Katy Perry (4) - Week of August 25, 2012

Lots of internal moving and shaking on the countdown this week, as the window for the #1 bid of Maroon 5 – Payphone completely slams shut.  Before we get on to this week’s Fresh 45, here’s a list of all the songs we’re saying good-bye to this week.

• Kimbra - Warrior
• Train - Drive By

The Countdown:

1. Katy Perry- Wide Awake (#1) [Fourth Week at #1]

2. Owl City Ft. Carly Rae Jepsen - Good Time (#15)

3. Ellie Goulding- Lights (#10)

4. Karmin- Brokenhearted (#3)

5. Flo Rida- Whistle (#9)

6. Maroon 5 feat. Wiz Khalifa- Payphone (#2)

7. Linkin Park- Burn It Down (#8)

8. Pink - Blow Me (One Last Kiss) (#12)

9. David Guetta feat. Sia- Titanium (#6)

10. Cher Lloyd- Want U Back (#7)

11. Cobra Starship - #1Nite (#40)

12. Train - 50 Ways to Say Goodbye (#18)

13. Carly Rae Jepsen- Call Me Maybe (#5)

14. fun. - Some Nights (#24)

15. Nicki Minaj - Pound the Alarm (#13)

16. Maroon 5 - One More Night (#26)

17. Olly Murs Ft. Chiddy Bang - Heart Skips a Beat (#11)

18. Demi Lovato- Give Your Heart a Break (#17)

19. K'Naan - Hurt Me Tomorrow (#23)

20. Matchbox Twenty - She's So Mean (#20)

21. The Wanted- Chasing the Sun (#27)

22. Kelly Clarkson - Dark Side (#28)

23. Calvin Harris feat. Ne-Yo- Let's Go (#29)

24. We Are the In Crowd feat. Alex Gaskarth- Kiss Me Again (#22)

25. Stefano - I'm on a Roll (#21)

26. Ed Sheeran - The A Team (#33)

27. Usher- Scream (#32)

28. One Direction- One Thing (#19)

29. fun. feat. Janelle Monáe- We Are Young (#4)

30. Marina & the Diamonds - Primadonna (#25)

31. Neon Trees- Everybody Talks (#30)

32. Conor Maynard - Vegas Girl (#31)

33. Gym Class Heroes feat. Ryan Tedder- The Fighter (#16)

34. Taylor Swift - We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together (#42)

35. Rudimental Ft. John Newman - Feel the Love (DEBUT)

36. Katy Perry - Part of Me (#35)

37. Flo Rida feat. Sia- Wild Ones (#36)

38. Gotye feat. Kimbra- Somebody That I Used to Know (#14)

39. Martin Solveig - The Night Out (DEBUT)

40. One Direction- What Makes You Beautiful (#37)

41. Grouplove- Tongue Tied (#45)

42. Nicki Minaj- Starships (#34)

43. Alex Clare- Too Close (#41)

44. Havana Brown feat. Pitbull- We Run the Night (#44)

45. Imagine Dragons- It's Time (#43)

Biggest DDDRRROOOPPPPP!!!!!.....of the week: fun. feat. Janelle Monae – We Are Young (-25)

Biggest Jump of the Week: Cobra Starship - #1Nite (+29)

Martin Solveig is back on the countdown with The Night Out.  It’s repetitive, and while not all that displeasing to listen to, it’s not much more than countdown filler.  Also from the department of “Again!  Again!  I love repetition!” comes Rudimental Ft. John Newman – Feel the Love.  The amount of unique lyrics is even fewer than in The Night Out.  Depending on whether you have strong feelings about the word “it” and the contraction “it’s” constituting different words, or whether you want to lump the onomatopoeias “ah-ah”, “oh”, and “na-na” into the category of “words”, it’s generous to say there’s only 21 unique words in the song.  Nonetheless, it’s catchier than The Night Out.  A song this mindlessly simple can never be in the upper echelon of even pop music, but there’s no harm in enjoying it until you’re deathly sick of it.  Timing on that is obviously TBD.

