I haven’t done an honest-to-goodness meme in a long time. (Unless you count the weekly random guess ten.) We may be about to rediscover why. Stolen from Caitlin R. Kiernan, the rules are pretty simple:
Go here and see what was on the top of the charts on the day you were born and every birthday thereafter. Learn just how astrologically-musically lame your life has been. If you want, add in your own favorite Hot 100 hit single of that year, wishing that your birthday had been cool enough to have that song be #1.
I don’t know if this will be remotely interesting to anyone but me, but here are the songs:
1977: “Rich Girl” by Hall & Oates
Favorite: “Sir Duke” by Stevie Wonder1978: “Night Fever” by the Bee Gees
Favorite: Sigh. “You’re the One That I Want” from Grease, I guess1979: “Tragedy” by the Bee Gees
Favorite: I think “Heartache Tonight” by the Eagles, although “My Sharona” by the Knack and “Heart of Glass” by Blondie are also good picks.1980: “Another Brick in the Wall (Part II)” by Pink Floyd
Favorite: “Another Brick in the Wall (Part II)” by Pink Floyd1981: “Rapture” by Blondie
Favorite: “(Just Like) Starting Over” by John Lennon1982: “I Love Rock ‘N Roll” by Joan Jett & the Blackhearts
Favorite: “I Love Rock ‘N Roll” by Joan Jett & the Blackhearts1983: “Billie Jean” by Michael Jackson
Favorite: “Come On Eileen” by Dexys Midnight Runners1984: “Jump” by Van Halen
Favorite: “Hello” by Lionel Richie (Yes, I like Lionel Richie more than Van Halen. Deal with it.)1985: “Can’t Fight This Feeling” by REO Speedwagon
Favorite: “Everybody Wants to Rule the World” by Tears for Fears1986: “Rock Me Amadeus” by Falco
Favorite: Either “Addicted to Love” by Robert Palmer or “Sledgehammer” by Peter Gabriel (although even the Bangles’ “Walk Like an Egyptian” is a contender)1987: “Lean on Me” by Club Nouveau
Favorite: “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For” by U21988: “Man in the Mirror” by Michael Jackson
Favorite: “Got My Mind Set on You” by George Harrison (And “Kokomo” was only a #1 hit for a single week? It seemed a lot longer at the time. Although, at the time, I seem to remember liking the song, so obviously things change.)1989: “The Living Years” by Mike + The Mechanics (I haven’t heard that song in an age)
Favorite: It may very well by “Good Thing” by Fine Young Cannibals or Billy Joel’s “We Didn’t Start the Fire.” 1989 was not a very good year for pop music, it would seem.1990: “Black Velvet” by Alannah Myles (I like the song, but I never knew who sang it)
Favorite: “Nothing Compares 2 U” by Sinead O’Connor (It’s partly that famous video and it’s partly that her competition includes Michael Bolton and New Kids on the Block. It’s a good song, though.)1991: “One More Try” by Tommy T (Another one I don’t think I’ve heard in over a decade)
Favorite: Heaven help me, I think it’s actually “Good Vibrations” by Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch.1992: “Save the Best for Last” by Vanessa Williams
Favorite: “Baby Got Back” by Sir Mix-a-lot1993: “Informer” by Snow
Favorite: “I’d Do Anything for Love (but I Won’t Do That)” by Meat Loaf (Lean times, 1993. Lean times…)1994: “The Sign” by Ace of Base (I used to hate this, but John Darnielle of the Mountain Goats showed me the error of my ways)
Favorite: I guess “Stay (I Missed You)” by Lisa Loeb & Nine Stories1995: “Take a Bow” by Madonna
Favorite: Wow, I don’t think I like any of these. This is the year I graduated from high school, and Coolio’s “Gangsta’s Paradise” is the best it had to offer?1996: “Because You Loved Me” by Ciline Dion
Favorite: “California Love” by 2Pac (Seriously, how are these two songs in the same universe, much less same list?)1997: “Can’t Nobody Hold Me Down” by Puff Daddy featuring Mase
Favorite: None of ’em1998: “Gettin’ Jiggy Wit It” by Will Smith
Favorite: “One Week” by Barenaked Ladies (although it’s probably my least favorite song on that album)1999: “Believe” by Cher
