Yvestyle 2012 Music Milestones

I'm a closet DJ or Rick Dee. 

In actuality I've been ranking and counting down songs 

since I saw the Spice Girls, 1997 and up to this day - that's already 13 years!

Before the blogosphere became my avenue for fashion and music thoughts, 

I recorded my "Music Charts" in Merit notebooks, newsprint papers, spring notebooks during 

the late '90s. And onto the desktop from 2000 onwards. 

Here's a sampling of my No.1s:

2008 -  "Bleeding Love" by Leona Lewis

2009 - "Single Ladies" by Beyonce

2010 - "Telephone" by Lady Gaga feat. Beyonce

2011 - "Super Bass" by Nicki Minaj

and this year, here are my Top 20 songs for 2012 

plus 4 extra special tunes my year was defined by.

Jessie J's "DOMINO" topped my 100 list for its encompassing 

good-vibes feel and no-holds-barred (that's my motto) message! Though superficial in some lyrics and,  true this was a skew amongst her "Nobody's Perfect"-type of songs - I was surprised too - but this was playful and glossy, what I sometimes like in Pop nowadays.

This song has the "original" Jessie fade away a bit though, sans her angst and fierceness and has been criticized as a "ghoulish mess of Daft Punk and Katy Perry at her most annoying", 

but IDGAD!

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Brandy 
Brandy's latest abum, Two Eleven - her release in four years - was just a breath panter for me!
I was elated to know she had new material. First off was "Put It Down" which at the start I didn't like the smooth slow urban vibe but eventually I got to feel its Brandyness - the slow jamming with a dash of ballad somewhere in the song.

Lana Del Rey

Amidst the ubiquitous techno-fied pop songs and dubstepping, there was one unhappy, lazy balladeer in the form of pouty-lipped Lana. Dubbed as the "Ghetto Nancy Sinatra", Lana struck my nerve (and I bet for some of you) into what introduced me to songs with metaphors of disconnect and detachment. 

"Video Games" was relative to today's times. It had a chord progression and melody that lulled me to a pitstop of beauty rest and the like. 

But "Born To Die" was tattooed in my mind during the days leading up to summer. It was weirdly cool and addictive to have "Born" as my and friends' Boracay theme song. My OFP photographer and friend Yuno would place this on REPEAT, resounding in our hotel room from the time we wake up til we doze off. 

"Beat Down" and Iggy Azalea

I stumbled upon Aussie rapper Iggy Azalea while browsing for "Step Up 3D" songs. I saw a still from Steve Aoki's then new single "Beat Down" with a shot of her ponytail.

I played it and BOOM! I was instantly hooked to the heavy urban-trip-hop beat! 
Aoki made Wynter Gordon an ice-melting sexbomb for "Ladi Dadi" and what "Beat Down" did to Azalea is just freakin' mad! Iggy makes Willow Smith go home with the 360-degree whip of her ponytail in the video! LOL 

And thank goodness who ever plays this in VUDU, i love ya i wanna be wid ya! 

Azealia Banks

I first heard her from Mugler's Menswear Fall 2011 fashion show, "212" was used as the song for the interestingly textured quasi-futuristic clothes the brand showcased. "Liqourice" came after, which threw me back to the mid-90s heydays of urban music, with marriages of urban glitz and glam.

She barks aggressive lines against lacquered beats; with phrases that are, as pitchfork.com calls it - "elegantly self-aggrandizing and enemy-deflating". The irony in her productions caught me. With "1991" catapulting my adoration for her, she is bombastic; she is boundary-busting. 

Looking forward to her Paul Epworth-produced LP "Broke With Expensive Taste"!

Cheers to more boundary-busting artists and songs!

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In other music news, I hope you all have EXXED the 18th on your calendars for one of Sinulog 2013's key parties: LIFEDANCE Cebu!

14 days to go!
That means 2 more weeks, 2 more Thursdays and 1 more Friday!

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