Eric's Top Songs of 2010

Another year, another Clopper commentary on the year's popular music. I thoroughly enjoy this reflection, and the ranking turns into my end-of-year music shopping list, so you may see more of these for a while. I started doing this countdown in 2008 as a tribute to that awesome year of music. 2010 turned out to be even more impressive. After scraping together a list of 45 songs last year, in 2010 I had to pare down a crazy list of 91 contenders.

Billboard has a really interesting commentary on the year, with some interesting statistics. 2010 experienced the continued decline of rock: America's alt rock radio shrank to 65% of its 2002 footprint, and only one rock band ever reached Billboard's top 10 (Train, who didn't make my list). 2010 also witnessed a decline in Hip Hop: as Billboard noted, neither of the top two albums of the year were Hip Hop for the first time in 13 years. Instead, 2010's stars were danceable pop, pop/rock crossovers, and pop/r&b crossovers. Always the fan of the heavy beat and the mixed genres, this was music to my ears. Five of Billboard's Top 10 made my top 25, up from just one last year.

2010 brought with it some exciting new acts, some great follow-ups, and a few sad goodbyes. Ludacris leant his fame to support the Taio Cruz (#12, #46) U.S. debut , and B.o.B (#4, #11) exploded onto the charts with his collaborations with non-hip hop artists. Atlanta rap is apparently still alive, mixing percussive voice with actual musical talent. On the rock side, We Are the Fallen didn't disappoint with their debut album. Although I've never heard them receive any airplay, they win four spots (#17, #33, #37, #44) on my ranking.

Some great earlier artists continued to deliver. Haylee Williams, despite her insistence that she's not "some straight to Top 40 pop princess," leant her brilliant vocal talent to a song reaching #1 in America and another reaching #12. Paramore leapt ahead of Evanescence to become the second-most played artist of all time in the Clopper household (behind Raffi, who will probably never be beaten… thanks Ryan). Haylee takes four spots (#1, #4, #34, #39) on my list. Breaking Benjamin's fourth album also won four spots on the list (#18, #26, #30, #50), and P!nk (#10, #28, #49) eventually released seven singles off of her fifth album (each about a different stage of her divorce grief), landing Funhouse on my chart for the third year in a row. Timbaland (#29, #53) changed up his style a bit for the fascinating but horribly-named Shock Value II. This year also saw the reemergence of some decade-old artists releasing songs much fuller than anything they had before. Enrique takes #9 on my chart, Nelly takes #8, and Usher takes #5. Saving some love for next year, expect to see some late 2010 follow-on songs from Linkin Park, Anberlin, Finger Eleven, and Filter, as well as Avril's much-anticipated-by-me next release in my 2011 list.

And finally 2010 does have three sad goodbyes. After being dropped from their American record label, Flipsyde (#2, #19, #32, #36, #43) disbanded. Apparently their huge popularity in Germany wasn't enough for this California band. I'm glad I was able to enjoy them, and five songs from their final, non-US album make my list, more than any other artist. Somewhat more intentionally, Fall Out Boy (#6, #16, #27) went on indefinite hiatus, but not until after releasing three songs for this year's countdown. Some of the worst news waited until December, when the Farro brothers left Paramore. The next few years will see if Hayley can carry on without them or if we'll see an Evanescent decline. We will miss you all!

Well, that's a lot of preface… Let's review the rules. To make my 2010 list, each song must have been released in 2009 or 2010, or be an unreleased track off an album with a single that was. Any song that made last year's list is disqualified, such as Billboard's Top Alt Rock Song of 2010. So here they are for your notes or critique, Eric's Top 60 songs of 2010:

60. only girl - rihanna (9/10)

59. true faith - anberlin (9/09)

58. telephone - lady gaga ft beyoncé (1/10)

57. don't believe a word - third eye blind (6/09)

56. resistance - muse (2/10)

55. according to you - orianthi (10/09)

54. whataya want from me - adam lambert (11/09)

53. tomorrow in the bottle - timbaland ft chad kroeger (2009-2010)

52. we no speak americano - yolanda be cool & dcup (2/10)

51. like a g6 - far east movement (4/10)

50. into the morning - breaking benjamin (2009-2010)

49. it's all your fault - p!nk (2008-2010)

48. you don't belong - daughtry (2009-2010)

47. dynamite - taio cruz (7/10)

46. darling i want to destroy you - afi (2009-2010)

45. teenage dream - katy perry (7/10)

44. i am only one - we are the fallen (2010)

43. welcome to hollywood - flipsyde (2009)

42. my best theory - jimmy eat world (8/10)

41. evacuate the dancefloor - cascada (6/09)

40. in my head - jason derülo (12/09)

39. the only exception - paramore (4/10)

38. i am trying very hard to be here - afi (2009-2010)

37. bury me alive - we are the fallen (2/10)

36. a change - flipsyde (11/09)

35. the crow & the butterfly - shinedown (4/10)

34. careful - paramore (7/10)

33. paradigm - we are the fallen (2010)

32. state of survival - flipsyde (2009)

31. bodies - robbie williams (10/09)

30. lights out - breaking benjamin (6/10)

29. if we ever meet again - timbaland ft katy perry (2/10)

28. funhouse - p!nk (8/09)

27. disloyal order of water buffaloes - fall out boy (2008-2009)

26. i will not bow - breaking benjamin (8/09)

25. too shy to scream - afi (2009-2010)

24. bulletproof - la roux (6/09)

23. all the right moves - one republic (9/09)

22. bad romance - lady gaga (10/09)

21. take it off - ke$ha (7/10)

20. undisclosed desires - muse (11/09)

19. one love - flipsyde (2009)

18. what lies beneath - breaking benjamin (2009-2010)

17. don't leave me behind - we are the fallen (2010)

16. 27 - fall out boy (2008-2009)

15. tik tok - ke$ha (8/09)

14. love the way you lie - eminem ft rihanna (8/10)

13. savior - rise against (6/09)

12. break your heart - taio cruz ft ludacris (9/09)

11. don't let me fall - b.o.b (11/10)

10. bad influence - p!nk (3/10)

9. i like it - enrique iglesias (5/10)

8. just a dream - nelly (8/10)

7. i will stay - we are the fallen (2010)

6. headfirst slide into cooperstown on a bad bet - fall out boy (2008-2009)

5. dj got us fallin' in love - usher ft pitbull (6/10)

4. airplanes, part II - b.o.b ft hayley williams and eminem (4/10)

3. club can't handle me - flo rida ft David guetta (6/10)

2. when it was good - flipsyde (5/09)

1. ignorance - paramore (7/09)

I would be remiss if I didn't publish a list for Ryan as well given his great taste. The same rules will apply, knocking out old classics like The Itsy Bitsy Spider and some newer songs such as Muse's "Boodoo Song" (on my 2009 list), and Rihanna's "Bumblebee Song" (on my 2008 list). That leaves a top 5 of:

5. spinnin' - flipsyde

4. the toes song - ke$ha

3. my magic song - b.o.b ft rivers cuomo (not to be confused with "daddy's magic song")

2. airplanes song - b.o.b ft hayley williams

1. only 'ception - paramore

Don't forget to check out DJ Earworm's 2010 Mashup or his Summer Mix . Thank you 2010, and here's to a wonderful 2011!