THE TOP 10 SONGS FROM OUR POPDUST TOP 40 ARTISTS
Now that we’ve settled our list of the top 40 artists in pop music right now, debate within the Popdust offices shifts to an obvious follow-up question—what are the best songs from this list of great pop artists? Tough call, since we’re talking about years and years of great pop music here—going back whole decades, in the case of a couple artists. We decided to simplify things by keeping things to one song per lead artist, but still, hard decisions had to be made. Ultimately, five-star pop songs like Usher’s “Yeah,” Taylor Swift’s “You Belong With Me,” Mariah Carey’s “Fantasy” and Gnarls Barkley’s “Crazy” all missed the cut—regrettable casualties of just how small a number ten is.
But you know that if those songs could only make it to honorable mention, the ten songs that did make it most be some goddamn classics, huh? Take a listen through the gems that comprise our list of the top ten songs from our Popdust 40 artists, let us know if you disagree with any of our selections, and don’t bother worrying about your co-workers looking at you strangely for spontaneously bursting out into song—they’re just jealous of your free-spiritedness, really.
#1 Madonna, “Like a Prayer”
Year: 1989
Fun Fact: Madonna intended the song’s famous chorus line “I’m down on my knees / I wanna take you there” to have a dual meaning, implying fellatio as well as prayer. When co-writer/producer Patrick Leonard first heard the line, he insisted Madonna get rid of it, threatening to walk from the song. But the pop star stood firm, insisting “If you don’t wanna work, then go. I’m not changing anything.”
Best Moment: Madonna’s exhortation to “Let the choir sing!” at 2:21—which she then does—officially kicking the song into its highest gear.
#2 Kelly Clarkson, “Since U Been Gone”
Year: 2004
Fun Fact: Despite being one of the biggest hits of 2004 and Clarkson’s best-remembered song today, “Since U Been Gone” only peaked at #2 on the Hot 100. The song that held it off? 50 Cent and Olivia’s deplorable “Candy Shop,” in the midst of a nine-week run on top of the charts. Not our finest moment as a pop-listening nation.
Best Moment: The song’s bridge at 2:09, where Kelly declares “Shut your mouth, I just can’t take it! / Again and again and again and AGAAAAIIIINNN!” and everything drops out except the Yeah Yeah Yeahs-borrowed guitar breakdown. (Indie rocker Ted Leo would later turn this moment into a well-conceived live medley.)
#3 Michael Jackson, “Billie Jean”
Year: 1982
Fun Fact: Producer Quincy Jones wanted to change the title of the song to “Not My Lover,” afraid that the original title would confuse people into thinking the song was about ’70s tennis star Billie Jean King. Michael Jackson of course refused, since he thought King’s sexuality would preclude people from making such an assumption. The two clashed for several days on the matter, but Jackson prevailed.
Best Moment: The beginning drum intro, one of the best and most instantly recognizable drum parts in pop history. “There aren’t many pieces of music where you can hear the first three or four notes of the drums, and immediately tell what the piece of music is.” engineer Bruce Swedien would later write about the song. “But I think that is the case with ‘Billie Jean.’” Indeed.
#4 Beyonce feat. Jay-Z, “Crazy in Love”
Year: 2003
Fun Fact: Eugene Record, lead vocalist of the ’70s soul group The Chi-Lites (famous for hits like “Oh Girl” and “Have You Seen Her?”), won his first-ever Grammy at age 63 for Beyoncé‘s “Crazy in Love,” which sampled the Chi-Lites’ “Are You My Woman (Tell Me So)” prominently enough for him to receive a writers’ credit. Record would pass away a year later from cancer.
Best Moment: At 0:13, in the midst of the song’s first run through its unforgettable horn riff, when Beyoncé asks “You ready?” The question is almost definitely rhetorical.