Here’s a run-down of the major movements this week.  Owl City Ft. Carly Rae Jepsen – Good Time made a big push towards its #1 bid this week, ascending 13 spots to #2.  It’s the likely successor to the befuddlingly mediocre Katy Pery – Wide Awake.  Ellie Goulding – Lights and Flo Rida – Whistle both entered the Top 5 for the first time, though for the first time in 7 weeks, there’s a song in between them.  It’s thoroughly irritating that the Biggest Jump of the Week, Cobra Starship - #1Nite leaped all the way up to #11 on its second countdown week.  I honestly would have no problem with Cobra Starship if their lesser songs would not perpetually become overrated.  Carly Rae Jepsen – Call Me Maybe is officially out of the Top 10, while Gotye – Somebody That I Used to Know and fun. feat Janelle Monae – We Are Young have finally been banished to the nether regions of the countdown.

With music this mediocre invading the countdown, it’s tough to look on the bright side, but I’m trying to.  In recent weeks, I’ve reviewed new songs and mentioned something to the extent of “the jury’s still out on this one”.  A few weeks later, I’m putting Olly Murs Ft. Chiddy Bang – Heart Skips a Beat, K’Naan – Hurt Me Tomorrow (well…the chorus, anyway), and Maroon 5 – One More Night firmly in the “relative win” category.  They’ve all definitely grown on me to varying degrees.  I also want to issue something of an apology for my initial dismissal of We Are the In Crowd Ft. Alex Gaskarth – Kiss Me Again.  I mentioned upon its debut that it was a waste of time and superlatively disinteresting.  I think I put too much emphasis on its weak chorus.  Tay Jardine is impressive when singing her part of the verses.  I no longer instantly change the station when it comes on.

I’m having a large amount of trouble with my “Editor’s Picks” section these days, because after the below top 3, there’s a large jumble of songs in the mix for spots 4 and 5, and I feel like I’m just randomly picking two.

Editor’s Picks – Top 5 Songs

1) Owl City Ft. Carly Rae Jepsen – Good Time

2) Ed Sheeran – The A Team

3) Pink – Blow Me (One Last Kiss)

4) Maroon 5 – One More Night

5) Olly Murs Ft. Chiddy Bang – Heart Skips a Beat

Katy Perry (3) - Week of August 18, 2012

I have a lot of fun with this, generally.  But there are certainly some weeks where my motivation to do a write-up is just not there, because the goings-on of the countdown are just that uninteresting.  This is one such week.  Before we get on to this week’s Fresh 45, here’s a list of all the songs we’re saying good-bye to this week.

• Rita Ora - How We Do (Party)
• B.O.B. Ft. Taylor Swift - Both of Us

The Countdown:

1. Katy Perry- Wide Awake (#1) [Third Week at #1]

2. Maroon 5 feat. Wiz Khalifa- Payphone (#2)

3. Karmin- Brokenhearted (#3)

4. fun. feat. Janelle Monáe- We Are Young (#6)

5. Carly Rae Jepsen- Call Me Maybe (#5)

6. David Guetta feat. Sia- Titanium (#10)

7. Cher Lloyd- Want U Back (#7)

8. Linkin Park- Burn It Down (#12)

9. Flo Rida- Whistle (#8)

10. Ellie Goulding- Lights (#9)

11. Olly Murs Ft. Chiddy Bang - Heart Skips a Beat (#14)

12. Pink - Blow Me (One Last Kiss) (#13)

13. Nicki Minaj - Pound the Alarm (#29)

14. Gotye feat. Kimbra- Somebody That I Used to Know (#4)

15. Owl City Ft. Carly Rae Jepsen - Good Time (#19)

16. Gym Class Heroes feat. Ryan Tedder- The Fighter (#20)

17. Demi Lovato- Give Your Heart a Break (#11)

18. Train - 50 Ways to Say Goodbye (#15)

19. One Direction- One Thing (#21) 

20. Matchbox Twenty - She's So Mean (#17)

21. Stefano - I'm on a Roll (#23)

22. We Are the In Crowd feat. Alex Gaskarth- Kiss Me Again (#24)

23. K'Naan - Hurt Me Tomorrow (#25)

24. fun. - Some Nights (#26)

