Another Year In Pop: FINAL RECKONING

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

Well done Britters! 'Piece Of Me' was the chart winner by miles this year. As ever, the scores have been worked out using a mildly complicated formula taking into account no.of votes AND the percentage from that week (given in brackets at the end). The Readers Poll positions are given in italics. Thanks everyone for tirelessly voting each week!

1. Britney Spears - Piece Of Me (top song for JANUARY) ( 46 90.2 )
2. Britney Spears - Womanizer (top NOVEMBER) (RP: 50) ( 34 85 )
3. Robyn - Be Mine ( 35 81.4 )
4. MIA - Paper Planes (top SEPTEMBER) ( 34 82.9 )
5. Rihanna - Disturbia (top AUGUST) (RP: 14) ( 27 73 )
6. Jordin Sparks & Chris Brown - No Air (top JUNE) (RP: 2) ( 25 78.1 )
=7. Ashlee Simpson - Outta My Head (joint top APRIL) (RP: 24) ( 28 65.1 )
=7. Wiley - Wearing My Rolex (joint top APRIL) (RP: 3) ( 28 65.1 )
=7. Robyn - Who's That Girl (joint top APRIL) ( 28 65.1 )
10. Hot Chip - Ready For The Floor (top FEBRUARY) (RP: 13) ( 27 67.5 )
11. Britney Spears - Break The Ice (top MARCH) ( 26 66.7 )
12. Beyonce - Single Ladies (Put A Ring On It) (top DECEMBER) (RP: 16) ( 24 70.6 )
13. Kanye - Love Lockdown (RP: 11) ( 24 66.7 )
14. Estelle ft Kanye West - American Boy (RP: 1) ( 26 60.5 )
15. Girls Aloud - Can't Speak French ( 25 62.5 )
16. Solange - I Decided ( 24 63.2 )
17. Alesha Dixon - The Boy Does Nothing ( 24 60 )
18. Girls Aloud - The Promise (top OCTOBER) (RP: 20) ( 22 64.7 )
19. Dizze Rascal ft Calvin Harris - Dance Wiv Me (top JULY) ( 22 62.9 )
20. Pussycat Dolls - When I Grow Up (RP: 45) ( 22 61.1 )
21. Beyonce - If I Were A Boy (RP: =33) ( 23 57.7 )
=22. Kylie - The One (RP: =40) ( 22 59.5 )
=22. Santogold - LES Artistes (top MAY) (RP: 5) ( 22 59.5 )
24. Pink - So What ( 21 58.3 )
25. Goldfrapp - A&E (RP: 4) ( 22 55 )
26. Mariah Carey - Touch My Body (RP: =40) ( 21 56.8 )
27. Kelly Rowland - Work ( 22 53.7 )
28. H20 ft Platnum - Whats It Gonna Be (RP: 22) ( 21 55.3 )
29. Saturdays - Up ( 19 59.4 )
30. Kanye West ft Dwele - Flashing Lights ( 22 51.2 )
31. Miley Cyrus - See You Again ( 20 55.6 )
32. Sugababes - Denial ( 19 57.6 )
33. Duffy - Mercy ( 20 52.6 )
34. Estelle - No Substitute Love ( 19 54.3 )
=35. September - Cry For You (RP: 32) ( 19 52.8 )
=35. Kanye West - Heartless ( 19 52.8 )
37. Christina Aguilera - Keeps Getting' Better ( 20 50 )
38. MGMT - Time To Pretend (RP: 6) ( 20 46.5 )
39. Rihanna ft Justin Timberlake - Rehab ( 16 57.1 )
40. Kylie Minogue - Wow ( 19 47.5 )
41. Taio Cruz ft Luciana - Come On Girl ( 17 51.5 )
42. Ne-Yo - Closer ( 18 48.6 )
43. Britney Spears - Circus ( 17 50 )
=44. Madonna ft Justin Timberlake - 4 Minutes ( 19 44.2 )
=44. Ting Tings - That’s Not My Name (RP: 23) ( 19 44.2 )
46. Killers - Human ( 16 48.5 )
47. Girls Aloud - The Loving Kind ( 15 51.7 )
48. Hercules and Love Affair - Blind ( 20 38.5 )
=49. Utah Saints - Something Good 08 ( 17 44.7 )
=49. Little Jackie - World Should Revolve Around Me ( 17 44.7 )

Just missing the top 50: Lupe Fiasco, Alphabeat, Lil Wayne, Chris Brown and Vampire Weekend.

Stat-crunching:
- 22% of the tracks were released* in 2007 or earlier (either as part of a UK album release or as a non-UK single release)
- 52% are by US artists versus 38% by UK artists
- Most prolific artists are Britney and Kanye, with four appearances each (what a duet that would be!)
- New artists for 2008: Solange, Santogold, The Saturdays, Duffy and September (who needs Y chromosomes anyway)
- In fact all-female acts make up a whopping 62% of the top 50! The blokes have 22% (mostly thanks to Kanye) and multisechs groups and duets make up 16%.
- Weeks where 'DON'T LIKE ANY' or 'NOT HEARD ANY' got the most votes: 7 (Jan 28th, May 6th, June 30th, July 14th, July 21st, July 28th, Nov 25th)

For reference, here are the 2007 Chart poll results.

*To the best of my knowledge!

Comments

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

It's symptomatic - whether of the state of the charts or the state of poptimists or both - that of the Top 5, 3 are pre-08 tracks which hit this year and the other two are brand-loyalty votes (as demonstrated by poll underperformance I reckon!).

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

And speaking of brand loyalty, the collapse in interest in Girls Aloud is kinda telling.

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

Yeah the top 10 seems very...establishment. The only artist in it who didn't have previous form is Jordin Sparks.

The non-US/UK acts would be Rihanna (BAR), Robyn (SWE) and Kylie (AUS), then...unless Luciana comes from somewhere else?

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

September is from somewhere Scandinavian I think.

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

Also BUMS I put Rihanna as US. Sorry Rhi-Rhi! That makes it more like 50% US now.

[koganbot]

Well, for practical purposes she's U.S.

[mcarratala.livejournal.com]

Being a septic and all, you won't have heard elderly Bajan cricket commentator Tony Cozier on the radio in uncharacteristic flights of linguistic delirium on the subject of Rihanna. I get your point re: where she fits in the musical universe, but my impression is that the people of Barbados will cling hard to their spiritual ownership of her.

[koganbot]

Point taken. But it's just that her music is very much the product of the U.S. record industry., the producers and songwriters are from the U.S., etc.

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

I think it's more than spiritual ownership too - she was born and raised in Barbados, is presumably still a Barbadian citizen, so I think she's pretty definitely more Bajan than anything else, even if she does dwell in the US for work purposes. Like, Estelle is still British, despite living in the US and working with Americans.