2011: The Best, The Worst, And The Things You Wish You Could Forget (Music Edition)

Rolling in the Deep, by Adele, changed minds, turned heads, and inspired a sudden influx of ballad popularity. And the best part? This is a song that anyone can sing. It's not out of your range, doesn't demand anything special in terms of vocal gymnastics, and if you care even a little about what it sounds like when it comes out of your mouth, it's going to sound good. Combined, those three things can't be beat. And it's not pop, it's soul, which sounds much more impressive and intellectual when used in a sentence such as 'my favorite genre of music is ---'.

Pumped-Up Kicks, by Foster the People, is the worst song of the year because the lyrics are about a kid being bullied from his perspective. And, you know, then the kid steals his Dad's gun and goes on a killing spree. Because light-hearted fun usually works out like that, light-hearted fun being exactly what is suggested by the all-too-catchy tune the words are set to. I don't even know how many times I've started humming this song only to stop myself when I remember what it's actually about. Enough times to leave me severely creeped out, which is not a plus when I'm listening to music.

Friday, by Rebecca Black, is not a mediocre song with a very sad music video and lyrics that describe only how vapid the thoughts of a thirteen-year-old girl are. It is so, so much more than that. It is a vast and sudden shift in the collective consciousness of society as we realized that, despite all the good music out there, we prefer mediocrity because who cares, that's why. And when everybody decides the same thing at the same time, we have the power to bring to life a pop phenomenon in a way that is so unprecedented and enigmatic even to us that, now that we've created her, we have no idea what to do with her.