25. Marina & the Diamonds - Primadonna (#31)

26. Maroon 5 - One More Night (#44)

27. The Wanted- Chasing the Sun (#18)

28. Kelly Clarkson - Dark Side (#32)

29. Calvin Harris feat. Ne-Yo- Let's Go (#22)

30. Neon Trees- Everybody Talks (#30)

31. Conor Maynard - Vegas Girl (#27)

32. Usher- Scream (#16)

33. Ed Sheeran - The A Team (#35)

34. Nicki Minaj- Starships (#41)

35. Katy Perry - Part of Me (#34)

36. Flo Rida feat. Sia- Wild Ones (#37)

37. One Direction- What Makes You Beautiful (#40)

38. Kimbra feat. Mark Foster & A-Trak- Warrior (#45)

39. Train- Drive By (#38)

40. Cobra Starship - #1Nite (DEBUT)

41. Alex Clare- Too Close (#33)

42. Taylor Swift - We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together (DEBUT)

43. Imagine Dragons- It's Time (#28)

44. Havana Brown feat. Pitbull- We Run the Night (#39)

45. Grouplove- Tongue Tied (#42)

Biggest DDDDRRRROOOOPPPP!!!!...of the week: Usher – Scream (-16)

Biggest Jump of the Week: Maroon 5 – One More Night (+18)

Two new entrants this week.  In the year 2091, historians are going to be researching why Cobra Starship - #1Nite made its countdown debut, and they’re going to be no closer than we are today.  That song has been on Hit-Bound since before you were born, and has an interestingness level slightly south of the mediocre You Make Me Feel.  That song, incidentally, hit #1, so who knows what to expect out of this one.  It’ll probably do better than the underrated Fool Like Me.

Taylor Swift debuted with one of the most predictable new entrants of all-time, We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together.  There’s plenty cheesy about it, as it features a heavy dose of Taylor Swift talk-singing as well as a weird interlude in which she emulates a 16-year-old girl (if that’s not the intent, it’s what it sounds like) talking to her friend about the breakup in question.  Nonetheless, it’s pretty decent, and she churns out a fair amount of mediocrities, so it’s a relative success.  I think it’s my 4^th favorite Taylor Swift song after Love Story, You Belong With Me, and Eyes Open.

Maroon 5 – Payphone consecutive-weeks-at-#2-o-meter: 8

Gotye – Somebody That I Used To Know finally plunged out of the Top 10.  I think Flo Rida – Whistle and Ellie Goulding – Lights must be dating, because there hasn’t been another song in between them on the countdown for 6 weeks.  Imagine Dragons – It’s Time is unfortunately making a quiet exit.  It dropped to #43, and it’s probably on its way out within the next couple of weeks.

Did I mention that I apologize about my initial reaction to Ed Sheeran – The A Team?

Editor’s Picks – Top 5 Songs

1) Owl City Ft. Carly Rae Jepsen – Good Time

2) Nicki Minaj – Pound the Alarm

3) Ed Sheeran – The A Team

4) Pink – Blow Me (One Last Kiss)

5) Kelly Clarkson – Dark Side

Katy Perry (2) - Week of August 11, 2012

Reasonably decent recovery week as Maroon 5 – Payphone is stranded at #2 for the 7^th week in a row.  Before we get on to this week’s Fresh 45, here’s a list of all the songs we’re saying good-bye to this week.

• The All-American Rejects - Walk Over Me
• Sammy Adams - Only One

The Countdown:

1. Katy Perry- Wide Awake (#1) [Second Week at #1]

2. Maroon 5 feat. Wiz Khalifa- Payphone (#2)

3. Karmin- Brokenhearted (#5)

4. Gotye feat. Kimbra- Somebody That I Used to Know (#6)

5. Carly Rae Jepsen- Call Me Maybe (#3)

6. fun. feat. Janelle Monáe- We Are Young (#4)

7. Cher Lloyd- Want U Back (#16)

8. Flo Rida- Whistle (#8)

9. Ellie Goulding- Lights (#9)

10. David Guetta feat. Sia- Titanium (#12)

11. Demi Lovato- Give Your Heart a Break (#7)

12. Linkin Park- Burn It Down (#11)

13. Pink - Blow Me (One Last Kiss) (#14)

14. Olly Murs Ft. Chiddy Bang - Heart Skips a Beat (#26)

15. Train - 50 Ways to Say Goodbye (#15)

16. Usher- Scream (#10)

17. Matchbox Twenty - She's So Mean (#31)

18. The Wanted- Chasing the Sun (#22)

19. Owl City Ft. Carly Rae Jepsen - Good Time (#18)

20. Gym Class Heroes feat. Ryan Tedder- The Fighter (#28)

21. One Direction- One Thing (#20) 

22. Calvin Harris feat. Ne-Yo- Let's Go (#24)

23. Stefano - I'm on a Roll (#29)

24. We Are the In Crowd feat. Alex Gaskarth- Kiss Me Again (#13)

25. K'Naan - Hurt Me Tomorrow (#32)

26. fun. - Some Nights (#25)