#5 Eminem feat. Dido, “Stan”
Year: 2000
Fun Fact: Eminem‘s “Stan” became so associated in popular culture with crazy celebrity fandom that the term “Stan” came to be used to refer to superfans of a certain artist. The first high-profile instance of this came in the Nas track “Ether,” at the height of his feud with Jay-Z, in which he referred to the Jiggaman as “a fan, a phony, a fake, a *****, a Stan.” Today, the word has now evolved into a verb among young’ns, as in: “I Stan for Drake, but not for Lil Wayne.”
Best Moment: The part in the chorus, regurgitated by Dido from her own single “Thank You,” in which the bass line deviates from the original song for one minor note, implying a world of malice and unease in one subtle tonal shift. (First heard at 2:07).
#6 Rihanna feat. Jay-Z, “Umbrella”
Year: 2007
Fun Fact: The instantly recognizable drum intro to Rihanna‘s chart-topper wasn’t the result of any kind of studio wizardry—rather, it’s just a sped-up version of a loop from Mac music programming software GarageBand. Song co-producer/writer Terius “The-Dream” Nash heard collaborator Christopher “Tricky” Stewart playing around with the loop on his computer and was enraptured with it, leading to the beat’s creation.
Best Moment: As the song’s bridge wraps up at 3:07, Rihanna yelps “Be-cause!,” priming us for the launch into the song’s climactic chorus.
#7 Britney Spears, “Toxic”
Year: 2004
Fun Fact: The song’s distinctive Eastern-sounding string hook is in fact taken directly from the source—it’s a sample from Bollywood flick Ek Duuje Ke Liye, music by Lata Mangeshkar and S. P. Balasubramaniam. Impressively, the hook is not lifted verbatim from the movie’s score, but rather sewn together from two out-of-order sections of the piece.
Best Moment: Any of Britney‘s falsetto’d “Too high, can’t come down” coos at the end of the song’s verse, first appearing at :43. The most representative lyric of the song’s delirious, disorienting charm.
#8 Jay-Z feat. UGK, “Big Pimpin”
Year: 1999
Fun Fact: The sample that the song’s hook is built around, taken from a recording of Egyptian composer Baligh Hamdi’s “Khosara,” was one of the biggest factors in the song’s success, but also has caused Jay-Z and producer Timbaland a good deal of stress since the song’s release. The sample has resulted in a number of lawsuits from the “Khosara” owners, most recently from Hamdi’s relative Osama Ahmed Fahmy, who said the sample violated Hamdi’s “moral rights.”
Best Moment: Any number of couplets from Jay-Z’s gleefully heartless opening verse, especially “Me give my heart to a woman? Not for nothin’, never happen / I’ll be forever macking” at 0:42. (A since-betrothed Jay has, disappointingly, disowned the lyrics, claiming “I can’t believe I said that. And kept saying it. What kind of animal would say this sort of thing? Reading it is really harsh.”)
#9 Lady Gaga, “Bad Romance”
Year: 2009
Fun Fact: Gaga has claimed that the song is about “being in love with your best friend,” though the song has come to mean different things to different people—UrbanDictionary.com also defines the term “bad romance” as being “when you’re in a relationship that you know is bad for you but can’t help it.” Chris Brown split the difference between the two in his 2011 single “She Ain’t You,” in which he laments of his current girlfriend “When I’m with her it’s only ’bout the sex / With you I had a bad romance.”
Best Moment: The first round of “Ra Ra / Ga Ga”s at 0:30, announcing Gaga’s presence with the regal authority she deserved in her first song back from the mega-success of The Fame.
#10 Adele, “Rolling in the Deep”
Year: 2011
Fun Fact: The success of Adele‘s “Rolling in the Deep” was a slow-burning one. Originally released in November 2010, it didn’t make it to the top of the US charts until May of 2011. Its 24-week trek to pole position was the longest a single took to make it to #1 since Creed’s “With Arms Wide Open” took 31 weeks to top the Hot 100 back in 2000.
Best Moment: When the guitar and drums drop out of the third verse at 2:31, and it’s just Adele, backing vocals and a whole lot of hand-clapping and foot-stomping.
http://popdust.com/list/top-ten-song...y-z-lady-gaga/
