It’s just been 10 years ago when these songs and artists were celebrated. But, how many of these songs are still played and how many of these artists are still around?
Certainly Adele–who just released a new album last month–is still around. The same for Taylor Swift. Katy Perry seems to have faded. Rihanna left music to make millions in fashion. Lady Antebellum morphed into the politically correct Lady A. Sadly, Amy Winehouse is no longer with us.
I do hear “Rolling In The Deep,” “Grenade,” “Firework,” “Moves Like Jagger,” and “What’s My Name” on local radio stations. The rest of these songs…not so much.
Do you remember these artists and songs from a decade ago? Any favorites? GRADE: B+
Tracklist:
| 1 | Adele (3)– | Rolling In The Deep Producer – Paul Epworth | 3:48 |
| 2 | Bruno Mars– | Grenade Producer – The Smeezingtons | 3:41 |
| 3 | Katy Perry– | Firework Producer – Sandy Vee, StarGate (2) | 3:44 |
| 4 | Maroon 5 Feat. Christina Aguilera– | Moves Like Jagger Producer – Benny Blanco (3), Shellback (2) | 3:22 |
| 5 | Nicki Minaj– | Super Bass Producer – Kane* | 3:24 |
| 6 | Rihanna Feat. Drake– | What’s My Name? Producer – StarGate (2) | 3:51 |
| 7 | J. Cole– | Work Out Producer – J. Cole | 3:48 |
| 8 | Lady Gaga– | Yoü And I Producer – Lady Gaga, Robert John “Mutt” Lange* | 4:08 |
| 9 | Foster The People– | Pumped Up Kids Producer – Mark Foster (9 | 3:33 |
| 10 | Skrillex– | Scary Monsters And Nice Sprites (Edit)Producer – Skrillex | 3:19 |
| 11 | Coldplay– | Paradise Producer – Daniel Green*, Markus Dravs, Rik Simpson | 4:39 |
| 12 | Foo Fighters– | Walk Producer – Butch Vig | 4:18 |
| 13 | The Band Perry– | If I Die Young Producer – Paul Worley | 3:36 |
| 14 | Mumford & Sons– | The Cave Producer – Markus Dravs | 3:37 |
| 15 | Bon Iver– | Holocene Producer – Justin Vernon | 4:19 |
| 16 | Lady Antebellum– | Just A Kiss Producer – Lady Antebellum, Paul Worley | 3:38 |
| 17 | Taylor Swift– | Mean Producer – Nathan Chapman, Taylor Swift | 3:58 |
| 18 | Blake Shelton– | Honey Bee Producer – Scott Hendricks | 3:18 |
| 19 | Eric Church– | Drink In My Hand Producer – Jay Joyce | 3:12 |
| 20 | The Black Keys– | Dearest Producer – Matt Sweeney, The Black Keys | 2:06 |
| 21 | Jason Aldean With Kelly Clarkson– | Don’t You Wanna Stay Producer – Michael Knox | 3:17 |
| 22 | Tony Bennett & Amy Winehouse– | Body And Soul Producer – Dae Bennett, Phil Ramone | 3:21 |
Not an awful collection by any means, but what I care about here is putting the word “producer” after every title. Not all of them work, but some are pretty good. Super Bass Producer. Mean Producer. Don’t You Want to Stay /a/ Producer/?/
Anyway, it amused me.
Jeff, usually Discogs supplies the writer of the song in addition to the “producer.” Not this time.
But you could have edited it out!
The only ones that would ever get played on the stations I listen to are The Black Keys, The Foo Fighters, Coldplay, Amy Winehouse and Bon Iver. I can’t stand to listen to a top 40 station anymore.
Steve, like you I find listing to contemporary TOP 40 radio stations is an exercise in frustration. I don’t know the artists and the songs sound like plastic.
My go-to genres (satellite radio in my car or Spotify on my iPad) are 1970s Disco, 1980s New Wave, or contemporary EDM, so I rarely hear any of these songs, but I know the majority of them. Probably my favorites here are “Rolling in the Deep,” “Moves Like Jagger,” and “Firework.” I was going to say that Rhianna is still releasing music, but the song I was going to use as an example—“This Is What You Came For” (which I love)—was released in 2016, which seems like five minutes ago in Deb time but was six years back. Yikes!
Deb, I have a bunch of Rhianna CDs which I listen to occasionally. She made Big News walking away from her singing career, but she made millions with her fashion line. There are rumors Rhianna will return with a new album, but I’ll believe it when I hear it.
