LMFAO Feat. Lauren Bennett & Goon Rock - Party Rock Anthem

This did eventually get me shufflin'



Spyke

In the Party Rock Anthem video, it does amuse me how LMFAO essentially put ear plugs in to stop themselves from having to listen to their own song. For a long time I felt like I was doing the same, trying not to let this catchy little number infiltrate my mind and get me bopping along too. However it was only a matter of time before I succumbed to the track. The thing is you've just got to appreciate it for what it is; a song to go out and party to. Judging by how much time I was spending in the library revising for my exams around the time of its release, this probably influenced the song's appeal for me.

I do love how the track builds up and gets more infectious as the six minute video progresses. The stand out moment for me is when Lauren Bennett provides a nice vocal contribution toward the end of the track. Although she is simply telling us to 'Get up and get down' and to put our hands up, it really help the track from becoming a bit too monotonous.

However, my least favourite element has to be the 'shuffling' breakdown. Why all of a sudden in 2011 did artists think it was ok for them to replace an epic chorus with 30 seconds of shuffling time? Both Britney and Rihanna have tried it, but I do hope this trend isn't going to continue for too much longer. Overall though, this is a minor objection compared with about with what was to follow... No LMFAO you are NOT SEXY despite thinking you know it, and that video is rather repulsive.

Jennifer Lopez Feat. Pitbull - On The Floor

Her first Number One in over six years...

McLovin

Okay, I admit it. I have finally succumbed to this song. When it was released, I barely paid it any attention; with endlessly repeated lyrics and a featured performed by 'Mr. Worldwide', it didn't do that much for me. Close to year later, with nearly half a billion (!) views on YouTube, I definitely should have paid it more attention.

On The Floor takes the 'let's sing in the club til we're drunk'-feeling that's dominated the early Gaga-BEP-Guetta chart hits for the past three years to the absolute limit. In retrospect J.Lo's comeback single feels a bit like a culmination of all that's (recently) gone before it. RedOne production? Check. Marmite-like guest rapper? Check. Absolutely enormous chorus? Huge stamp of approval.

While there's a part of me that - rationally or not - prefers I'm Into You, I do feel I'm getting to grips with why this was such a global success. I like J.Lo quite a lot anyway, so all's well that end well, eh?

NEXT UP: Apologetic party-rockers LMFAO dominate the charts...

Adele - Someone Like You

There isn't much that I can say about Adele's 2011 that hasn't already been said. With one of the best three single runs of the past decade Adele is nicely on her way to selling the 20,000,00th copy of 21 worldwide - a feat I never thought I'd see anyone do again. This is the sort of single that only ever comes along once in a very lucky career - a song that can capture the hearts of the world. For me there were three stages in the story of this song...

1 Jools Holland Performance



Someone Like You is the last song on the record, when I was writing it I was feeling pretty miserable and pretty lonely - which kinda contradicts Rolling In The Deep where I'm like I'm going to be fine without you. This one was me kinda on my knees really. That relationship that the entire record's about is really summed up in Someone Like You, it's changed me in a really good way. It's kinda really made me who I am at the moment and I'm sure they'll be another relationship well I hope so anyway...that helps change and define me as well.
But I can imagine being about 40 and looking for him again and turning up and he's settled and he's got a beautiful wife and some beautiful kids and he's completely happy and I'm still on my own . . . It's kinda about that.

2 The Brit Awards 2011



There's nothing quite like the feeling; when you're listening to a song,
written by someone you don't know - who you've never met.
Who somehow manages to describes exactly how you felt at a particular moment in your life.
This next artist is able to do it time after time...
If you've ever had a broken heart you're about to remember it now.

3 The Video



In a music world where Lady Gaga has demonstrated the importance of event videos to boost the success of your singles and albums, Adele did the complete opposite. Leaving music channels the Brits performance to play, we finally got a glimpse of a video a 'mere' 6 months after the song topped the UK chart (and almost every territory except the US - where it would soon rise to the top of the Hot 100). The video is very modest and humble, a black and white clip showing Adele looking absolutely stunning as she walks along the river Seine. The song really does just speak for itself and I think this beautiful video helps complement it in every way.

Adele would have easily had the biggest selling album of 2011 without this song but it just took her sales to a whole other level. I like to call it the Someone Like You effect; the track helped the album just fly off shelves around the globe.

Jessie J - Who You Are

So we finally got around to listening to Jessie J's debut album and here are the marks out of ten...

Notes:

1. Big White Room (Live) is quite possibly THE worst track 4 in music history
2. Who's Laughing Now followed by Do It Like A Dude stops the album falling apart in the middle and seem like the only successful moment of track sequencing
3. Thank God for Domino
4. Skip the live bonus tracks

So this was Number One in January five years ago...

McLovin

It came on at the end of my gym 'workout' the other night.

It was Number One five years ago.

FIVE YEARS AGO.

That's half a decade.

Crikey.

It's aging quite well, but that may be because I was never really in love with the song at the time, and haven't listened to it all that much afterwards. It's quite hard to imagine this getting to the top if it was released today, isn't it?

It's hard to imagine Mika ever having a hit single again.

Five years is a long, long time in pop music.