Favorite: Meh.2000: “Say My Name” by Destiny’s Child
Favorite: “Bent” by Matchbox Twenty (no, really.)2001: “Butterfly” by Crazy Town
Favorite: I don’t hate Shaggy’s “It Wasn’t Me,” but that’s pushing it.2002: “Ain’t it Funny” by Jennifer Lopez featuring Ja Rule
Favorite: “Lose Yourself” by Eminem2003: “In Da Club” by 50 Cent
Favorite: “Lose Yourself” by Eminem (Although I don’t love it that much. It’s just a process of elimination. Outkast’s “Hey Ya!” is okay, too.)2004: “Yeah!” by Usher featuring Lil Jon and Ludacris
Favorite: “Hey Ya!” by Outkast (I just don’t know any of the others well enough to have an opinion.)2005: “Candy Shop” 50 Cent featuring Olivia
Favorite: The only two contenders, Kanye West’s “Gold Digger” and Gwen Stefani’s “Hollaback Girl,” just became too annoying out of sheer radio repetition.2006: “So Sick” by Ne-Yo
Favorite: No. Just no.2007: “Glamorous” by Fergie featuring Ludacris
Favorite: Okay, I don’t completely hate Avril Lavigne’s “Girlfriend.” I only a little hate it.
2008: “Love in this Club” by Usher featuring Young Jeezy
Favorite: Am I just getting old, or are the #1 hits getting worse and worse every year?
It’s interesting to see the progression, as I find less and less to like in the charts, and I think this is only partly a product of me becoming a crotchety old man who doesn’t like them kids with their loud music. It has a lot more to do with the list long having been a reflection of cultural mediocrity, and of fewer artists spending considerably more weeks dominating the top position as the years go on. I was also interested to see how infrequently my musical tastes matched up with what passed for popular opinion. There are a handful of songs that made the charts in my 30+ years that I like, but precious few that I genuinely love. I barely even recognize some of the more recent ones.
Good job, youngster, but let me tell you — the older you get, the longer it takes to do this meme. But my answers are up at my blog: http://idle-musings.blogspot.com/
I was thinking that as I did the meme. Although, you’re only six years my senior. Now if someone like Generik were to do it, on the other hand… 😉
Wow, I guess both of us are born close enough (Day and Month-wise) that “I Love Rock & Roll” was my song for the day I was born. I also like “Jack and Diane” for ’82.
I know what you mean about recent songs. A quick poll shows that in the last four years I can identify about 6 of the top-ten songs from their title. This may be because I only listen to classic rock stations, though.
Yeah, I was born March 26.
I don’t think it’s necessarily that recent pop music is so much worse. It’s more that increasingly fewer songs and artists can actually qualify, with the bland homogenizing of radio airplay and narrowing of market focus. You do see in those lists, as you get closer to the present day, that fewer artists are occupying the top spaces, and doing so for longer than before.
I might actually like some of the newer hits if I was more familiar with them. But I really don’t listen to much top 40 (more like top 5) radio; I get most of my music online, through podcasts, or through the dwindling number of radio stations playing something different. You see plenty of junk in the lists well before today. Lots of good stuff, but I do think that when something great makes it to the top of the charts, it’s largely an accident.
I think the “mainstream” has become a trickle. Listening has been pretty solidly fractured; radio killed its own fans with playlists and extra-big commercial breaks, and pop music has been focused-grouped to death. “Music” hasn’t gotten worse, the business of music has driven almost everyone either into the fringe or the back catalog.
Exactly. There’s plenty of great new music being made all the time, but it’s rarely getting on the radio, much less the charts.