iTunes New Zealand Top Ten Songs for 2012

As 2012 draws to a close magazines and e-zines across the world are counting down the best that the year had to offer, from music and film to sport and events. iTunes is usually a good indicator for a nations musical taste, and with the below list, well, you could argue that New Zealand is in need of some help (exception of course goes to our lovely Kimbra and the FOTC charity song, that song rocks). However, I'm sure no one can deny that at some point they have listened, mocked, sang in the shower and heaven forbid, downloaded one of the below ten songs in 2012. Thanks goes out to you.

1. CARLY RAE JEPSEN

Call Me Maybe

The first single from her second studio album Kiss, the phenomenally successful Call Me Maybe received multi-platinum certification and peaked at number one when it was released earlier this year, and has since been seemingly played on repeat by every radio station in the world.

The track also became a cult sensation online, with the video receiving nearly 361 million plays on Carl Rae Jepsen’s official YouTube channel. With every man and his dog hearing Call Me Maybe it also became an Internet meme, with its lyrics becoming the subject of countless rage comics and viral Facebook posts.

2. PSY

Gangnam Style

With close to a billion hits on YouTube, k-pop sensation PSY’s eighteenth single Gangnam Style is the highest played video on the site, surpassing Justin Bieber’s Baby by 150 million views.

Already a successful artists in his native South-Korea, PSY’s Gangnam Style and its signature dance moves went viral after originally having been tweeted by American rapper T-Pain, and at one point averaged at 1.5 million views a day.

3. FUN (featuring Janelle Monae)

We Are Young

The second single from Some Nights, the second studio album of the American Grammy-nominated band Fun, We Are Young is a power ballad that incorporates the genres of indie pop, alternative rock and power pop.

Reaching number one and receiving double-certification in New Zealand it became the band’s breakthrough single, propelling them to top-level attention all over the world.

4. FLIGHT OF THE CONCHORDS

Feel Inside (and Stuff Like That)

Much-loved New Zealand-based comedy duo Flight Of The Conchords’ single Feel Inside (And Stuff Like That) is a surprising entry at number four in this year’s iTunes chart.

Featuring performances from celebrities like Dave Dobbyn, Brooke Fraser, Boh Runga and Young Sid, and lyrics volunteered by Auckland and Wellington schoolchildren, the track was released as a charity single for Red Nose Day 2012 selling over fifteen thousand copies in its first week.

5. NICKI MINAJ

Starships

Starships, the lead single from the second album of acquired taste rapper Nicki Minaj went double platinum here in New Zealand, the fifth single by the Trinidad artist to do so at the time.

Though some critics criticised Nicki Minaj for not pushing boundaries with Starships in the same way as she did with some of her previous releases, the track was received more or less universally well by the mainstream media, proving that the world still loves her zany rhymes and cotton-candy wigs.

6. FLO RIDA

Whistle

Over three years on from his version of Dead Or Alive’s You Spin Me Round (Like A Record) that saw him and Ke$ha cleverly change the core lyric to “You spin my head right round, right round, when you go down, when you go down down”, Flo Ride’s chart success continued with the double-platinum, number one single, Whistle.

The third single from his fourth album Wild Ones, Whistle was criticised by some for its thinly veiled references to oral sex, with Robbie Daw of Idiolator’s even calling it “the least subtle song ever”.

7. FLO RIDA (featuring SIA)

Wild Ones

The title track and second single from Wild Ones was similarly well sold as Whistle, receiving double-platinum certification and a number one position on the RIANZ chart.

8. FUN

Some Nights

Fun’s second highest entry in this year’s iTunes chart, Some Nights is the second single from the indie-pop band’s second studio album of the same name.

Initially Some Nights was poorly sold, only really receiving attention online, but after being covered by the folks on the hit American show Glee, the song began to climb charts around the world, eventually reaching number two here in New Zealand.

9. MAROON 5

Payphone

A track far flung in terms of style from their early hits like She Will Be Loved and This Love, Payphone became one of Maroon 5’s most well-sold songs, seconded only by the idiotic but publically loved Moves Like Jagger.

The lead single from the platinum selling, number three album Over Exposed, Payphone is steeped in metaphor, with its main hook “I’m at a payphone trying to call home, all of my change is spent on you” eluding to a deteriorating relationship in Adam Levine’s life.

10. GOTYE (FEATURING KIMBRA)

Somebody That I Used To Know

Not often does a track from an artist unfamiliar in most of the world receive as much attention, commercial success and favourable critical reception as Gotye’s Somebody That I Used To Know.

Featuring New Zealand native Kimbra, the single was the second to be released from the Belgian-Australian artist’s third album Making Mirrors, and was played by radio stations arguably even more than PSY’s Gangnam Style.

The single received platinum classification four times over in New Zealand, and became Australia’s second-longest running number-one ever by spending eight weeks at the top of the charts, tied with Savage Garden’s Truly Madly Deeply and just behind Daddy Cool’s 1971 hit Eagle Rock.