27. Conor Maynard - Vegas Girl (#34)

28. Imagine Dragons- It's Time (#21)

29. Nicki Minaj - Pound the Alarm (DEBUT)

30. Neon Trees- Everybody Talks (#19)

31. Marina & the Diamonds - Primadonna (#42)

32. Kelly Clarkson - Dark Side (#23)

33. Alex Clare- Too Close (#17)

34. Katy Perry - Part of Me (#33)

35. Ed Sheeran - The A Team (#41)

36. Rita Ora- How We Do (Party) (#36)

37. Flo Rida feat. Sia- Wild Ones (#43)

38. Train- Drive By (#38)

39. Havana Brown feat. Pitbull- We Run the Night (#35)

40. One Direction- What Makes You Beautiful (#40)

41. Nicki Minaj- Starships (#34)

42. Grouplove- Tongue Tied (#27)

43. B.o.B feat. Taylor Swift- Both of Us (#45)

44. Maroon 5 - One More Night (DEBUT)

45. Kimbra feat. Mark Foster & A-Trak- Warrior (#30)

Biggest DDDRRROOOOOPPPPPPP!!!!!....of the week: Alex Clare – Too Close (-16)

Biggest Jump of the Week: Matchbox Twenty – She’s So Mean (+14).

See?  You can tell just from the quick hits that this week was solid.  It’s about time Walk Over Me went on its merry way.

The new entrants this week are from a couple of the usual suspects.  Maroon 5 has been on a bit of a roll lately and it somewhat continues with One More Night.  It’s a song about uncontrollable attraction to someone that it’s obvious it won’t work out with.  Like that hasn’t been done before.  The song is definitely a step down from Payphone and Moves Like Jagger, but it still has a good sound.

You all know I’m plenty shameless about “guilty pleasure” pop songs.  So I’ll just say it.  I am a huge fan of Nicki Minaj – Pound the Alarm.  The song is twenty kinds of fun, and Minaj does an excellent job of hitting those vocal notes that drive addiction to trashy songs.  It falls into a similar pitfall as Starships in that it has a bizarre techno interlude that isn’t very good, but at least this time it’s mitigated in that it fits a little better with Pound the Alarm than it did in Starships (where the techno interlude was ridiculously out of place) and that Nicki Minaj repeats “pound the alarm” in the middle of it.

I don’t do this often, but I want to rescind something I said last week thanks to some feedback provided by a reader.  Last week, I said the following:

“Ed Sheeran – The A Team is the countdown’s new resident slow(er) song.  I think this one is good, but I’m never going to like it more than I do right now.  Pretty low growth potential.”

Less than an hour after writing that, I liked it significantly more than I did in that moment.  Regarding a Top 45 countdown like this, one can be at least a little forgiven to not reading into song lyrics, as most songs tend to wear their hearts on their sleeves (e.g., you think I’m going to bother to google the lyrics to Pound the Alarm?).  Anyway, the reader pointed out what an excellent songwriter Ed Sheeran really is.  Despite the lighthearted, almost playful melody of The A Team, it’s actually a pretty dark song about a woman’s cocaine addiction supported by prostitution.  What’s brilliant about it is that both of those things are pretty much only referenced metaphorically with words that when read literally, could lend a completely different, plausible meaning to the song.  I'll always appreciate feedback if someone thinks I missed something like this.  Just not things like "OMG u are soooo wrong Rihanna's song is der terrps!!!!"

Editor’s Picks – Top 5 Songs

1) Owl City Ft. Carly Rae Jepsen – Good Time

2) Pink – Blow Me (One Last Kiss)

3) Nicki Minaj – Pound the Alarm

4) Matchbox Twenty – She’s So Mean

5) Ed Sheeran – The A Team

Katy Perry - Week of August 4, 2012

No no no no no no no no no NO!  Cut!  All wrong!   Plenty goes wrong in the most active countdown week since mid-February.  Before we get on to this week’s Fresh 45, here’s a list of all the songs we’re saying good-bye to this week.

