Greetings, dear readers! After a long finals-and-holidays hiatus, Consider Me Named
is back, and ready to give you our year-end countdowns. Today, we start with the Top 20 Songs
of 2011, based entirely on the Billboard Year-End Hot 100 Chart. This means we looked at the 100-song
list, and picked our favorite 20 from it, and then ranked them 20-1. The only songs ineligible for our
rankings were songs that already appeared on last year’s countdown, of which
there were quite a few. So,
without further ado, here are the rankings:
20. Jessie J Featuring B.o.B - "Price Tag"
Not much to this one- just a pure pop song, with a positive,
if slightly unrealistic, message.
Right, Jessie J...we’re all just gonna forget about the money, and
dance. Lovely thought, but I’m
pretty content to keep sittin’ right here on my piles of internet money*, thank
you very much.
*All internet money purely fictional.
19. Bruno Mars - "The Lazy Song"
Another basic pop song with a very simple message Or, rather, a simple theme. “I’m lazy” isn’t really a message, I
guess. As I believe I mentioned
before, this is not a good song to listen to if you have work to do. However, if you’re looking for an
excuse to lay in your bed and, I don’t know, wear a monkey mask, this video
should be first up on your playlist.
18. Nicki Minaj Featuring Drake - "Moment 4 Life"
What’s telling about 2011 in pop music is that, despite this
song being number 18, I don’t really like it all that much. How does a song get this high if it’s
not even that good? Last year, I
genuinely enjoyed every song on the list.
Guess there were just fewer truly great songs this year. Here’s hoping for a turnaround in 2012.
17. Lil Wayne Featuring Drake - "She Will"
One of the only true non-crossover rap songs on this list,
“She Will” succeeds because of its lush beat and Lil Wayne’s typically clever
lines. Although I don’t really get
the chorus: “Maybe she won’t, but then again maybe she will?” Look, when you’re as rich and
successful as these guys are, shouldn’t you never still be with girls about
which you have to guess if they “will?”
Just sayin’.
16. Jennifer Lopez Featuring Pitbull - "On The Floor"
2011 was the year when J-Lo came back for real., and this
worldwide club jam was the main reason why. 460 million YouTube views don’t lie; the only person bigger than her was apparently Justin Bieber.
What’s funny about that, of course, is that he’s actually smaller than
her. What can I say- the kid
clearly has a Napoleon complex.
15. Blake Shelton - "Honey Bee"
Here’s the first of three country songs on this year’s
list. And wow, did I have a lot to
choose from. Yep, 2011 saw the
continued rise of country into the mainstream, and if more of the songs were as
quality as this one, there’d be even more on the list. Obviously, stuff like this is easy to
make fun of, but if you remove your urban cynicism, it’s infectious.
14. Chris Brown - "Yeah 3X"
This is a very solid club song from an artist slowly
starting to creep his way into the all-time pantheon of jam-makers. What intigued me most about it, though,
was the title. Why call it “Yeah
3X?” Was “Yeah Yeah Yeah”
copyrighted already? You can’t
copyright a song title, though, can you?
I mean, how many songs have been called “Hero” or “Heaven” or stuff like
that? Clearly nobody’s copyrighted
those. Maybe Breezy just liked the
idea of “Yeah 3X” even though they obviously never say those exact words in the
song? This is the kind of stuff
that keeps me up at night.
13. The Script - "For The First Time"
This song doesn’t try to do too much. It knows what it is- a mid-tempo
power-pop piano ballad. It stays
within its well-worn boundaries, carries a somewhat recession-centric theme,
and ultimately does its job successfully.
It’s not earth-shattering stuff, but it’s very listenable, and that’s
all you can ever really ask for.
12. Rihanna Featuring Calvin Harris - "We Found Love"
This may have been my most-anticipated single of the
year. Either this, or Lady Gaga’s
“Born This Way.” Due to my
unrealistic expectations, I sort of wrote this song off after it failed to live
up to them. After repeated (and
repeated and repeated) listening, though, it’s slowly crept back up my list as
I compared it to everything else out there. Don’t get me wrong, this is still not Rihanna’s best
work. But she’s so
head-and-shoulders above most pop music right now, “We Found Love” has earned
its place in the Top Songs of 2011 list.
