Eric's Top Songs of 2012

2012 has been an exciting year for the Clopper family! Following my annual tradition, it's time to make a playlist to help cement those fond memories. Music I played on the piano with my new baby girl in my lap. Music I listened to training for and running half and full marathons. Music played on my phone and in the car on a reshuffled schedule as Ryan entered first preschool and then Kindergarten.

This year's list begins with three stories. The first (this being me) is a case study in economics. Part of making this list every year is to create a year-end shopping list: I want to make sure I capture all the great songs while they're still in my head so that I can hear them on shuffle for years to come. But this year I had noticeably fewer songs on my year-end list that we didn't already own. We bought a LOT of music this year: 30% more than last year.  One might argue that there are externalities here: maybe this year's hits were better than last's (more on that in a bit). But I feel a lot of the increase was due to pricing. Amazon MP3 ran sales pretty constantly throughout the year, with loads of $5 albums, $0.50 songs, and AmazonLocal coupons. We bought a lot of songs that we probably wouldn't have paid the standard dollar for, so in a market with zero marginal cost these sales were a win.  But surely we also paid less for some songs that we would have bought anyway. Was this a good business move overall? How elastic is our shopping? Did Amazon make up in volume what they lost in price? For our one data point, the answer is "yes." Our music spending increased 20% this year over 2011 for a 30% increase in volume. Amazon wins, the artists win, and our listening ears win. 

If you're still with me, story #2 is an observation of viral music. 2012 witnessed an amazing escalation of how a single song can permeate... everything. This summer everybody and their cousin did a Call Me Maybe (#19) video. Not to be outdone, a few months later Gagnam Style (Unranked!) racked up well over a billion views on YouTube. Even if nothing ever touches Thriller on sales, it's hard to argue that any art has ever been able to saturate the world this quickly.

And story #3 is the reemergence of good old rock. Two years ago I (and Billboard) discussed the decline of rock as a genre. Last year I hoped that a couple standouts could help "make rock popular again" and help "the prospects of other stellar rock albums." What a difference two years makes! This year two of Billboard's top three songs also charted on their Alternative list. Rap's top showing was #20. Country's top was #49. Rock also had a strong showing of new music. Six of Billboard's Top 50 songs "of 2012" were on my 2011 list versus only only one song from their Alternative Top 50.  And when rock becomes popular it also influences other trends: 11 of Billboard's Top 12 made my "best of list" either for 2012 or 2011, making my list much more mainstream (or the mainstream much more like my list) than normal. Here's to a great year!

So onto the countdown. First a quick recap of the rules. As these are the best songs of "2012," each song on the countdown must have been released in 2011 or 2012, or be an unreleased track off of an album with a qualifying song. Honorable mentions this year go to "Young Blood" by The Naked and The Famous (6/10), "I Just Wanna Run" by The Downtown Fiction (8/10), "Time to Pretend" by MGMT (3/08) and "Rusted Wheel" by Silversun Pickups (2007-2008) which are too old to qualify. Oddly this year, Castle of Glass (#12) qualifies, when it won't be released on single until 2013.  The second rule is that songs my previous list are ineligible, which knocks out titles like Billboard's #8 (We Found Love) and #16 (Good Feeling).  This year's list has 74 tracks. Listen on Spotify here or read the countdown below:


74. Brand New Day - Trevor Hall (8/11)
73. Love You Like a Love Song - Selena Gomez ft The Scene (6/11)
72. Settle Down - No Doubt (7/12)
71. Starships - Nicki Minaj (2/12)
70. Home - Phillip Phillips (5/12)
69. What Makes You Beautiful - One Direction (11/11)
68. Glad You Came - The Wanted (7/11)
67. Lonely Boy - The Black Keys (10/11)
66. Live to Rise - Soundgarden (4/12)
65. Headlights - Morning Parade (2/12)
64. Changing - The Airborne Toxic Event (2/11)
63. I Like It Like That - Hot Chelle Rae vt New Boyz (10/11)
62. Summertime - My Chemical Romance (2010-2012)
61. Part of Me - Katy Perry (2/12)
60. As Long As You Love Me - Justin Bieber ft Big Sean (11/12)
59. International Love - Pitbull ft Chris Brown (5/11)
58. Gold on the Ceiling - The Black Keys (2/12)
57. Endgame - Rise Against (2011-2012)
56. Want U Back - Cher Llyod ft Astro (5/12)
55. Rumor Mill - We Are the In Crowd (2011)
54. Give Your Heart a Break - Demi Lovato (1/12)
53. Brokenhearted - Karmin (2/12)
52. No Curtain Call - Maroon 5 (2010-2011)
51. Everybody Talks - Neon Trees (12/11)
50. Where Are You - B.o.B (2011-2012)
49. Dreams - The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus (2011)
48. Die Young - Ke$ha (9/12)
47. Chalk Outline - Three Days Grace (8/12)
46. Apartment - Young the Giant (2/12)
45. Up N' Down - Britney Spears (2011)
44. Titanium - David Guetta ft Sia (12/11)
43. Lost in the Echo - Linkin Park (10/12)
42. Not Your Fault - AWOLNATION (10/11)
41. What You Want - Evanescence (8/11)
40. Let Yourself Go - Green Day (9/12)
39. Days Go By - The Offspring (4/12)
38. Stronger (What Doesn't Kill You) - Kelly Clarkson (1/12)
37. Chasing the Sun - The Wanted (4/12)
36. Make Believe - Silversun Pickups (2012)
35. How I Roll - Britney Spears (2011)
34. Cheers (Drink to That) - Rihanna (8/11)
33. I Will Wait - Mumford & Sons (8/12)
32. Set Fire To the Rain - Adele (7/11)
31. Too Close - Alex Clare (4/11)
30. Blow Me (One Last Kiss) - P!nk (7/12)
29. Looking Hot - No Doubt (11/12)
28. Tongue Tied - Grouplove (9/11)
27. Blackout - Breathe Carolina (6/11)
26. Drive By - Train (1/12)
25. Sick - Evanescence (2011-2012)
24. Whistle - Flo Rida (4/11)
23. Blood for Poppies - Garbage (3/12)
22. Good Time - Owl City ft Carly Rae Jepsen (6/12)
21. Wild Ones - Flo Rida ft Sia (12/11)
20. Princess of China - Coldplay ft Rihanna (2/12)
19. Call Me Maybe - Carly Rae Jepsen (9/11)
18. We Are Young - Fun. Ft Janelle Monáe (9/11)
17. End of the Dream - Evanescence (2011-2012)
16. We Run the Night - Havanna Brown ft Pitbull (4/11)
15. Little Talks - Of Monsters and Men (12/11)
14. S/C/A/R/E/C/R/O/W - My Chemical Romance (2010-2012)
13. Lights - Ellie Goulding (3/11)
12. Castle of Glass - Linkin Park (2/13)
11. Reap - The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus (3/11)
10. Broken Mirrors - Rise Against (2011-2012)
9. Midnight City - M83 (8/11)
8. Somebody That I Used To Know - Gotye ft Kimbra (5/11)
7. Surrender - Angels & Airwaves (10/11)
6. Kill Your Heroes - AWOLNATION (9/12)
5. Roads Untraveled - Linkin Park (2012-2013)
4. It's Time - Imagine Dragons (3/11)
3. Some Nights - Fun. (2/12)
2. My Heart is Broken - Evanescence (11/11)
1. Cough Syrup - Young the Giant (7/11)