• Rihanna - Where Have You Been
• Chiddy Bang - Mind Your Manners
• Andy Grammer - Fine By Me
• Breathe Carolina - Hit and Run
• Pitbull - Back in Time
• Hot Chelle Rae - Honestly
• Gym Class Heroes Ft. Neon Hitch - Ass Back Home

The Countdown:

1. Katy Perry- Wide Awake (#3) [First Week at #1]

2. Maroon 5 feat. Wiz Khalifa- Payphone (#2)

3. Carly Rae Jepsen- Call Me Maybe (#1)

4. fun. feat. Janelle Monáe- We Are Young (#6)

5. Karmin- Brokenhearted (#13)

6. Gotye feat. Kimbra- Somebody That I Used to Know (#4)

7. Demi Lovato- Give Your Heart a Break (#5)

8. Flo Rida- Whistle (#7)

9. Ellie Goulding- Lights (#8)

10. Usher- Scream (#11)

11. Linkin Park- Burn It Down (#12)

12. David Guetta feat. Sia- Titanium (#9)

13. We Are the In Crowd feat. Alex Gaskarth- Kiss Me Again (#19)

14. Pink - Blow Me (One Last Kiss) (#15)

15. Train - 50 Ways to Say Goodbye (#29)

16. Cher Lloyd- Want U Back (#27)

17. Alex Clare- Too Close (#14)

18. Owl City Ft. Carly Rae Jepsen - Good Time (#25)

19. Neon Trees- Everybody Talks (#10)

20. One Direction- One Thing (#21) 

21. Imagine Dragons- It's Time (#23)

22. The Wanted- Chasing the Sun (#18)

23. Kelly Clarkson - Dark Side (#23)

24. Calvin Harris feat. Ne-Yo- Let's Go (#16)

25. fun. - Some Nights (#31)

26. Olly Murs Ft. Chiddy Bang - Heart Skips a Beat (DEBUT)

27. Grouplove- Tongue Tied (#17)

28. Gym Class Heroes feat. Ryan Tedder- The Fighter (#32)

29. Stefano - I'm on a Roll (#37)

30. Kimbra feat. Mark Foster & A-Trak- Warrior (#24)

31. Matchbox Twenty - She's So Mean (DEBUT)

32. K'Naan - Hurt Me Tomorrow (DEBUT)

33. Katy Perry - Part of Me (RE-ENTRY)

34. Conor Maynard - Vegas Girl (DEBUT)

35. Havana Brown feat. Pitbull- We Run the Night (#28)

36. Rita Ora- How We Do (Party) (#40)

37. Sammy Adams- Only One (#22)

38. Train- Drive By (#39)

39. Nicki Minaj- Starships (#34)

40. One Direction- What Makes You Beautiful (#35)

41. Ed Sheeran - The A Team (DEBUT)

42. Marina & the Diamonds - Primadonna (DEBUT)

43. Flo Rida feat. Sia- Wild Ones (#38)

44. The All-American Rejects- Walk Over Me (#45)

45. B.o.B feat. Taylor Swift- Both of Us (#30)

Biggest DDDDDRRRROOOPPPP!!!!!.....of the week: Tie between Sammy Adams – Only One and B.O.B. Ft. Taylor Swift – Both Of Us (-15)

Biggest Jump of the Week: Train – 50 Ways to Say Goodbye (+14)

To be honest, no sleep is being lost over that class of DTHNOBs.  All of those songs are either bad or played out (or both) besides Mind Your Manners, which didn’t really get much of a tenure, debuting on June 23.  Pleasantly shocking is the loss of Rihanna – Where Have You Been, kicked off from its perch all the way up at #20 last week.

No, it’s the new entrants that really failed us this week.  With 7 songs leaving the countdown, you’d like to see at least one real standout jump on.  But we didn’t get one, and the average quality of the 6 debuts leaves me unsatisfied.  That’s right.  6.  Not 7.  As if it wasn’t enough for Katy Perry’s mediocre song, Wide Awake, to hit #1, another one of her mediocre songs, Part of Me, was resurrected this week.

