Note: In order to make this list, the album or EP the song was featured on had to be released after Dec. 1, 2010 and before Dec. 1, 2011. Sorry, Katy & Nicki etc fans.
19. Bad Meets Evil (Featuring Bruno Mars) - Lighters
18. Shakira - Rabiosa
17. Coldplay - Up In Flames
16. Kid Cudi - No One Believes Me
15. Drake - Cameras
14. David Guetta - Without You (Featuring Usher)
13. Eric Church - Homeboy
12. Selena Gomez -Love You Like A Love Song
11. Maroon 5 - Moves Like Jagger
10. The Throne - *****s In Paris
I'll never forgive Kanye for starting this "that **** cray!" fad that's passing around Twitter, but at least it came from one of the hardest beats out this year.
9. Beyonce - I Miss You
I feel like on every album Beyoncè has at least one song that's way too short. On her latest album 4, it's the Frank Ocean production, "I Miss You." Everything about this song is amazing. Her range in this song alone is wider than the majority of her competitor's catalogs. I was actually shocked when the other Live From Mars bloggers chose this song because it's not the music Bey is famous for... but I think we all agree that "I Miss You" stands out as one of the smoothest songs she has recorded in many many years.
8. LMFAO - Party Rock Anthem
*shuffles up and down the blog* You mad?
7. J.Lo - On The Floor
Say what you want about J.Lo inconsistent music career, I bet you have this on your computer and have watched the video on YouTube at least 3 times. J.Lo made a huge comeback with this song and it caught everyone off guard considering the b-list material that had been leaking around the net.
6. Rihanna - Where Have You Been
Rih squeezed this song in just in the nick of time! Even though the majority of her album sounds like it was slapped in 2 days, "Where Have You Been" is probably my favorite Rihanna song ever. Major kudos to Dr. Luke on the stellar dubstep breakdown. Plus Rihanna (and Ester Dean) are giving crazy vocal runs throughout the chorus. In the car the bass can knock your wheels out of alignment and in the club the ground is shaking. Honestly, this song is everything "We Found Love" should have been. It's the progressive dark brooding sound we've been expecting from Rihanna since Loud. *crosses fingers for 3rd single!*
5. Nicola Roberts - Beat of My Drum
When it comes to underrated songs, this record takes the cake and I can't help but place the blame on how poorly the song was promoted by her label. Fortunately, this list isn't about chart toppers. That's what Billboard is for. "Beat of My Drum" is a hip and upbeat self-loving party anthem. My favorite thing about this song is that Beyoncè also sampled "Pon de Floor" by Major Lazers but "Beat of My Drum" was the far superior record. Instead of just taking the beat for what it was and recording over it, Nicola made an almost completely new song and changed the overall vibe. She really used the sample to her advantage, seasoning the piano and drum filled track with a pinch of dubstep and a whole lot of swag. If I had a ponytail, I'd be swinging it!
4. Lady Gaga - Scheiße
This song scares the **** out of me because I feel possessed every time she starts in on that pseudo-German mumbo jumbo... or maybe the sang is just that catchy. Either way, I love it! We actually had a tough time choosing a Gaga because her album had so many great ones. We could have went with the most diverse and artist song, "You & I" or the club banger "Judas" but at the end of the day we liked that Gaga gave us a 90s house vibe that we couldn't resist.
3. Chris Brown - Beautiful People
Chris Brown is technically an R&B artist, which is really unfortunate because his few-and-far-between pop records take giant nasty dumps on his more urban music. "Beautiful People" is a massive club banger pulling influences from dancehall, house and electropop music. Lyrically the song is simple, so it's beyond me as to why this song didn't smash Billboard when songs like "We Found Love" and "Without You" have since been #1 on radio. You can't really make a more perfect dance song and this is probably Chris' best pop song since his double platinum "Forever." It's the "forget about your troubles" tone that makes this song so addictive. It makes you want to just throw your hands up in the air and dance like you're the only person in the room! I'm doing that right now!
2. Britney Spears - Hold It Against Me
It's shocking how underrated this song was. Yes, it debuted at #1, but it fell off the Hot 100 faster than the battery in an Android phone battery dies. Chart politics aside, this is Spears' strongest lead single since "Slave 4 U." She's always been a pop pioneer, leading trends in mainstream music from the beginning of her musical career. She came out on top of the bubblegum movement in the 90s. She was the first pop star in her class to understand the power of sex, wrapping her sensual mumbles and coos in a urban beats with "Slave 4 U." In 2003 she kick the dance-pop genre up a notch with "Toxic." (She even won a Grammy for it.) Many years later she brought the club onto mainstream radio with "Gimme More" and practically the entire Blackout album and with "Womanizer" in 2008 electronic sounds (like a lot of the songs you hear on the radio now) completely took over mainstream music and have ruled since. Now with her 7th lead single she introduces radio to dubstep, a sound she brought to mainstream pop in the US back in 2007 with "Freakshow." No, I'm not saying Britney created or was the first to use these styles in the US, but anyone who doubts that she was the reason those styles took over radio, you're delusional. Now artist from Rihanna to Lil Wayne and B.o.B are using dubstep on radio. "Hold It Against Me" stealthily weaves the subtle dubstep beat throughout the song, leading up to an explosive Britney filled with Britney's sexiest ad-libs to date.
1. Adele - Rolling In The Deep
If you're surprised then you don't know pop culture. There isn't a person on this green and blue earth that does not know this song. It conquered radio for months, it was all over your favorite television show ads and had vocalist in every genre paying tribute. Though I personally think the song is way overrated, there's no denying it's power. Lyrically, this songs is a flaw-free reminder of the passion pop artists in the 90s had. It was not a song designed to smash on radio the way that it did, but the message hit home with many hearts and became the biggest song of the year. Then, of course, there's the catchy arrangement of the song added to Adele's incredible home-grown vocals. ****, the woman showed her ass singing this songs and even though they played it to death, I can still listen to it over and over. Congratulations Adele.
