Judgement Day (Special Edition): Pop Heaven’s Top 100 Songs of 2012 (Part 1 of 4)

Happy New Year, Everyone!

While many year-end, “best of” lists have long since been posted, in typical fashion I am a little late. That being said, it’s never really too late to look back at a year of popular music.

In retrospect, while 2012 may not have been a big year for stellar albums, it was a pretty great year for singles!

Some lessons learned from last year’s Top 100:

• My 2011 picks contained a lot of non-single tracks, which did not bode well when many of those songs became singles in 2012 (i.e. Adele’s “Set Fire to the Rain.”)
• Similarly, there were a few tracks that were released as singles in 2011 but didn’t really become hits until 2012 (“Domino” by Jessie J).

Sadly, since both of those tracks were on last year’s chart, you won’t find them in 2012′s year-end charts despite their being pretty massive hits this year.

So, this time around I tried to learn from my mistakes and started with all of my favorite singles released in 2012 that were not on last year’s chart. After listing all of those, I scoured through 2012′s album releases and picked only a few of my absolute favorite non-singles here and there to sprinkle in. A list of close to 200 songs had to be whittled down, and after hours of deliberations I was left with Pop Heaven’s Top 100 tracks of 2012!

We count down spots 100 through 76, after the jump! (or you can click “Play” on the YouTube playlist below to just listen!)

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: Pop Heaven or Hell? (Adam Lambert – Better Than I Know Myself)

(Buy “Better Than I Know Myself” on iTunes!)

Forgive me Pop Gods for I have sinned. It has been approximately 14 minutes since my last confession…

There was a time when I really didn’t care for Adam Lambert.

Before you flood me with hate mail or start looking for spare pitchforks and torches, let me say that I have truly enjoyed and supported everything that he’s done post-American Idol. There was something about the way everything happened on his season of American Idol that just made me… not a fan…  despite repeated conversations with my mother about how much she loved him. I would say that I was probably pretty intense about my non-fan-ness for a time, though truly I can not give you a reason in retrospect. Perhaps it just took me some time to understand what he’s about as an artist.

Regardless of the rhyme or reason in the baginning, the fact remains that my opinions have changed! I feel that I have just had an epiphany!