Yikes….how to go through these….I guess I’ll go in countdown order.  In terms of countdown rank, we’ll start with #26.  Olly Murs is back.  You may remember him from earlier this year when his 50’s-esque song Dance With Me Tonight debuted on the countdown, only to tie Kid Cudi – Erase Me for most hysterically short countdown tenure ever.  I was bummed.  That song was good.  This time he’s back with Chiddy Bang with his new song, Heart Skips a Beat.  I have mixed feelings on this one.  It’s interesting and catchy enough, but I wasn’t blown away.  Time will tell whether this one catches on or gets put into the “forgettable” pile.

Jump into your time machines, folks, it’s 2000 again.  Matchbox Twenty – She’s So Mean debuts as the best of this week’s blech class of new entrants.  I was tipped off to this next song months ago.  This continues the trend of Hits-1 being either far behind or far ahead of the times.  I really like the chorus of K’Naan – Hurt Me Tomorrow, but am not as big a fan of the rest of the song.  Songs like this don’t tend to be on my list of things-I-want-to-hear for all that long.  I’m torn on Conor Maynard – Vegas Girl.  On the one hand, there are parts of it that are pretty catchy.  On the other hand, it’s a pretty terrible song.  Despite recognizing how bad it is, I’m not at the point yet where I want to turn it off.  That’ll come soon.

Ed Sheeran – The A Team is the countdown’s new resident slow(er) song.  I think this one is good, but I’m never going to like it more than I do right now.  Pretty low growth potential.  ANNDDDDDD finally, the extreme Michael-Phelps-level frontrunner for Worst Song of 2012 debuted this week in the form of long-time Hit-Bound veteran Marina & the Diamonds – Primadonna.  Give it a listen.  There are zero redeeming qualities in this song.  It’s pure crap.  The only worse song I’ve heard played on Hits-1 this year is Nelly Furtado – Big Hoops, and luckily that one was stranded on HitBound.

As if the new entrants weren’t frustrating enough, in the first week since May 26^th (yeah….) that Carly Rae Jepsen – Call Me Maybe wasn’t #1, Katy Perry – Wide Awake lamentably leapfrogged Maroon 5 – Payphone to take the #1 spot.  It’s official.  She can officially put whatever song she wants out there (except, I guess, Part of Me?) and it’ll hit #1.  She has released 8 songs off of this never-ending “album” of hers, and 7 of them have been #1 on this countdown.  This song is technically off the same album as California Girls.  Remember summer of 2010?  Neither does anyone else.

Aside from all that, there were no real major developments.  Owl City Ft. Carly Rae Jepsen – Good Time continued its steady ascent up the countdown, while the thoroughly terrible B.O.B. Ft. Taylor Swift – Both of Us assumed the cliff spot at #45.  Let’s hope it falls over.

Editor’s Picks – Top 5 Songs

1) Owl City Ft. Carly Rae Jepsen – Good Time

2) Pink – Blow Me (One Last Kiss)

3) fun. – Some Nights

4) Maroon 5 – Payphone

5) Matchbox Twenty – She’s So Mean

Carly Rae Jepsen (9) - Week of July 28, 2012

This is getting more than a little bit ridiculous.  Whatever, Carly, keep on rolling.  Before we get on to this week’s Fresh 45, here’s a list of all the songs we’re saying good-bye to this week.

• The Cab - La La
• Calvin Harris - Feel So Close
• B.O.B. - So Good

The Countdown:

1. Carly Rae Jepsen- Call Me Maybe (#1) [Ninth Week at #1]

2. Maroon 5 feat. Wiz Khalifa- Payphone (#2)

3. Katy Perry- Wide Awake (#5)

4. Gotye feat. Kimbra- Somebody That I Used to Know (#4)

5. Demi Lovato- Give Your Heart a Break (#18)

6. fun. feat. Janelle Monáe- We Are Young (#6)

