Top 30 Pop Songs of 2010

What a great year for pop music! I am truly delighted to have looked back on 2010 and found 30 pop songs that I truly loved. I'm looking forward to great music from all of these artists in 2011.

*1. "Take Control" (Sted E & Hybrid Heights Radio Edit) - Julissa Veloz
2. "Your Love Is My Drug" - Ke$ha
3. "King Of Anything" - Sarah Bareilles
4. "If Its Love" - Train
5. "All The Right Moves" - OneRepublic
6. "Telephone" - Lady Gaga feat. Beyonce'
7. "Speechless" - Lady Gaga
8. "Billionaire" - Travie McCoy feat. Bruno Mars
9. "Gives You Hell" - Glee Cast
10. "Stereo Love" - Edward Maya & Vika Jigulina
11. "Naturally" (Dave Aude Remix) - Selena Gomez & The Scene
12. "Bad Romance" - Lady Gaga
13. "Oh Yeah" - Rod Carrillo & Ronnie Sumrall feat. Bodega Charlie
14. "Grenade" - Bruno Mars
15. "Only Girl (In The World)" - Rihanna
16. "Going Strong" (The Grower Guitarra Mix) - Natalia Flores
17. "You Belong With Me" - Taylor Swift
18. "Raindrops" - Basement Jaxx
19. "Acapella" - Kelis
20. "Misery" - Maroon 5
21. "Secrets" - OneRepublic
22. "Haven't Met You Yet" - Michael Buble
23. "Strange Condition" - Morgan Page
24. "Indestructible" - Robyn
25. "We No Speak Americano" - Yolanda B Cool & Dcup
26. "Poker Face" - Glee Cast
27. "Overload" (Buzz Junkies Club Mix) - Dana Rayne
28. "Shut Up And Let Me Go" - The Ting Tings
29. "Break Your Heart" - Taio Cruze feat. Ludacris
30. "We Are Golden" - Mika

*The #1 most-played track on my ipod in 2010

The Five Worst Pop Songs of 2010

Before anyone reads this I just want to give much love to all of my friends working hard at major labels to promote artists and bring success to their companies. For what its worth, each of these singles was commercially successful in their own right and any criticism is not of the artist itself but of the single. Each of these artists has had at least one single in their careers that I have loved...........it's just that the classically trained university music major in me has certain creative and artistic standards that these particular tracks failed to meet. It concerns me deeply that pop songs that are lyrically inspiring, rhythmically innovative, structured according to the rules of Western music theory and delivered with genuine vocal talent are becoming increasingly rare. This is how I've chosen to complain. Here are, in my opinion, the worst offenders of 2010.

Eminem
"Not Afraid"

I'm not afraid to take a stand
Everybody come take my hand
We'll walk this road together, through the storm
Whatever weather, cold or warm
Just let you know that, you're not alone

You know what irritates me most about this track aside from the bland, predictable, faux-inspirational chorus? The fact that urban artists and producers use so little creativity in order to deliver something that is no doubt intended to be a dramatic statement. To put things in perspective, here are just a handful of the other songs that have incorporated the overused i-VI-III-VII chord progression in recent years:

"Holiday" - Green Day
"Poker Face" - Lady Gaga
"American Girls" - Counting Crows
"One Of Us" - Joan Osbourne
"Numb" - Lincoln Park
"Lost" - Coldplay
"Love The Way You Lie" - Eminem & Rihanna

Here's what I think happened. Eminem and his producers worked tirelessly in the studio for months to create gritty, heartfelt and unique tracks that are Eminem's forte. Then somebody stood up and said "Hey guys, the album is done, now let's throw something together that radio stations will play." Anyone agree?

Usher
"OMG"

Is Usher even trying anymore? Seriously. Had this song been released without any edits by Andy Samberg as an SNL parody, all of America would have gotten the joke; coming from an established R&B vocalist with a 16 year run of legitimate chart-topping hits, it fell flat. The 'song' (and I use the term loosely) wreaks of laziness on the part writer/producer will.i.am in both songwriting and production. "OMG" comes off as a pathetic attempt to appeal to the lowest common denominator with pointless chanting, autotune and a years old web culture reference. Its almost like he took the gems from his 2004 multi-platinium release "Confessions," dumped them into a Brita filter and poured pop music lovers a glass of what was left. Drink up!

Justin Bieber
"Baby"

He's young. He's cute. He's got a decent voice. He plays the guitar. He's white. So here is my question: whose brilliant idea was it to turn Justin Bieber into a faux hip-hop/urban crooner, pair him up with a low-brow rapper and throw him onstage alongside hip hop dancers? Wouldn't it have made more sense to brand him as an acoustic singer/songwriter (I'm thinking a young Jason Mraz), pair him up with legitimate songwriters instead of urban beatmakers who wouldn't know a harmonic progression if it bit them on the ass and let him share his talents without adding the urban elements? Just because he was discovered by Usher doesn't mean he needs to be Usher, right? The Garage Band beats, uninspiring chord progressions, predictable melodic line and obnoxious 1-word chorus are simply an embarrassment to a young talent that I truly believe is capable of more.

Rihanna
"Rude Boy"

As a man, the lyrics of Rihanna's "Rude Boy" make me.....well.......uncomfortable. I mean, I grew up with Madonna and Britney-- overt female sexuality is neither surprising nor threatening in the least. But on what planet do these qualify as song lyrics?

Come here rude boy, boy can you get it up?
Come here rude boy, boy is you big enough?
Take it, take it, baby, baby

Not to mention the fact that these three lines repeated endlessly over unchanging beats and chord progressions comprise about 90% of the song. Pointless garbage, but if absolutely nothing else it makes me all the more grateful for the colorful and provocative video.

