BillyH

The start of a gradual drifting away from the charts, as memories turn from 2012's final year uni anthems to an underwhelming mid-twenties :P 2012 10 Of Monsters & Men - Little Talks 9 Loreen - Euphoria 8 Lady Antebellum - Need You Now 7 Swedish House Mafia vs. Knife Party - Antidote 6 Alex Clare - Too Close 5 Azealia Banks feat. Lazy Jay - 212 4 D'Banj - Oliver Twist 3 Sam & The Womp - Bom Bom 2 Alyssa Reid feat. Jump Smokers - Alone Again 1 Gotye feat. Kimbra - Somebody That I Used To Know 2013 10 Lana Del Rey vs. Cedric Gervais - Summertime Sadness 9 Showtek feat. We Are Loud & Sonny Wilson - Booyah 8 Avicii vs. Nicky Romero - I Could Be The One 7 Chris Malinchak - So Good To Me 6 Klangkarussell feat. Will Heard - Sonnentanz (Sun Don't Shine) 5 Icona Pop feat. Charli XCX - I Love It 4 Fatboy Slim & Riva Starr feat. Beardyman - Eat Sleep Rave Repeat (Calvin Harris Remix) 3 Bingo Players feat. Far East Movement - Get Up (Rattle) 2 Baauer - Harlem Shake 1 Emmelie De Forest - Only Teardrops 2014 10 Klingande - Jubel 9 Vance Joy - Riptide 8 MAGIC! - Rude 7 G.R.L - Ugly Heart 6 Idina Menzel - Let It Go 5 American Authors - Best Day of My Life 4 The Chainsmokers - #selfie 3 ZHU - Faded 2 James Newton Howard feat. Jennifer Lawrence - The Hanging Tree 1 Tegan & Sara feat. The Lonely Island - Everything Is Awesome

Three hugely happy drunken party years to the point where I want to give every damn song a ten, but if I do have to choose... 2009 10 MGMT - Kids (their entire album was just first-year uni heaven) 9 Alexander Rybak - Fairytale 8 Chuckie & LMFAO - Let the Bass Kick in Miami Girl 7 Kevin Rudolf feat. Lil' Wayne - Let It Rock 6 Agnes - Release Me 5 Young Soul Rebels - I Got Soul 4 A.R. Rahman & The Pussycat Dolls feat. Nicole Scherzinger - Jai Ho! (You Are My Destiny) 3 Nneka - Heartbeat 2 Metro Station - Shake It 1 Empire of the Sun - We Are the People 2010 10 Travie McCoy feat. Bruno Mars - Billionaire 9 Mike Posner - Cooler Than Me 8 Brandon Flowers - Crossfire 7 K'naan - Wavin' Flag 6 Gramophonedzie - Why Don't You 5 The Trashmen - Surfin' Bird 4 Yolanda Be Cool & D Cup - We No Speak Americano 3 Sidney Samson feat. Wizard Sleeve - Riverside (Let's Go) 2 Fyfe Dangerfield - She's Always A Woman 1 Duck Sauce - Barbra Streisand 2011 10 Bad Meets Evil feat. Bruno Mars - Lighters 9 Dev feat. The Cataracs - Bass Down Low 8 Alexandra Stan - Mr. Saxobeat 7 Martin Solveig & Dragonette - Hello 6 Lloyd feat. Andre 3000 & Lil' Wayne - Dedication To My Ex (Miss That) 5 Mann feat. 50 Cent - Buzzin' (Remix) 4 Sak Noel - Loca People 3 Yasmin - Finish Line 2 Foster The People - Pumped Up Kicks 1 Diddy-Dirty Money feat. Skylar Grey - Coming Home

