Forget You another that got too overplayed for my liking, its not I would consider an 2010 highlight.

Oooh after saying this felt like it would all be quite close to my own ranking, 2 of my likely top 3 both drop out early!

At the end of 2010 I ranked Telephone as my song of the year, I don't rate it anywhere near that highly now and don't go back to it loads, but I'd still have it as my favourite Gaga song - Just Dance and Born This Way the only others of hers I ever really listen to now. Forget You is absolutely magnificent, loved it from the very first listen and never really tired of it, you're definitely right about it working just as well with the clean version and not really needing f*** You,

Love Forget You, a great track delivered with such an effortless and fun performance by CeeLo and he gets into character so well especially on the middle eight: "Uh, why? Uh, why? Uh, why, lady?".

I heard a Bossa Nova cover of it in a restaurant a few weeks back which had a lady very sweetly singing the F*ck You version in a beach bar breezy style, which the restaurant must have not noticed and removed from the playlist. It was extremely jarring to hear lyrics like this song has sung in such a nonchalant kind of way. It only works with passion.

4 hours ago, gooddelta said:

Love Forget You, a great track delivered with such an effortless and fun performance by CeeLo and he gets into character so well especially on the middle eight: "Uh, why? Uh, why? Uh, why, lady?".

I heard a Bossa Nova cover of it in a restaurant a few weeks back which had a lady very sweetly singing the F*ck You version in a beach bar breezy style, which the restaurant must have not noticed and removed from the playlist. It was extremely jarring to hear lyrics like this song has sung in such a nonchalant kind of way. It only works with passion.

Reminds me of those karaoke versions of pop songs you hear in shops. It grates when you are so used to the original version.

It took me way too long to discover there was an explicit version of 'Forget You'! My mind was eventually blown. It's a well-pitched, scathing song in either form even if I did end up preferring 'Bright Lights Bigger City' from the same era, as others have also mentioned - very grandeur. Gwyneth Paltrow covering 'Forget You' on Glee was a fever dream

Not complaining about it blocking 'Shame' either, a damp squib. "with your poster 30 foot high at the back of Toys-R-Us" is an iconically awful lyric

10. Yolanda Be Cool – We No Speak Americano (feat. Dcup)

1 week at #1 (entered 11^th July, #1 on week beginning 25^th July): 05-02-01-02-03-04-04-06-09-11-11-15-21-20-33-40-43-46-52-69-82-87

Kept off #1: Eminem – Love The Way You Lie (feat. Rihanna)

EOY #9

From the early 2010s to the late 2010s, specifically, there was a fun underground genre known as ‘electro-swing’, the practice of combining swing and jazz, often with a specifically 1920s feel, with modern electronic dance music. Really big in internet culture, attracted really strong emotions from a lot of people, loud and brash and colourful, easily critiqued by those with more sophisticated music tastes, easily loved by those who like music on their vidya game soundtracks. Very very fun time regardless and I am one of the genre's cursed defenders. Key artists: Parov Stelar (who appeared at this year’s Eurovision) and Caravan Palace.

I put this in past tense as while there are still undoubtedly a few electro-swing songs being released, including a few of my favourites of the genre as influences from it hit a few select pop, rock and rap artists, it has really died off in recent years as its own thing. It may not be this song’s fault, but I like to lay the death of this genre at the door of one song in particular: The Swinghoppers & Wolfgang Lohr – 'Party Like It’s 1920'

Released on 31 December 2019 so the genre that homaged the old 20s could celebrate the entrance to the new 20s and promoted on all of Youtube's electronic dance channels, it quickly aged, well, you can imagine how well lyrics like 'We’ve been waiting for this decade for a hundred years, but now the 2020's are finally here' aged. The pandemic-sized elephant in the room aside, its self-referential and pretty poor lyrics and weak instrumental betray how little depth there was creatively in this genre now it had been done a fair few times across the 10s. Let's now contrast that with what the genre was like when it was, relatively, fresh and new.