Taylor Swift
"Mine"

I don't mind Taylor Swift. "You Belong With Me" definitely fell within my top 20 singles of 2009. "Mine," the lead single from her multi-platinum October release Speak Now, however, left much to be desired. Swift, though vocally unremarkable, is a talented songwriter with a string of catchy pop/crossover hits to her credit. So what went wrong here? From a structural standpoint the song is rhythmically and melodically repetitive. The backing instrumental track sounds sounds like every other country song that has been written since the dawn of time. But worse than that the song simply isn't about any subject matter that hasn't already been thoroughly covered in Swifts first two studio albums. I don't think that anybody expected her 3rd album to be a drastic transition into womanhood (think Britney, Christina, Miley, etc) but from an actual songwriter I'd have expected a more mature and compelling production.

5 Rules for Successful Artist Contests

I've been running online contests on behalf of artists across all genres and career levels for some time now and have learned a thing or two in the process. A special contest or promotion can be a great way to engage your online fanbase or achieve some other marketing goal, but before launching into something there are a few rules of thumb that could make the difference between a worthwhile effort and a waste of time.

1) Determine Your Goal.

Don't ever run a contest just for the sake of running a contest or to give your fans 'something to do'. Use a contest as a means to achieve a specific marketing goal and determine what that goal is before starting. Do you wish to promote a new album, single or video? Increase sales? Build a fanclub? Obtain fan feedback? Promote a social media profile? Encourage newsletter or mobile fanclub signups? Figure out what exactly it is that you'd like your fans to do FIRST and tailor the promotion around this objective.

2) Keep It Simple

I cannot overemphasize the importance of creating contest elements that are as simple and straightforward as possible. The entry instructions/method of entry are the most important in this respect. If you cannot list your entry instructions in less than 3 individual steps, revisit the concept and overall framework of the promotion in order to determine a way to simplify things. Stick to a method of entry that doesn't require the entrant to visit multiple websites or social network profiles or submit too much personal data. The more hoops that your fans have to jump through to participate, the fewer that will.

3) Beware of Contest Cliches

A viral video promotion sounds like a great idea, right? This may be true, but before confidently asking your fans to share videos of themselves rocking out to your new single, be aware that an extremely small percentage of online fans will take the time to record and submit a video. If you are a developing artist I'd recommend steering clear of this one as you will likely be disappointed at the low number of submissions. As a conservative estimate, you can expect 1 video submission for every 20,000 myspace fans. No joke. An alternative U.G.C. promotion? Ask fans to submit photos, or even better, text entries on a specific topic. I also recommend using voting campaigns (i.e. 'vote for our band on 3rdpartysite.com') sparingly, if at all. Why? First of all unless you can obtain full entry data from participants and offer some sort of prizing for participation, what are your fans getting out of voting for you to win a contest on a 3rd party site? Whats in it for them? Why should they submit their email address and other personal info to a site that they don't care about so that you can win an online contest? I see artists and bands overusing voting campaigns all the time, and the only ones who seem to benefit are those running the contest.

4) More Prizes, More Submissions.

As a rule of thumb, it is a better incentive to offer many fans a small prize rather than a 'grand prize' that only 1 fan will be lucky enough to obtain. Think about it; a fan will read your contest details including prizing info and quickly calculate their chances of taking something home as a result of their participation. 1 prize offered to 1 lucky fan tells the fan that the odds are not in his or her favor, so why bother? Instead, offer a larger number of smaller prizes to more participants- or better yet, EVERYBODY that enters. A free song download for each entrant or 5 Free CDs per week for 4 weeks is an outstanding value proposition. Don't have a budget for shipping prizes? Label won't let you give away song downloads? Be creative!

5) Be Consistent with All Contest Elements

If your contest language indicates that you will announce the winner on August 21st, you'd better stick to it. If you promise a small prize to a large number of people, do not put off your fulfillment efforts. If you say that the prize is a free pair of concert tickets on Facebook, it had better say that on Myspace as well. Even if you feel like the majority of your fans are in one place online as opposed to another, be sure to announce and promote your contest equally across all web properties; respect people where they choose to interact with you online, not where you feel they should be. Make an effort to create visually appealing contest artwork; hire a graphic designer to do this if possible.

Top 25 Music Discovery Sites

I did a bit of research for my own purposes and thought I'd share the results.

I'd been reading a blog post entitled 'The Top 5 Music Discovery Sites' and was surprised to see at least 1 that I was unfamiliar with. The article linked to a similar article on Mashable that cataloged the top 50 services. I noticed, however, that both articles seemed to be a bit outdated-- at least in online terms. I thought I'd check on the Alexa traffic ranking (U.S.) of each site listed and see how they stacked up against one another. The top 10 results turned up at least 2 sites that I'd never heard of and I was unfamiliar with most of the listings after that.

Here are the results:

The Top 25 Music Discovery Sites with Alexa Rank

1. Pandora (77)
2. Ilike (607)
3. Grooveshark (911)
4. Blip.fm (1946)
5. Mog (2298)
6. Purvolume (4487)
7. Hypster (9462)
8. Haystack (9586)
9. Magnatune (29,702)
10. Finetune (61,084)
11. Ijigg (65,884)
12. Musicovery (67,262)
13. ProjectOpus (87,077)
14. Audiolunchbox (103,941)
15. Epitonic (127,899)
16. Babulous (168,678)
17. Flyfi (229,655)
18. MusicNation (245,618)
19. Twones (273,138)
20. Bandbuzz (643,332)
21. Soundpedia (706,069)
22. upto11.net (910,787)
23. OneLlama (1,221,092)
24. Musicmesh (1,284,224)
25. Audiobaba (1,524,016)