These were three years of absolutely huge change for me, an extremely bored and miserable 17 year old in 2006 mutating into the joyous drunken raver I was by the end of 2008 :P A lot of late teenage memories here... 2006 +10: Kubb - Grow +9: Justice vs. Simian - We Are Your Friends +8: Jose Gonzalez - Heartbeats +7: Micky Modelle V Jessy - Dancing In The Dark +6: The Ordinary Boys vs. Lady Sovereign - Nine2Five +5: David Guetta vs. The Egg - Love Don’t Let Me Go (Walking Away) +4: Meck feat. Leo Sayer - Thunder In My Heart Again +3: Hi-Tack - Say Say Say (Waiting 4 U) +2: Supermode - Tell Me Why +1: El Chombo - Chacarron 2007 (bloody incredible list, easily the hardest yet to narrow down, but...) +10: Newton Faulkner - Dream Catch Me +9: Peter Bjorn & John feat. Victoria Bergsman - Young Folks +8: Plain White T's - Hey There Delilah +7: Hellogoodbye - Here (In Your Arms) +6: Amy MacDonald - Mr Rock & Roll +5: Robyn & Kleerup - With Every Heartbeat +4: Yves LaRock - Rise Up +3: Feist - 1234 +2: Unklejam - What Am I Fighting For? +1: T2 feat. Jodie Aysha - Heartbroken 2008 +10: One Night Only - Just For Tonight +9: Sam Sparro - Black & Gold +8: Hot Chip - Ready For The Floor +7: Iglu & Hartly - In This City +6: H "Two" O feat. Platnum - What's It Gonna Be? +5: Black Kids - I'm Not Gonna Teach Your Boyfriend How To Dance With You +4: M.I.A. - Paper Planes +3: Platnum - Love Shy (Thinking About You) +2: Steve Mac - Paddy's Revenge +1: Lupe Fiasco feat. Matthew Santos - Superstar

I can't tell you how amazed I am to see Gladiator make the top 5!! I genuinely only thought I'd be the only one voting for it, I only even became aware of it because of its presence on Now 58 all those years ago. Awesome to see it get a lot of fellow Buzzjack love, it really is one of my last genuine dance faves of the whole decade. A 2000/2001 release would have had it chart much higher but sadly it arrived a bit too late to get a stronger release.

30: LANA DEL RAY VS CEDRIC GERVAIS- SUMMERTIME SADNESS (New Entry) Peak: #4 (August 2013) akhmS1D2Ce4 A 'Nobody To Love' of EDM, again a sound that by the time this came out I was fairly done with but when it's done *right* it elevates it well above the competition. It's a combination of not just the voice, but whether the backing supports it appropriately enough and both Lana and Ricky's brother Cedric (not really) achieve greatness here. I've seen it read before that the best dance hits are both euphoric and melancholic, and this is a pretty epic example of both working in harmony. Fun fact - the newest song that was featured at my 25th birthday party a month later, a Spotify playlist I still happily own to this day.

31: GROUPLOVE - TONGUE TIED (New Entry) Peak: #84 (December 2011) 1x1wjGKHjBI Eighty...*what*? How was this not a massive, world-conquering top ten hit?! Thankfully America and Australia saw sense and it was much bigger over there, maybe over here everyone simply assumed it was called 'Take Me To Your Best Friend's House' and tried and failed to find it on iTunes. Or maybe, being 2011, it wasn't produced by David Guetta so no one cared. Perhaps it just sounded too noughties, too 2008 - you can imagine this played with in a DJ set with the likes of MGMT and Empire of the Sun, but by 2011 this sound was too out of fashion as everyone was firmly set in embracing synth pop/dance instead. It's a singalong *anthem* that deserves more than simply soundtracking an iPod Touch advert, this should have been big. Silly Britain. Song starts in the video at 0:25.

32: SIGMA - NOBODY TO LOVE (New Entry) Peak: #1 (April 2014) KD5fLb-WgBU ...but not in the version it should have been and not the one on my iPod. This is one of the songs that soundtracked a two-week holiday to Australia in March 2014, and because it had yet to be officially released I resorted to copying the audio off iTunes. Drum & bass in general has dominated dance music this decade in a way that even back in the noughties would have been hard to believe, sadly the majority of it is massively inferior to any of the truly brilliant stuff released in the 1990s and most of all on Pendulum's 2005 'Hold Your Colour' masterpiece album. It's become identikit pop music with a weak, basic, unchanging 4/4 d&B loop over the top, something that makes me pine for the days of Adam F, Roni Size and early Pendulum which had much more invention and freedom to it. Which is what this is too really, but what makes it better than anything else is the sample used, an immensely uplifting piano and vocals from Charlie Wilson - and perhaps best of all, a few "Ah-huh honey!"s from 1960s icon Brenda Lee. It started out as a simple mashup, and while I'm tempted to say it should have been released in the summer that perhaps wouldn't have been a good idea as by February it was already a huge Youtube hit and should have been released immediately. One problem - they couldn't clear the samples. The version released, as heard on radio, Now music compilations etc and everywhere since re-records it all with some bloke from One True Voice and generally doesn't sound as good, even the "Ah-huh honey!"s suffering as a result. No matter. As I sat on Bondi Beach, with 35-degree sunshine pouring down on me, I turned on my iPod, listened to the original mashup and enjoyed four minutes of bliss.