The reason for this pre-amble into electro-swing's popularity and a brief history of the genre? It's because I really do not recall that being a descriptor of 'We No Speak Americano', possibly a genre progenitor, back in the day. It's an electro-swing song now, sure. So is Doop - 'Doop' for that matter. So are other 2010 releases like Gramophonedzie's 'Why Don't You' and Caro Emerald. Clearly there was something to this electronic sound with swing/jazz influences, whatever it was called, that was becoming popular around this time. At the time I can only recall all of these being described as a 'tribute to jazz and swing', or something of the sort. I feel like the term 'electro-swing', while not entirely new to the years after 2010, only popularly began to be applied to this sort of music actually a few years into the 2010s. Earliest article I can find actually calling this music 'electro-swing' is this 2011 article from The Independent: https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/features/electroswing-tonight-we-re-going-to-party-like-its-1929-2276174.html. Parov Stelar had released his genre-defining tune 'Catgroove' in 2009, which did go somewhat viral, but this was 2009 and things took ages to actually become properly viral, it only showed up in BJSC in 2020 after all.

Considering 'We No Speak Americano' is the only electro-swing #1 in UK chart history (or one of two, depends if you count Doop or not), this is somewhat important to its story. Given how much our cultural memory is disappearing from articles on the internet dying and being replaced with AI that can't source things to save its life, I challenge you to test my memory, was this song described as 'electro-swing' then? It feels like a post-hoc descriptor and reviews of the song from the time seem to support that, those that I've been able to find. The thread on Buzzjack seems to support this as well, everyone in there is comparing it to Gramphonedzie and Doop, not describing it by the genre it would eventually be given. A lot of my memory with it is suddenly realising that this was an electro-swing song, years after I got into the genre. Otherwise, and perhaps this is a more accurate summation, 'We No Speak Americano' stands alone as a complete oddity. And I love complete oddities.

Yolanda Be Cool, not the only act in the dance industry to be named after a line from Pulp Fiction (the other I know of is Zeds Dead), I don't think set out to make an electro-swing song, specifically. Collaborating with producer DCUP, and for both artists, the only notable thing they would ever do, the credited artists' main contribution to this song is speeding up and adding some modern, at times swingy production to the 1956 Neapolitan song 'Tu vuò fà l'americano' ('You Want To Play American'), a song that already had a bit of pizzazz and swing to it. The title of this version even gives off a different meaning to the song, that is assuming anyone in English-speaking countries listened to what was going on in the song. I bet lots of people thought it was Spanish. I must confess having never really thought about it I did for a long time.

The final song on this countdown to have kept off 'Love The Way You Lie' and the first, entering in July, I think this is the only one where I wouldn't swap them, not because this song is strictly better, but it's just such a unique and fun proposition to have as a #1 single I'm really glad it got there in the end. It's also one of the songs that had a fake version in the top 40 before it was released, and if I've missed any of these in the past that's an oversight, though a song with very anonymous artists was prime prey for these. Once released, it landed at #5 before quickly climbing to #1, just because of how popular it was getting all across the world and here, where we were still doing held-back demand for songs.

Throughout there's really great rhythmic beats, you can absolutely dance to it (as the cast of the Inbetweeners famously did in their 2011 movie), it really fits into that category of #1 that we rarely if ever get anymore, a kooky iconic dance hit, and it wasn't even a poor seller, this sold loads, held on for ages and went into the year-end top 10 well before any Inbetweeners danced to it. Back in the day I thought this was a bit of background noise that was a little bit annoying but with each listen it gets more and more charm, helped by its association with a genre I love, but also because it is one of those songs where the production is actually really well done and the craziness just sort of hides that until you take the time to look a bit more closely. Which I say to encourage you to listen to this on repeat until you go insane. ^_^The electro-swing trolls never died, we just hibernated.

'We No Speak Americano', possibly the weirdest of the 2010s #1s, can quite happily kick off my top 10. It's just a fun good time, a summer tune that always leaves you feeling positive, and in the right circumstance, a fantastic time on the dancefloor, no matter what you call its genre.

I don’t think I’ve heard this song since 2010 and for some reason I was getting it confused with Riverside from 2009.

On the song itself I’m not hugely keen on it and it’s a shame it held off Love The Way You Lie.

I can appreciate it for what it is to some degree but it did irritate me a fair bit oops.

Summer hit of 2010 - appreciate it and this would be slightly higher for me.

Ah, now …Americano is definitely something I can get behind. A big dumb fun dance pop record, always brings a smile to my face.

We No Speak Americano was such a fun, quirky hit for the time even if I never loved it enough to download it. Definitely one of the better #1s of 2010.

