Not to toot my own horn but I called both of these!!!

http://www.villagevoice.com/pazznjop/

Was this chosen by critics or readers?

I loved/liked Miguel, Dylan, Frank Ocean, Kendrick Lamar and especially Fiona Apple who seems finally to be getting the big recognizement for the great artist she has always been, but Gangnan Style and Call Me Maybe best songs of the year, those lame empty silly songs???? I don't get it!

[Edited 1/23/13 8:22am]

It's a critics poll.

The singles list always seems to tend toward the song that captures the zietgeist, hence "Call Me Maybe's" strong showing. But it hasn't always been so dire. "Sign O' the Times" AND "Alphabet St." both topped the singles list in thier respective years.

CynicKill said:

It's a critics poll.

The singles list always seems to tend toward the song that captures the zietgeist, hence "Call Me Maybe's" strong showing.

Still, I find it very sad that the identified zietgeist must be not something that aesthetically represents the period but only the song that got most radio and youtube plays, regardless if it's only a bit good, or mediocre or even terrible. Very sad.

[Edited 1/25/13 15:50pm]

Did you see top songs of 2012 by Rolling Stone?

It was similar. Mostly the false zeitgeist popular mediocre songs and some really astonishingly BAD indie (not LCD Soundsystem or Arcade Fire, alternative music that really deserved praise - I listened to all thoses 2012 indies from RS I didnt know, and they were all weak, forgettable or even bad).

Musical cricticism must be passing through a terrible phase.

[Edited 1/25/13 22:18pm]

Have you seen the film "Public Speaking"? It's the Fran Lebowitz documentary Martin Scorcese made. In it she talks about how taste and criticism of the arts has been flattened and leveled down down down to the point that mediocrity IS the standard. She brings up how after AIDS killed off an audience that was hyper critical and had a high level of connesuership(sp) of the arts, there was no one at the gates to keep mediocrity at bay.

Maybe that's where we're at with rock criticism as well. I'm sure there was a time when "Call Me Maybe" and Gangum Style wouldn't even touch the bottom of a best of chart. But here's a history of Pazz and Jops Sigles list tops:

1990: Deee-Lite: "Groove Is in the Heart"/"What Is Love" (Elektra)

1991: Nirvana: "Smells Like Teen Spirit" (DGC)

1992: Arrested Development: "Tennessee" (Chrysalis)

1993: The Breeders: "Cannonball" (4AD/Elektra)

1994: Beck: "Loser"

1995: Coolio: "Gangsta's Paradise" (MCA Soundtracks)

1996: Quad City DJs: "C'mon N' Ride It (The Train)"

1997: Hanson: "MMMBop"

1998: Fatboy Slim: "The Rockafeller Skank"

1999: TLC: "No Scrubs"

2000: OutKast: "Ms. Jackson"

That's a sampling from what I feel was the last great decade for music and even it was scattershot when it came to critic voting. I do like all the songs on this list though I could do without Quad City DJ's and Fatboy Slim. My fave pics are of course Nirvana, Beck, Hanson and TLC. Deee-Lite beat out "Nothing Compares 2 U and Fatboy beat out "Doo Wop" That Thing.