Top 20 Best selling Singles and Albums

Spyke

2011 was the biggest year for singles sales in Official Chart History. For the first time since Peter Kay set off to Amarillo and Shayne Ward discovered his Goal in 2005 we've had multiple million sellers within the calendar year. This year both Adele's Someone Like You and Maroon 5 & Christina Aguilera's Moves Like Jagger hit the lucrative target become the UK's 106th and 110th million sellers (Love The Way You Lie, Just The Way You Are and Only Girl (In The World) crossed the mark between them). Here's a full run down of 2011's biggest sellers. Album wise Adele seems to be single-handedly (just) keeping the market alive!

Singles

1 Adele - Someone Like You

2 Maroon 5 & Christina Aguilera - Moves Like Jagger

3 LMFAO Feat. Lauren Bennett & GoonRock - Party Rock Anthem

4 Jessie J Feat. B.o.b. - Price Tag

5 Rihanna Feat. Calvin Harris - We Found Love

6 Pitbull Feat. Ne-Yo, Afrojack & Nayer - Give Me Everything

7 Bruno Mars - Grenade

8 Ed Sheeran - The A Team

9 Adele - Rolling In The Deep

10 Jennifer Lopez Feat. Pitbull - On The Floor

11 Christina Perri - Jar Of Hearts

12 Rihanna - S&M

13 The Military Wives & Gareth Malone - Wherever You Are

14 Lady Gaga - Born This Way

15 Bruno Mars - The Lazy Song

16 Chris Brown Feat. Benni Bennassi - Beautiful People

17 Example - Changed The Way You Kissed Me

18 Aloe Blacc - I Need A Dollar

19 Snoop Dogg (Feat. David Guetta) - Sweat

20 One Direction - What Makes You Beautiful

Albums

1 Adele - 21

2 Michael Buble - Christmas

3 Bruno Mars - Doo-Wops and Hooligans

4 Adele - 19

5 Coldplay - Mylo Xyloto

6 Rihanna - Loud

7 Lady Gaga - Born This Way

8 Jessie J - Who You Are

9 Ed Sheeran - +

10 Rihanna - Talk That Talk

11 Amy Winehouse - Lioness: Hidden Treasures

12 Olly Murs - In Case You Don't Know

13 Cee Lo Green - Lady Killer

14 Noel Gallagher - Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds

15 Take That - Progress

16 One Direction - Up All Night

17 Chase & Status - No More Idols

18 Beyonce - 4

19 Westlife - Greatest Hits

20 Michael Buble - Crazy Love

Thanks to the Official Charts Company for the data.

Jessie J Feat. B.o.b. - Price Tag

What a treat to start the new year...



Spyke

The previous #1s of 2011 all felt like 2010 hits, as that's when they began blowing up in the US and when I first heard them. So this was the first *new* number one for me; and given it was the first track to successfully receive the 'on air, on sale' release I imagine it was pretty new to us all. Coming off the back of her debut single Do It Like A Dude and getting guest rapper B.o.B. on board, this had 'hit' writen all over it.

The questions to ask are whether this song deserves to be in the top 150 selling singles in the UK of all time. Does it deserve its million seller status? Is it a great 10/10 pop song? Has it got an amazing video like We Found Love? . . . and the answer to all these is 'No'. It was reeled out all over the promo circuit and became one of the biggest airplay hits of 2011 - and I for one heard it too much.

I think the issue for me is with Jessie J; she comes across very desperate, try-hard and not very likeable at all. Her debut album 'Who You Are' was one of the most successful releases of last year and I have enjoyed some of her latter cuts. The thing is, if Katy Perry was the one releasing this material then I would love it - then again Ms Perry does have a knack for turning 7/10 tracks into absolute corkers.

I'm pretty sure this track would have spent a little while longer at the top of our charts had it not been for a certain Brits performance by Adele which touched the nation. At McSpyMusic we like to be ahead of the game sometimes predicting what might be big - however I don't think anyone could have comprehended what would become known by some as the 'Someone Like You effect'. Even Nicole Scherzinger having her week at #1 with Don't Hold Your Breath couldn't stop Adele climbing back to the top a week later.

Rihanna Feat. Drake - What's My Name?

Beginning our rundown of 2011's Number Ones (and it's quite a tune)

McLovin

It seems strange to begin a review of all the UK chart toppers of 2011 with a song that feels very much like a 2010 hit. But Rihanna's dirty-talking-Drake-square-rooting-and-milk-spilling anthem had a week at the top last January. This gave Rihanna her fifth Number One single in five years (the first time ever for a female artist) and introduced Drake to a more mainstream audience this side of the pond.

Both of us were lucky enough to see Rihanna perform at her recent Loud tour at the 02. Craig saw her the day We Found Love reached the top, while I went just before Christmas (what a early present!). What's My Name? slotted effortlessly into her mammoth-hits setlist, and was a real personal highlight. When I first heard the song I initially thought I'd find the 'oh-na-nas' a bit grating after a while, but I still really enjoy it and haven't tired of it yet. I also consider it one of the finest 'walking along the street feeling a bit swaggering' tunes around (try it as a pair with Far East Movement's Like A G6 for ultimate posturing). Having sold over 750 000 copies in the country so far, What's My Name? should eventually reach a million sales, which would be an extraordinary (but no less deserved) achievement.

The song's short but sweet stay at Number One ended with Bruno Mars' Grenade having a two week-stint at the top which Craig wrote about here. Mars' piano-pulling ways came to halt when Ke$ha's We R Who We R had one week at Number One, which I wrote about here.

NEXT UP: Jessie J and B.o.B telling us it's not about the money, money, money!