Loving your write-ups Iz. ❤️ Looking forward to your one about a certain ‘redhead’.

A huge bit of fun at the time - I'd not heard of Electropop until after this one had been and gone, but I like the genre, I liked Caro Emerald and appreciate recycling genres for a modern audience, Doop aside. To me it was more in the vibe of previous European essential party hits like Asereje aka Ketchup Song. "Fun" has always been a dirty word to some music critics looking for Beethoven or Shakespeare, but I'd just comment they had mass appeal too, and Shakespeare wasnt above bunging out fluff. I know I enjoyed it in pubs and clubs at the time, even if it's a challenge to shuffle along to with a pint in your hand if you don't want to annoy those nearby....

One of the summer hits of 2010. Quite enjoyable this from them. I think there was an fake version from Marco Calliari weeks before the original was released which charted at #26.

Just listening to the 2010 #1's right now and now I have some more comments on the songs listed so far.

David Guetta - Gettin' Over

This would be much higher for me - another good one from him I enjoyed a lot.

Ne-Yo - Beautiful Monster

Another banger. Like the use of the "Higher State Of Consciousness" acid line and it is cleverly arranged.

Roll Deep

It is so painful to listen to him. Both songs would be so much better without his cringy rap style.

Oops, not Wolfgang Lohr derailing the whole genre, I remember I sent an electro swing song remixed by him to BJSC that did pretty well, We Are What We Are by Bart & Baker.

I love We No Speak Americano, it was quite a breath of fresh air that summer. Quite a lot of good dance and good vibes that summer, and the Inbetweeners dance was very memorable too.

I remember hearing the original in Italy in 2017 (they love the song it seems) and not realising it was sampled!

Some catching up to do, 'Club Can't Handle Me' and 'Forget You' both greatly annoy me (agreed that 'Bright Lights, Bigger City' is better)

'We No Speak Americano' is an absolute banger. It took a while for me to get that one, but it ended up hooking me in.

6 hours ago, gooddelta said:

Oops, not Wolfgang Lohr derailing the whole genre, I remember I sent an electro swing song remixed by him to BJSC that did pretty well, We Are What We Are by Bart & Baker.

I love We No Speak Americano, it was quite a breath of fresh air that summer. Quite a lot of good dance and good vibes that summer, and the Inbetweeners dance was very memorable too.

Admittedly the failure of that song to meet the mood of the decade got me focused on it, a possibly bigger and even sadder reason is that genres like electro-swing that have a dedicated following but very few and mostly anonymous, underground artists are prime targets for AI so it's much harder to trust in any new song being decent. Same applies to synthwave, city pop, ambience, vocaloid, a lot of specialist electronic subgenres quite honestly.

9. Diana Vickers – Once

1 week at #1 (entered 25^th April): 01-04-08-18-31-44-48-65-77-x-x-x-x-75-84

Kept off #1: none

EOY #101

Sometimes, a musician must do something a little different when they’re granted an opportunity (a talent show), and the general public in their infinite wisdom do not choose you to win. For many contestants, they don’t have artistic integrity in the first place, that’s why they went on a talent show. But for those small percentage that do, there’s a bit of a difficult route ahead.

Such was the fate of one Diana Vickers, who gained a sizable following for her performing style and voice. She signed to RCA Records in early 2009 after her talent show stint was done, but very wisely, considering her youth, took her time. Then it’s even more perilous. Too much time and all interest is lost, too little, and it’s a rush job. Her team at RCA managed to time this fairly perfectly though, a year and a half of promotion including something or other on the West End (you’ll have to forgive me, in addition to not watching the pre-2010 seasons of The Talent Show I was even less aware at the time of what alumni were doing on London stages). Kept her in the public eye anyway.

Regardless of all of that, what followed after was good enough for Diana to reach that rare status, in my mind, of a talent show contestant who successfully left all of that, including the poor artistic impulses associated with such rot, behind. Not entirely, as I do remember seeing her perform her third single 'My Wicked Heart' on the show, discovering almost at the same time how seriously some people take songs being sampled in a bad way (it was a pretty poor thing to do to 'Under The Bridge' in fairness). But mostly. While in part this is because of my partiality to electropop, this can be seen by how far she is up this countdown in comparison to the others (3 2008 alumni having #1s this year huh), and as such, we shall now forget that that was ever part of her background.