Since i don’t drive, I hear no music in the car. At home, I use Alexa to ask for music. None of it is current music except the occasional sound track from a movie I’ve seen. I listen to podcasts and audiobooks much more than music so I guess I live in a spoken word world.
Patti, when Patrick and Katie were kids, I was always driving them somewhere–violin lessons for Patrick, flute lessons for Katie, gymnastics and dance lessons for Katie, etc.–so the radio was always on in the car. When they were old enough, Katie or Patrick would call “shotgun” and sit up in the front with me. I would drive and they would change the radio stations to find their favorite songs so I heard a lot of my kids’ favorite music back in the 1980s and 1990s.
I have to plead ignorance like Patti (or George Costanza, with the whole sex in the office thing) here. I know of the artists (well, most of them), I may (possibly) have heard of a couple of the songs, but there is no way that I know any of them, period. Oh, play them and I would recognize Adele or Amy Winehouse or Taylor Swift, but that’s about it. We are currently listening to the Real Oldies Station, whose playlist is ’60s and ’70s (with an occasional song at either end), and I’m happy with that.
Jeff, when we’re driving around in the Rogue, Diane fiddles with the Sirius/XM radio stations. She likes THE BLEND and BROADWAY MUSIC while I like WATERCOLORS (Smooth Jazz) and SOUL TOWN (Motown music).
If I played Watercolors while driving, I would fall asleep at the wheel.
Steve, all I know is that listening to WATERCOLORS lowers my blood pressure. For Real!
Jeff, that exactly describes my situation too!
The “new” music of the 21st century doesn’t move me at all.
Last weekend I drove from Hungary to Germany (more than 500 miles, but with two nights stay at my sister’s place near Munich) and most of the time one of my favourite CDs was on.
I don’t have something like Sirius so when I switched to radio for the news and the traffic warnings I had a pop station with usually older stuff, that was ok.
Most of these singers from 2012 I probably wouldn’t recognize at all …
If I played Watercolors while driving, I would fall asleep at the wheel.
To my mind, Grammy nominees are often not very award-worthy.
I do enjoy Adele, Bruno Mars, Katy Perry, Taylor Swift, Lady Gaga and I buy their CDs – yeah, I’m old.
Right now I’m ODing on the Sirius XM David Bowie channel. They play the fan-voted Top 75 a lot but he made more than enough music to keep it interesting.
Beth, I’ll have to check out that David Bowie channel one Sirius/XM Radio. I pretty much ignore the GRAMMIES. It seems more like a popularity contest than a recognition of great music.
Well, much as with the Oscars only more so, the Grammys are about what makes the corporate industry the most short term money. And the tastes aren’t too informed by anything else, most of the time, even too often among the jazz and other financial low-return (in comparison) musical/recording categories. Even if they, like short-film and documentary Oscars, might average a bit better.
I recognize and like quite a few of these, have a couple Adele albums, like Coldplay. But much newer than this is a complete blank.
Rick, I’m not up on the latest musical artists or groups. I have Adele’s albums but only Coldplay on compilation CDs.
I’d say there are more of these in the OK category-Coldplay, Foo Fighters, Taylor Swift, etc., than there are in the “Hope I never see or hear them again” category like Nicki Minaj, which sorta surprised me.
Michael, like you I was surprised that many of these groups and artists are still around. And, some of their songs are still being played on some radio stations and Sirius/XM Radio.
I was finished with new music by the mid-seventies! In my truck I listen to talk radio or the oldies station we have that actually plays oldies!
Bob, we have an Oldies station that plays songs from the 1950s and 1960s. I don’t know how they stay in business!
And you have to remember that radio and the recording industry have often been at slightly crossed purposes. Very little rap will be on Top 40 stations, no matter how it sells. A bit like romance novels being omitted from bestseller lists on a regular basis, for no legitimate reason.
The George listeners, and the Kelley Kid listeners, are expected to Not Want to hear certain things, no matter how well they sell.
I know most of this music, and there have been worse years. I do tend to listen to spoken word in the car…the biggest (Philly) NPR station runs mostly their discussion programs, with a very few variety shows and occasional musical guests. I’ll go to the Temple University jazz.nights, classical days station as my usual second choice, and (Uni of) Penn station is a mostly a college rock/Not Really Alternative music station.
Todd, Diane listens to NPR about 8 hours a day.