Judgement Day (Special Edition): Pop Heaven’s Top 100 Songs of 2011 (Part 3 of 4)

Oh hey! So we meet again…

I hope everyone had a wonderful New Year’s Eve. I partied it up with friends, got a little too tipsy and got home at about 5:00am. There was great food and great fun, amazing music, an incident involving honey roasted peanuts and sparkling wine and a booby trapped Big Mac. A word to the wise: Even if you, too have watched and re-watched a classic SNL “Sully & Denise” skit, don’t ever do it unless you want your champagne to explode all over your crotch. All in all – a regular Saturday night!

You, however, aren’t here to find out about my wild night ringing in 2012, are you!? No way! You’re here to find out who made The Pop Gods Top 50 songs of 2011!

In case you’re just joining us:
- Read entries 100 through 75 in Part 1!
- Read entries 74 through 50 in Part 2!

We left off with some of you drooling ever-s0-slightly over the sinewy torso of Mr. Adam Levine as he slinked around with his “Moves Like Jagger”. Let’s see what the top half of our year-end countdown has to offer…

Judgement Day (Special Edition): Pop Heaven’s Top 100 Songs of 2011 (Part 1 of 4)

After a few touch-and-go years in popular music, it’s important to start off by saying that 2011 was an AMAZING YEAR and anyone who thinks otherwise can take a one way ticket to the tonedeaf but finely autotuned fires of Pop Hell.

I am going to state for the record that after compiling this chart, I realized that a lot of my favorite songs from 2011, across multiple genres of popular music share a common thread: a major late 80′s or early 90′s inspiration. While people have been trying to recreate the 80′s/90′s sounds in recent years, it is my personal opinion that 2011 is the year when they finally got it right.

• Return of emotional lyrics: With the major success of UK crooner, Adele, airwaves in 2011 shifted ever-so-slightly away from over-processed vocalists and headed back towards real voices singing about real feelings. We also saw a lot of fantastic artists known for their emotional material release much anticipated new albums/singles this year (i.e. Kelly Clarkson, Darren Hayes, Jennifer Hudson, JoJo, Adam Lambert, etc.)

• The Summer of Sax!: Though two hit pop singles and an album track do not make a revolution, there was a small resurgence of the classic late 80′s, early 90′s saxophone solo via a couple of Pop Heaven regulars: Katy Perry & Lady Gaga!

• Classic R&B Re-Emergence: Artists like Beyonce, Jessie J & the originators; Boyz II Men brought us back to the days when r&b music still had soul and made you feel a certain glow as the influence of R&B’s last golden days in the 1990′s creeped back in. We pray to The Pop Gods that this trend continues!

• IMPRESSIVE Emerging Artists: Not only were pop veterans out in full swing, there were a LOT of promising new emerging artists producing FANTASTIC singles this year. Including: The Rescues, Sabi, Neon Hitch, Simon Curtis & Jared Lee.

Without further ado, I present Pop Heaven’s Top 100 Songs of 2011. (Ok that’s a lie, but you do get entries 100 through 75!)

Judgement Day: Revisited: Simon Curtis – 8-Bit Heart

“Revisited” will aim to re-discover music, movies, etc. of years past! This review was written back in 2010 for a blog project with a friend that didn’t last, I thought it would be fun to re-post even though the album is a bit older. It is, however, still available for free download. Details are below!

Simon Curtis – 8-Bit Heart

“There once was a boy who was made, not created. He wanted to learn. He wanted to indulge his senses, to understand pain. But most of all, he wanted to love. For only when he found true love would he become real.”

With those opening words begin “8-Bit Heart”: a beautifully twisted electronic fairy tale about a boy robot’s search for true love in a world of humans who “complicate the word”. An album released solely on the interwebs (for now, at least) back on 03/24/2010 by a young (and completely adorable) young talent named Simon Curtis.

Introductions

Ladies & Gentlemen,

We are gathered here today in celebration of popular culture. I, being of reasonably sound mind and somewhat curvy body have decided to finally answer one of my many callings: to realize my dream of becoming Canada’s first celebrity blogger.

Ok, so maybe I’m not Canada’s answer to Perez Hilton, but frankly who wants to be? Blogs that post snark and gossip are a dime a dozen and I want to do something different.

Last year, at a New Years Eve shindig a friend was throwing, I was slightly intoxicated, nibbling on a variety of hors d’oeuvres and engaging in conversation about a countdown show of the “Top 100 Music Videos of All Time” when a complete stranger who was in attendance asked me if I was a professional critic. In the moment, I wasn’t sure if this inquiry was representative of a positive or a negative perception of my personality, but she added: “It just seems like you have very well-thought out opinions and you come across as a writer or a critic.”

A little seed was planted that night. I’ve been mulling it over in my head and over time I found myself inspired by a number of people I follow on Twitter. Being someone who always likes to give credit where it is due, I’m happy to give them a shoutout and honor their contributions.

The adorable and uber-talented: Simon Curtis. Photo by Tyler Shields

One day I was rifling through my mp3′s when I came across a song called “Pop Messiah” by Simon Curtis. (Check out Simon on Twitter!)

For those of you who are unfamiliar with Mr. Curtis, he is an independent pop singer/songwriter based in Los Angeles who used social media to garner an impressive online following. His 2010 album “8 Bit Heart”, hyped up using Twitter and offered from his website to fans for free, was downloaded more than 80 thousand times in it’s first week of release and the follow up: 2011′s “R∆” made the top 200 album charts on iTunes in 12 Countries with no label backing or promotion. The song’s title and popstar referrential lyrics brought to mind cover stories and headlines dubbing some hot new commodity as “The Pop Messiah.”

The Holy Spearit

I’d also noticed a trend where many of my favorite bloggers (i.e. Bradley Stern & Sam Lansky of MuuMuse) as well as many artist superfans were creating nicknames for their favorite pop artists that were based in Religion. Artists like Britney Spears earned names like “Godney” and “The Holy Spearit”. Similarly, Beyonce Knowles became “Beysus”

While I’ve always been a believer in objective, critical-when-deserved fandom, this idea of almost religious reverance of pop culture personalities is fascinating from a sociological standpoint but also it’s just plain fun and very inspiring from a visual approach. I began to contemplate how I too have several artists, musicians and filmmakers that I “Stan” for. Artists that I deeply respect and admire who in many ways, can do no wrong in my eyes. From these sources of inspiration spawned the idea to create and design this blog.

Some of you may ask if I worried that the title/theme may be offensive to some. It certainly was on my radar, but “messiah” can mean : a professed or accepted leader of some hope or cause. So, while I hope that you, the people, accept me – I will profess my passion and adoration for popular culture and do my very best to bring you some top notch music and movie reviews, artist profiles, interviews and anything else my twisted little mind can think up. I look forward to enlightening you in any way I can.

In the name of Madonna, (Clark)Son & The Holy Spearit. A-dele. Now go forth and praise Beysus! 

Note: If you are the artist responsible for any of the images above, please let me know.