11. Jason Aldean With Kelly Clarkson - "Don't You Wanna Stay"
2011 was the year of the country duet, and this was the best
of the crop. As such, it lands
almost in the top 10, which is certainly not something I ever thought I’d say
about a Kelly Clarkson song. Not
after abominations like this.
Jason Aldean is a little more understandable, but still, this is one of
the most surprising inclusions of the year. Just goes to show you should never count an artist out,
cause you never know what they’ll bring to the table in the future.
10. Dev - "In The Dark"
As I mentioned when I featured this song as a Song Of The Day, the saxophone made a big comeback in 2011 (maybe thanks to this guy?) and
no saxy song made a bigger impact on the charts than this one. As with many songs on the list, this
song tried to fit into a very specific category (sultry mid-tempo club jam) and
did exactly that. Let this be a
lesson to producers out there- if you want a hit, go for a very specific sound,
and don’t stop till you get it.
9. Mike Posner - "Please Don't Go"
It feels a bit unfair to include this, since it came out so
long ago, but it wasn’t on last year’s list, so I’m free to put it on the 2011
list even though it came out in August 2010. A song like this is difficult for me, because I
instinctively know that it’s not a very good song, but at the same time, I
really like it, so isn’t that all that should actually matter? Anyway, it comes in at number 9.
8. Britney Spears - "Till The World Ends"
Pretty simple- this is a straight up Jam with a capital
J. As long as Britney keeps making
songs like this, she can keep her career going for decades. Maybe. She’ll have to refrain from shaving her head again, and
keeping the weight down would be a plus, too. But musically, anyway, she’d be set.
7. Pitbull Featuring T-Pain - "Hey Baby (Drop It To The
Floor)"
Once again, I present to you one of the biggest Jams of the
year. This one was more of a club
jam, although it got considerable radio play as well. Either way, it was almost impossible not to bob your head,
tap your foot, or fist pump like a true juicehead gorilla whenever you heard
this song. Or...it was for me,
anyway.
6. Eli Young Band - "Crazy Girl"
Here’s our top country song of the year. Sure, it’s a little “soft” compared to
some of the other songs on this list, but you know what? My list. My choices. If
you wanna hate, I’ll put a boot in your ass, cause it’s the American way.
5. Rihanna - "S&M"
This inclusion also feels a little silly, since this is more
of a 2010 song, but it’s in Billboard’s 2011 Top 100, and wasn’t in my list for
last year, so it’s eligible. And
if it’s eligible, you’re damn right it’s a Top 5 song. It’s no “Only Girl,” but this is still
a certifiable, undeniable Jam.
4. Kelly Rowland Featuring Lil Wayne – "Motivation"
No doubt about it- this was the Babymakin’ Jam of 2011. If you didn’t make a baby to this song
this year, well, what were you
doing? Listening to Trey
Songz? “Practicing abstinence and
personal responsibility?” Gimme a
break.
3. Chris Brown Featuring Lil Wayne & Busta Rhymes - "Look
At Me Now"
I don’t have much to say about this song. Just two things: First, I learned the
Lil Wayne verse. I swear I
did. Easily my biggest
accomplishment of the year.
Second, if you have even a vague idea of the lyrics to this song, you’ll
want to watch this video. Thank me
later.
2. Maroon 5 Featuring Christina Aguilera - "Moves Like Jagger"
This was undoubtedly the Song Of The Summer in 2011, and and
it comes oh-so-close to the top spot for the year as a whole. But even the venerable trio of Jagger,
Levine, and Aguilera (sounds like a law firm) couldn't knock the current Queen of
Pop out of the pole position for 2011.
1. Lady Gaga - "You And I"
Last year, Rihanna took the top two spots on this
countdown. And when Gaga’s album
came out and I listened to it the whole way through, I was unimpressed, and I
thought for sure Rihanna was still the unquestioned Numero Uno. But the last song on Born This Way changed my mind. “You And I” saved the album, and saved
Lady Gaga’s image in my mind. This
is she needs to do more of. Were
there better songs than it in 2011?
Undoubtedly. But none of
them made the Year-End Top 100, and so of that list, this is head-and-shoulders
above the rest of the pack.
Can Gaga hold on to the top spot in 2012? Will Rihanna wrest back her title? Or will a new challenger emerge and
overtake them both? The only way
to know is to keep reading Consider Me Named in 2012! Until then, be on the lookout for our “Best Songs of 2011,
Period” list, coming soon!
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