo – “In My Head”
25. Travie McCoy ft. Bruno Mars – “Billionaire”
26. Sara Bareilles – “King of Anything”
27. Mumford & Sons – “Little Lion Man”
28. Linkin Park – “Waiting for the End”
29. Train – “If It’s Love”
30. Usher ft. Pitbull – “DJ Got Us Fallin’ in Love”
31. Lady GaGa ft. Beyoncé – “Telephone” (should be higher)
32. Kings of Leon – “Radioactive”
33. Adam Lambert – “If I Had You”
34. Mike Posner – “Cooler Than Me” (should be higher)
35. Kid Rock – “Born Free”
36. Eminem – “Not Afraid” (should be higher)
37. Jack Johnson – “At or With Me”
38. Sugarland – “Stuck Like Glue”
39. Taio Cruz ft. Ludacris – “Break Your Heart” (should be higher)
40. Muse – “Resistance”

Judging by the top of my list, it was quite the singular year.

Jmunney’s Revision
1. Only Girl (in the World)
2. The Only Exception
3. Find Your Love
4. Radioactive
5. Breakeven
6. Tik Tok
7. OMG
8. Bad Romance
9. King of Anything
10. Little Lion Man
11. If I Had You
12. Telephone
13. Cooler Than Me
14. Just the Way You Are
15. Love the Way You Lie
16. California Gurls
17. Not Afraid
18. Resistance
19. Jar of Hearts
20. Haven’t Met You Yet
21. Whataya Want From Me
22. Break Your Heart
23. Waiting for the End
24. Misery
25. Airplanes
26. Firework
27. Empire State of Mind
28. Born Free
29. DJ Got Us Fallin’ in Love
30. At or With Me
31. Mine
32. In My Head
33. Stuck Like Glue
34. If It’s Love
35. Need You Now
36. Heartbreak Warfare
37. Raise Your Glass
38. Hey Soul Sister
39. Billionaire
40. September