Top 30 Artists of 2011:         #10 – LMFAO

Total Points –             160

Charted Songs:

13        Party Rock Anthem – LMFAO Featuring Lauren Bennett & GoonRock      88 points

29        Sexy And I Know It – LMFAO         72 points

Last Year’s Rank:        N/A

Damn you for being so catchy. I liked LMFAO back in the “I’m in Miami, Trick” era so watching them skyrocket with dance-pop didn’t surprise me. I think “Party Rock Anthem” is definitely the better song both for dancing and lyrically. Maybe it’s the fact that “Sexy and I Know it” is both overplayed and a horrible catchphrase that I’ve heard people actually using. I saw it as a hoodie. I heard a seven year old say it and convince herself that she was dead sexy. I immediately imagined the girl wearing the hoodie in class and explaining how she “Wiggle, Wiggle, Wiggled” in the sweater.

Granted, there was an amazing parody about homeless people. I mean, should we be making fun of them? I dunno, some of them have velvet voices.

Top 30 Artists of 2011:         #11 – Bad Lip Reading         

Total Points –             154

Charted Songs:

30        GANG FIGHT — a Bad Lip Reading           71 points

48        (ROCKIN’) ALL NITE LONG — A Bad Lip Reading       53 points

71        BLACK UMBRELLA (The Right Stuff) — a Bad Lip Reading     30 points

Last Year’s Rank:        N/A

Auto-tune the news was last year’s big online song thing that I thought was hysterical and amazing. In 2011, they didn’t have as many signature hits that I really loved outside of “Can’t Hug Every Cat.” Instead, with the rise of Rebecca Black’s “Friday” another group capitalized on the whole parody bandwagon: Bad Lip Reading. I’m still not sure who exactly spearheads the group  but they have made tons of parodies in the short amount of time including ones involving poop. But let’s go with the classic Gang Fight as the video of choice:

The thing about them is that the lyrics don’t have to make sense for it to be funny, they are already making fun of videos that tend to be silly so talking about chickens and having trouble eating them or such is fine.

I really hope that Bad Lip Reading continues to make videos, I could swear that the subscription pool kinda went quiet. Tis a shame.

The song is kind of that horrible love-child of Ke$ha and Justin Bieber. Anywho, here are three YouTube videos that pertain to Rebecca Black and are hysterical.

Though my favorite line is “Tomorrow is Saturday, and Sunday comes Afterwards” I also find the whole “fun” part of the song to be catchy. The question is now can it be it’s own song? In one word? “Fun”

The best mash-up of video using the same song merged “Friday” with Groundhog Day:

And the best cover version? Kyle Puccia

Finally, the best commentary? From that guy that hates when couples sit together on a date.

Eminem was one of those artists that I thought would slowly fade away when he decided to care for his children. I mean I’d assume that he’d show up on guest spots here and there. But somehow, Eminem and Enrique Iglasias reemerged in the same year. Then the Backstreet Boys and NKOTB came together to create ultimate boy band? It was like my childhood all over again. Granted both Eminem and Enrique benefited from relevant artists (Rihanna and Pitbull respectively)

I saw the piece of Eminem on 60 Minutes with Anderson Cooper and I really thought that Anderson did a horrible job. I really was hoping he’d ask better questions than: So I hear you can rhyme the word “orange.” One would think that Anderson (of all people) would be ballsy to ask any questions about homophobia.

There were tons of parodies, but one of my favorite groups that do parodies has to be The Key of Awesome and their parody of “Love the way you lie” was really good. Their take on Rihanna was hysterical:

Total Points: 100
Charted Songs: “Billionaire” (ft. Bruno Mars) – #1*

Travie McCoy sounded familiar to me and I couldn’t figure out why. Then I heard this again:

Duh! Travie McCoy was/is the lead vocalist for Gym Class Heroes. Granted in “Cupid’s Chokehold” I remember Patrick Stump from Fall Out Boy singing the chorus more so…but then again I think I remember Bruno Mars more on “Billionaire” as well… Where was I? Oh yeah, I thought that Travie McCoy was some new artist in the music industry, and I was wrong. Not that it’s a bad thing, but interesting to note.

You know what’s funny? I coulda sworn that this song would have been prime for good parodies… and there weren’t any real standout videos on YouTube. The closest to a decent one was this Vampire parody:

But I didn’t really understand why they were hanging out on the beach. The song did remind me of this youtube video:

There’s a part of me that really hopes that he and his comedy partner gets the money.

*Travie McCoy and Shontelle are the last two artists that made the list with only one song. It’s pretty telling that everyone else following this have more than 100 points. Will you be surprised by the rest? Probably not.

She-Wolf brought the return of Shakira from a few year break. I wondered if she still had it in her, but she proved me wrong. The song has techno friendliness, while still maintaining that sexual energy of Shakira. Hell, I liked the song even before I saw the music video. The cheesy wolf howls showing that she was on the hunt was such an interesting choice. Cheesy as it is, without it, the song wouldn’t have been the same.

Now getting to the biggest sell: the video was amazing. Shakira at her best, caged in, contorting her body, skin-tight outfits. Hell, she managed to include some classic Shakira belly-dancing moves. Sure, the video was amazing, but the shot-for-shot remake by that one kid was amazing. If you’ve never seen it before, I’ve posted it below.

I’m happy Shakira made such a big impact in 2009. Her voice is very distinguishable from a crowd, she’s still the looker that she’s always has been, and her writing style is still strong in either English or Spanish.

I was convinced that this song was actually released in 2008, but I can’t say how much I like “I Love College” by Asher Roth. The guy sounds like Eminem when he raps, but the fact of the matter is that I doubt that Eminem even finished high school.

The lyrics is the best part of the whole song, all the references are spot-on to what the college experience is about. The sample in the background is just subdued and something you would love when you’re drunk/high. I love the bridge where everyone screams “Keg Stand! Keg Stand!”

Ironically, I just caught this music video parody:

Hysterical.

If I was to place this song in my list it would be around 20-21, but it seems unfair to the people that are already there to just bump them fully off the list.