7. Flo Rida- Whistle (#9)

8. Ellie Goulding- Lights (#8)

9. David Guetta feat. Sia- Titanium (#13)

10. Neon Trees- Everybody Talks (#22)

11. Usher- Scream (#11)

12. Linkin Park- Burn It Down (#10)

13. Karmin- Brokenhearted (#3)

14. Alex Clare- Too Close (#12)

15. Pink - Blow Me (One Last Kiss) (#16)

16. Calvin Harris feat. Ne-Yo- Let's Go (#21)

17. Grouplove- Tongue Tied (#20)

18. The Wanted- Chasing the Sun (#26)

19. We Are the In Crowd feat. Alex Gaskarth- Kiss Me Again (#14)

20. Rihanna - Where Have You Been (#19)

21. One Direction- One Thing (#24)

22. Sammy Adams- Only One (#28)

23. Imagine Dragons- It's Time (#25)

24. Kimbra feat. Mark Foster & A-Trak- Warrior (#30)

25. Owl City Ft. Carly Rae Jepsen - Good Time (#36)

26. Chiddy Bang feat. Icona Pop- Mind Your Manners (#15)

27. Cher Lloyd- Want U Back (#32)

28. Havana Brown feat. Pitbull- We Run the Night (#23)

29. Train - 50 Ways to Say Goodbye (#29)

30. B.o.B feat. Taylor Swift- Both of Us (#33)

31. fun. - Some Nights (DEBUT)

32. Gym Class Heroes feat. Ryan Tedder- The Fighter (#17)

33. Kelly Clarkson - Dark Side (DEBUT)

34. Nicki Minaj- Starships (#39)

35. One Direction- What Makes You Beautiful (#7)

36. Andy Grammer- Fine By Me (#34)

37. Stefano - I'm on a Roll (DEBUT)

38. Flo Rida feat. Sia- Wild Ones (#41)

39. Train- Drive By (#44)

40. Rita Ora- How We Do (Party) (#27)

41. Breathe Carolina- Hit and Run (#31)

42. Pitbull- Back in Time (#35)

43. Hot Chelle Rae- Honestly (#42)

44. Gym Class Heroes feat. Neon Hitch- Ass Back Home (#37)

45. The All-American Rejects- Walk Over Me (#38)

Biggest DDDDDRRRROOOPPPPP!!!!....of the week: One Direction – What Makes You Beautiful (-28)

Biggest Jump of the Week: Demi Lovato – Give Your Heart a Break (+13)

No sleep lost there.  La La and So Good were both pleasant, but it was definitely time to say good-bye.  Feel So Close was not pleasant, so….yahoo!  And What Makes You Beautiful is officially what Spyder Harrison describes as “schizophrenic”, as it’s been either the Biggest Jump or the Biggest DDDDDDRRRROOOOPPPP!!!!!! for 3 straight weeks.

We had a pretty solid class of new entrants across the board.  No huge winners, but the countdown needs new music that is plain ol’ regular good too.  Kelly Clarkson – Dark Side kicks it off.  I would have expected her follow-up to Stronger (What Doesn’t Kill You) to be a step down in quality.  Not the case.  Dark Side is pretty good in its own right.  You can’t tell me that you listened to the first 20 seconds of fun. – Some Nights and didn’t immediately think of Queen.  I would never put the quality of the two groups on even close to equal footing, but there’s absolutely plenty Queenesque about this song.  I’m hesitant to call this song better or worse than We Are Young.  Time will tell on that one.  I will say that I like Some Nights a good deal, however.  The final new entrant this week is Stefano – I’m On a Roll.  I find this song frustrating in the sense that I feel like it should be…..better.  The first 15 seconds got me pretty excited when I first heard it, like pure sickness was about to take place.  The rest of the song didn’t quite fulfill that promise.  Don’t get me wrong though, this isn’t Alex Clare – Too Close.  I’m On a Roll is actually still a pretty good up-tempo song that I like a good deal.

The most shocking (!!!!!) development this week was Demi Lovato – Give Your Heart a Break leaping into the Top 5 out of nowhere.  I didn’t see this coming.  It’s been just coasting in the high teens / low twenties region for weeks, so this jump seems pretty spontaneous.  I’ve cooled on this song since its Hit-Bound days, but I’m not entirely displeased.  I don’t think it’s knocking on the door of any #1 bids though.

There were a few songs that took fairly significant tumbles this week besides What Makes You Beautiful.  Karmin – Brokenhearted was banished from the Top 10 pretty suddenly after oscillating between #3 and #5, while Gym Class Heroes Ft. Ryan Tedder – The Fighter was slapped down to #32 after an extended run in the teens. 

The last couple of weeks have been pretty good.  July has been a pretty good rebound month after an awful June.

Editor’s Picks – Top 5 Songs

1) Owl City Ft. Carly Rae Jepsen – Good Time

2) Pink – Blow Me (One Last Kiss)

3) fun. – Some Nights

4) Maroon 5 – Payphone

5) Stefano – I’m On a Roll