This is one of the few songs from Lithuania I know, only because it dates from the first time I discovered the country even existed: bz1FJq8yaJk ...and then, of course, came this BRILLIANCE a few years later: rbNfxTtJp0M

Oh go on then, it's been long enough so have one more for today: 33: JESSIE J FEAT B.O.B - PRICE TAG (Down 10) Peak: #1 (February 2011) qMxX-QOV9tI Some artists seem to exist for one song and one song only, despite how hard they try. Indeed there's nothing else of Jessie J's discography I'd ever want to listen to except this, her one bit of genius and another one that's survived from the original list. As I grow older, some songs that remind me of happier times can become harder to listen to in the future as a depressing sense of my own mortality surrounds me, but this was one I massively enjoyed both then at 22 and now at 26, a fantastic feel-good track at all ages. And a million seller, one of the only ones of the whole decade I actually like - but there's still more to come! More later this week :)

34: CHRIS MALINCHAK - SO GOOD TO ME (New Entry) Peak: #2 (May 2013) KrMl32cuC2A Until the Avicii adventures mentioned above, Summer 2013 was generally a stressed and trouble-filled time for a variety of reasons too boring to go here. What did perhaps help things was the heatwave month of July, the first real mega prolonged hot spell since 2006 and one where every day would wake up to cloudless, scorching sun. Unfortunately I didn't enjoy it as much as other years simply because my time was spent doing too much for too many people. No wonder I needed a holiday. Listening to this song, everything felt ok. It would calm me down and rest my fevered mind, but then at the end of the year it turned out to soundtrack the winter very nicely indeed too - a song that worked in two different seasons! A relaxing and evocative house track better than most around and still sounds great now in its second winter.

35: AVICII - WAKE ME UP (New Entry) Peak: #1 (July 2013) IcrbM1l_BoI I initially didn't think much of this. Well, it was *ok* but what put me off was its mega, mega sales, huge airplay and everyone praising it as the best song to ever happen in history ever. Seriously? It's a standard EDM dance track with a bit of country in it. Nothing more. Flash forward to two weeks in Scandinavia, September 2013, and this song is my ultimate soundtrack. Played on every radio station from Denmark to Norway to Sweden to Finland, blasted out of every car, plus a surprisingly warm climate with above-average sunshine for the time of the year all called me towards it and suddenly the lyrics started to hit me. It all culimated in a club in Helsinki, when on a big dancefloor on a Saturday night this genuinely did sound like the best thing I'd ever heard. A year and a half after its unending ubiguity, I can get past how overplayed it got and appreciate it both as a great example of the early 2010s EDM sound and one to effortlessly take me back to another era of my life.

...and we're back. :) Thanks to the two comments above and apologies for the sudden halt of this back in January. A combination of various life issues put hold to this and all other projects, but let's resume things with a triple bill of posts this evening. The list remains exactly how it stood when I compiled it back at the very end of the year, as tempted as I was to tinker with it! So number 36, and, erm, guilty pleasure time... 36: JASON DERULO - TRUMPETS (New Entry) Peak: #4 (January 2014) oOAfz0H4f00 Although a January release it's the summer of 2014 I associate this with, either singing it with friends on holiday in Vienna, or simply lying on the grass on hot afternoons with my iPod playing. While I'm definitely not a fan of Jason "JASON DERULO* Derulo, this works as it just refuses to take itself seriously and pumps up the cheese factor to a million, you've got that bouncy main trumpet hook plus some slightly ridiculous falsetto, and the lyrics which, bar a few questionable comparisons, are kinda clever in the way he compares certain attributes of a woman (or a man wearing a bra) to various songs by various artists. But generally it's all about that hook. Da da dadadada da da dadadada OH GOD it's in my head again now. Brb while I play it a dozen or so times.

