2012 in Music

Back in 2011, Electropop/Dance music ruled all over the airwaves with hit songs like “We Found Love”, “Party Rock Anthem” and “On The Floor”. Even though we didn’t get to see a huge transition from 2011 to 2012, but we shall say that last year we were able to see more and more non-mainstream acts becoming popular.

“Somebody That I Used To Know” by Australian singers, Gotye and Kimbra and “We Are Young” by Alternative/Rock band fun. and R&B/Soul singer Janelle Monae were two of the year’s biggest hits. I’m not saying that both were pure Indie songs, but at least we got to see more variation on music charts and it would probably help and open the doors for more non-Pop singers to get recognized by the general public.

Oppa Gangnam Style

We were also able to witness several interesting newcomers. Of course we all know the song “Gangnam Stye” by Korean singer, Psy (pictured), which is still one of the hottest songs on the radio right now thanks to its viral video which introduces its signature dance moves to the world. Not to forget Carly Rae Jepsen’s number one hit, “Call Me Maybe”, which has spawned several parodies on YouTube based on the video.

The Rise of R&B

Another notable ‘newcomers’ last year were Frank Ocean and The Weeknd. Along with Miguel (pictured), the three of them popularized a new sound of R&B which is often refered as Alternative R&B, or even some people call it Electrosoul. Basically, we can say that Alternative R&B aims to modernize the sound of R&B by creating a fusion between traditional R&B and Electronic music without losing the soul itself in R&B. “Thinkin Bout You” (Frank Ocean), “Wicked Games” (The Weeknd) and “Adorn” (Miguel) are the perfect examples to describe Alternative R&B. Even, some of the bigger stars had already tried to incorporate this genre onto their sound, for example, “Climax” & “I Care 4 U” by Usher and “I Miss You” by Beyoncé.

Song fact: “Adorn” by Miguel, is currently the longest-running number one single on Billboard’s Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay Chart, topping the chart for eighteen consecutive weeks so far.

Losing Fans

Even though we got to see much improvement in music last year, some singers were still stuck and had not able to move on from the more popular Electropop/Dance sound. Chris Brown (pictured) & Ne-Yo for example, they ruled the charts last year with hit singles including “Turn Up The Music”, “Don’t Wake Me Up and “Let Me Love You (Until You Learn To Love Yourself)”. But on the other side, they began to lose their core fans who were there for their R&B music, the genre that helped them gaining solid fanbases, which can be seen visibly on their low album sales. The same thing happened to Usher & Nicki Minaj as well, even though looks like Nicki is trying to re-build her Hip Hop fanbase by keep releasing Rap songs in the past couple of months, including “Freedom” and “The Boys”, which features American R&B/Pop songstress, Cassie.

Song fact: “Turn Up The Music” is Chris Brown’s first number single in the UK. He had spawned dozen of top ten hits before including “Run It”, “With You”, “No Air” and “Yeah 3x”.

The Dirty Side of Hip-Hop

Sadly, we didn’t get to see much improvement in Hip-Hop either. Many big Hip-Hop songs were still talking about partying, drinking, bitches and stuff like that. Yup, we missed the Hip-Hop songs that actually talk about life and well-written with lyrics that can relate to ourselves.

But, indeed, 2012 was a pretty good year for music overall. Of course, we’re looking forward for a better year in 2013, especially with comebacks from several huge names in Pop music such as Beyoncé, Justin Timberlake (yes, he’s releasing a new single next Monday) and Britney Spears. Together, we’re hoping to witness the greatness of music in 2013, amen.

*Images courtesy of indoBOOM, United Virtuoso & Faux Society.

After completing the final exams several days ago, I’m on a very short-but-better-than-nothing holiday right now so let me now bless you all with my posts for a couple of days. Enjoy.