The musical result of this strategy was quite a fun list of writing collaborators for Diana’s eventual debut album, Songs From The Tainted Cherry Tree. They included Nerina Pallot, Dev Hynes (aka Blood Orange), Ellie Goulding and veteran songwriter Cathy Dennis. I could certainly compare Diana’s music to that of Ellie Goulding’s, a singer who has had not enough mentions in this thread considering that she was the winner of the BBC Sound Of 2010 poll at the beginning of the year – alas the high airplay ‘Starry Eyed’ was a few places off the top in March, and I did already mention ‘Your Song’ getting blocked later on. The 2010 runner-up, one Marina who at the time had diamonds, also is somewhere in the ballpark of ‘quirky altpop singer’ that Diana was heading towards, though certainly a different voice style. And yet this is the first #1 that is near that sound that the BBC Sound of poll thought we’d be listening to all year. If only. If this thread was full of Ellie and Marina singles I’d have a lot less to criticise I can tell you that, though I suspect that’s true for most of us. Oh, yeah. Wasn’t even Goulding who wrote ‘Once’.

Cathy Dennis and songwriter Eg White wrote ‘Once’, and here Dennis is the one with the best pedigree. She was involved with writing some of the most beloved pop songs of the 2000s, such as ‘Can’t Get You Out Of My Head’ and ‘Toxic’. Does ‘Once’ compare to those? No. Is it still damn good? Yes. Diana's voice sounds absolutely amazing, her breathiness I'm sure divides opinion but I love it. She has what you need to sell this kind of electropop, in that she could stand up against Britney or Ellie quite easily, and then the production leads the song through a great progression. The follow-up single, 'The Boy Who Murdered Love', played a similar trick, and was just as good if not even slightly better, unfortunately that one could only reach #31. 'Once' is lyrically strong also - what exactly does 'I'm only going to let you kill me once?' mean? No one knows what it means, but it's evocative. Or some relationship stuff about fooling me once, shame on you, fool me - you can't get fooled again. Evocative lyrics rule, is my point, 'Once' certainly makes them sound really fun.

After seeing off one of the few decent things that rapper Chipmunk ever did in his short chart career, and even then, mostly due to featured singer Esmée Denters, 'Until You Were Gone' at #3, and a failing 'OMG' at #2, 'Once' scored what is perhaps one of the more surprising #1s of the year, and the short chart run it had shows it never really had much longevity, I think I heard this a few times at the time but honestly not many if at all - but this is one of the good things about the era where it was possible to hold back songs, sometimes you would get undeserving #1s, but sometimes you'd get some niche gems like this where the strength and passion of a fanbase could get you further.

I don't mean this in any negative way against Diana, but she doesn't seem like the sort of artist who would have a number 1 single under her belt, and for that, her reaching the top spot 'Once' (I know, I know, I'm here all week), is very pleasing. She would go on to have a short chart career, a decently performing second album and a fanbase that was very active and vocal around the time I joined this site. I always thought she was a decent singer even though I never considered myself a fan, and most of the songs I know from her I like.

I don't think I had heard anything from her or thought about her for years outside of getting ready for this thread until just over a week ago, when I was linked this Instagram reel, relevant to my interests as I have been developing a brief hyperfixation about trying different wines, including whatever Kylie is flogging these days, got a bottle of her rosé for whenever I next feel like it. Kylie music from the early 00s is very fitting for Diana, she's still in touch with her stylistic roots, and though I hadn't heard it until literally just now, released her first song in over a decade last year, 'Ice Cream', not bad at all. Great for her; 'Once' is still an electro-pop-rock banger.

'We No Speak Americano' was a fun and quirky chart moment! Love that you mentioned 'Why Don't You' by Gramophonedzie as well. Both of them scratched an itch for me before I'd properly delved into retro music, with those old school samples. I heavily associate electro-swing with 2010 and also 2015 due to Electro Velvet (!) in Eurovision and Caravan Palace being sent to BJSC at the end of the year too, 'Lone Digger' really expanded my horizons - absolute banger.

I dismissed 'Once' a bit at the time for being quite repetitive but it's really grown on me over time and I rate it now! That electro-pop sound suits her.