It's so bizarre to remember that JLS were still legitimately huge as recently as 2011 :P This whole page is full of hits that fairly underwhelmed me at the time, although parts of 'Traktor' had their charm. But sneaking a peak at Now 78 (and the pinnacle of hedonistic early-twenties clubbing memories that is Disc 2 of Now 79) there's some scattered nuggets of brilliance to come very soon.

The end of dance's triumphant reign and two generally underwhelming lists compared to previous brilliance. I really fell out of chart music for the next few years so not all of these are familiar to me, but... 2004 10 Gladiator feat. Izzy - Now We Are Free (trance's last, glorious final gasp) 9 Jet - Are You Gonna Be My Girl 8 Special D - Come With Me 7 Eyeopener - Hungry Eyes 6 Ferry Corsten - Rock Your Body Rock 5 Oceanlab - Satellite 4 Fountains Of Wayne - Stacy's Mom 3 Ice Cube feat. Mack 10 & Ms Toi - You Can Do It 2 LMC vs. U2 - Take Me To The Clouds Above 1 O-Zone - Dragostea Din Tei 2005 (horrific year!) 10 Daniel Powter - Bad Day 9 Caesars - Jerk It Out 8 Nizlopi - JCB Song 7 Les Rythmes Digitales - Jacques Your Body (Makes Me Sweat) 6 Dana Rayne - Object Of My Desire 5 Herd & Fitz feat. Abigail Bailey - I Just Can't Get Enough (major forgotten classic, it felt incredible to actually get a major dance hit at the time that wasn't just a looped three-second sample) 4 Daddy Yankee - Gasolina 3 DHT feat. Edmee - Listen To Your Heart 2 Bodyrockers - I Like The Way 1 Sunset Strippers - Falling Stars

This piece of utter madness from 1994, a top 5 hit in Germany but only #77 here. Brilliantly, it made top 30 in Scotland for reasons that will immediately become apparent. 6cuI39zYSY8

I think this and Scooter's The Logical Song - and XTM's Fly On The Wings Of Love - were the hits they were because of the music channels. Alizee had been a French hit way back in 2000 and seemed unlikely to chart here (particularly given it's not in English) but huge airplay thanks to The Box probably got it that surprise top 10 hit. Similarly, the long chart runs of Scooter and XTM are supported by major airplay on the same channels. I think the same might be the case for O-Zone and Dana Rayne, both of which we'll see in the 2004-2005 thread.

It needs to be a properly huge, viral, talking point of a hit released at a time when there's absolutely no major competition for months, one that builds its audience over time and then eventually its run at #1 becoming a news story in itself. It's similar if you look at the movie charts in this country, there's only been two really massive long running box-office #1s in the last 25 years - 'Titanic' from January to April 1998 (13 weeks at #1) and 'Avatar' from December 2009 to February 2010 (nine weeks). Both, while on release, were absolutely massive - you would be asked if you'd seen it yet, and if you replied "No" asked why not! As mentioned, 'Uptown Funk' could well have done it had it been released a few weeks earlier. It needs a lot of luck and very low competition.

The last two awesome years for dance music of the noughties, it's indie now all the way until 2008 with a brief pop return right at the end: 2002: +10 Puretone - Addicted To Bass +9 4 Strings - Take Me Away (Into The Night) +8 Tillmann Uhrmacher - On the Run +7 DJ Sammy & Yanou feat. Do - Heaven +6 Jessica Garlick - Come Back +5 Minimalistix - Close Cover +4 M Factor - Mother +3 Shakedown - At Night +2 Lange feat. Skye - Drifting Away +1 Alizee - Moi… Lolita 2003: (actually better for music than '02, an astonishing year) +10 XTM & DJ Chucky presents Annia - Fly On The Wings Of Love +9 Kevin Lyttle - Turn Me On +8 Kontakt - Show Me A Sign +7 Plummet - Damaged +6 Layo & Bushwacka - Love Story (vs. Finally) +5 Divine Inspiration - The Way (Put Your Hand In My Hand) +4 Royksopp - Eple +3 Tomcraft - Loneliness +2 Kira - I'll Be Your Angel +1 Scooter vs. Acardipane & Rules - Maria (I Like It Loud)

