We’re practically at the present day now, and getting ready for the finals, so make sure to tell everyone you know to get their votes in before it’s too late (especially for the most recent polls, which haven’t gotten many votes).
We have 28 songs on this list for the year before last. I think I have a pretty solid idea of which one is going to win based on how many people bemoaned its absence from the #1 poll for this year, but maybe I’m wrong.
There wasn’t much contest for my vote…“Get Lucky” whipped the buttocks of the others. Also-rans included “Radioactive” and “Safe and Sound.” “Cups” is dead-ass last.
Some really good songs came out in '13.
I could have picked any one of:
Imagine Dragons–Radioactive
The Lumineers–Ho Hey
Zedd w/Foxxes—Clarity
AWOL Nation–Sail
or
Maroon 5—Daylight.
I wound up picking Clarity just because I wind up playing it the most.
Daft Punk w/ Pharrell Williams - Get Lucky wins easily but for the first time since we reached the mid-2000s, I could have considered voting for another song (Safe and Sound). It might confirm a vague feeling that I have: after a terrible dry spell in the first decade of the 21st century, pop music got interesting again around 2012.
Daft Punk by a mile for me as well, but if that song hadn’t been on the list, this would have been a hard decision for me - I could easily have voted for Taylor, Avicii, Jay-Z’s Holy Grail (one of the most bitterly introspective rap songs I’ve ever heard), Icona Pop, Lady Gaga, or Anna Kendrick.
As a side note, the song that Kendrick’s “Cups” was based on, “When I’m Gone”, was first recorded by the Carter Family in 1931, making it one of the longest intervals between when a song was written and when it charted. (Of course, Sister Janet Mead’s recording of the Lord’s Prayer, which reached #4 in 1974 but failed to make the year-end chart, was a bit older at the time she recorded it, and the Byrd’s “Turn Turn Turn” older still.)
While I don’t share your sentiments with regards to Pharrell necessarily, I do have to say I dislike “Get Lucky”, this has been the case since it’s release two years ago.
It’s been out for 4-5 years and was actually a hit on alternative rock radio by 2011 at the latest. Apparently it took about 2 years to cross over and climb the Hot 100. By that time he/they were on at least their 3rd or 4th alternative “hit.” Apparently “Sail” sold around 6 million downloads. That song and album were very slow burners as the album peaked at #84 but went Gold. Right now there is a new Awolnation album (peaked at #17) and single. The new song is #1 Alternative this week.
I notice on these lists a lot of songs that are on Alternative radio years before they peak on the Hot 100. The Lumineers song was out for quite awhile in addition to being used on TV shows and commercials before it’s release. Though nowhere near as long as “Sail” (which my kids mostly know due to it’s use in a cat video).