This whole idea of a vinyl revival is, as I've mentioned before, basically bollocks. Looking at those statistics above, even in 2007 - when they were supposedly at a low - you've got this article by the Guardian claiming they're rising, which sounds like it's entirely due to one record (Icky Thump by the White Stripes) selling well: http://www.theguardian.com/business/2007/j...musicnews.music . Like "retro/vintage" clothing or computer games, it's just recently become a way to make a lot of money from things that are old. This is especially true when you discover that most people who claim they're collecting vinyl don't actually own a record player, they just want to put various LPs on the shelf in a way to hipster up their house.

It felt a lot bigger in 2005 than it was in 2000, despite the chart peaks (#16 in 2000, #33 in 2005) - the re-release was on the back of it being used for the London Olympic bid. Difference is that the singles market was absolutely dead by then compared to five years earlier, although it did get a physical re-release.

What's the betting that this completely stops record labels from rush-releasing things ever again, and we go back to singles being held back for four months just incase we see another 'See You Again' again :P I do quite like Cheeleader, just a bit mystified why it's being labelled a dance track when it's way too laid-back to be anything more than a chillout toe-tapper. Wonder if both Love Me Like You Do and See You Again's successes point to a movie sound revival like the Bryan Adams/Whitney Houston/Wet Wet Wet/etc etc etc days of the early 1990s. What's going to be the big track of the new Avengers film?

Lights On is just the easy hit single from a varied album, one of the safest and poppiest songs she did. It felt like something of a letdown after Katy On A Mission, and for me it wasn't until I saw her live that summer that the song really worked - her vocals of this sounded brilliant in the sunshine, especially the flowing verses. For me Katy's biggest surprise was three years away, when she released the best song of her career out of absolutely nowhere, but that's long in the future! Jessie J has one good song. And this ain't it. It was the first really big single of the year and made me rather worried of things to come - surely the rest of 2011's #1s wouldn't be this bad. All that hype about being the next big thing and she comes out with this tuneless piece of crap? I remember a few posts on Buzzjack around this time from people who'd heard her follow-up single, and were immediately proclaiming it as a future #1 in the making...

The quality here is absolutely astonishing. Some of the best dance tracks ever made. 2000: +10: Delerium feat. Sarah McLachlan - Silence +9: Rank 1 - Airwave +8: Watergate - Heart Of Asia +7: Flickman - The Sound Of Bamboo +6: Ralph Fridge - Angel +5: Zombie Nation - Kernkraft 400 +4: Storm - Time To Burn +3: Lock 'N' Load - Blow Ya Mind +2: Warrior - Warrior +1: Warp Brothers vs. Aquagen - Phatt Bass 2001: +10: Safri Duo - Played A Live (The Bongo Song) +9: PPK - Resurection +8: Barthezz - On The Move +7: Schiller - Das Glockenspiel +6: Voodoo & Serano - Blood Is Pumpin' +5: Riva feat. Dannii Minogue - Who Do You Love Now? (Stringer) +4: Mauro Picotto - Komodo (Save A Soul) +3: Norman Bass - How U Like Bass +2: Pepe Deluxe - Before You Leave +1: Hermes House Band - Country Roads

This, today, would be a massive number 1. Charted at #37 in 2008 with no video or CD single release, and still feels like a future hit in the making. _7Hf2kh9Mz4

No one's posted this yet?! It's just been announced early this morning, looks to be the real deal. Almost certainly a reworked cover of the 1996 Jamiroquai hit. http://i.imgur.com/I3UgcHM.jpg http://i.imgur.com/3cyCg2z.jpg http://i.imgur.com/abLWEcc.jpg No point making a poll, whatever it sounds like it'll be an easy #1!! Presumably we'll get to hear it very soon. Here's the (classic) original for those unfamiliar: 4JkIs37a2JE