iTunes Proves People Really Are As Tasteless As You Think They Are

jharv | December 11, 2007 12:30 pm

And having just spent a half-hour typing out* iTunes’ Top 20 best-selling songs, Top 20 best-selling albums, and Top 10 best-selling videos, I can vouch for the insanity. Want a 2007 list based not on the personal aesthetic whims of a couple of bloggers or an editorial staff trying to look hip or a publisher second-guessing what its audience wants/expects to appear on a year-end list, but a democratically chosen list based around raw commerce, a list voted for by the public, comprised entirely of what they were most willing to spend their .99 on during the last 12 months? Well here it is. And the public sucks. The full lists are after the jump, but for now my shell-shocked first thoughts.

THE GOOD: Maroon 5’s louche dude funk gets a bad rap (though you’d have a hard time holding us to that sentiment when one of their ballads is playing) but even after following the numbers during the year, we’re still a little surprised to see them topping the albums list ahead of Kanye. A few decent long-players stud the rest of the list, and a “Weird Al” appearance (in the Top Videos category) always brings a smile. But more than any single artist, people really plunked down for some Timbaland this year, no matter who he was featuring and/or producing. And with the exception of “Apologize,” we’re more than OK with hearing any of Tim’s 2007 hits for the billionth time compared to… THE BAD: Colbie Caillat! Daughtry! Akon! “Party Like A Rock Star”! A squeaky Stefani (who’s at least not yodelling)! Nickelback mugging with half of America! Fergie at No. 1! When I die and go to blogger hell, this Top 20 playlist will be looped for all eternity, broken up only by the occasional airing of the complete works of Sufjan Stevens, as the editors of Stereogum beat me around the neck with rolled-up press releases. THE WHAAAA? Some basic figures for you to contemplate and/or shudder over. Within the Top 100 best-selling singles of 2007 we have: Four Akon songs, four Avril Lavigne songs (including one remix), three Daughtry songs, two Fall Out Boy songs, three Fergie songs, five Justin Timberlake songs, two Kanye songs, two Maroon 5 songs, two My Chemical Romance songs, two Nickelback songs, two Pink songs (?!), three Rihanna songs, two Sean Kingston songs, two T-Pain songs (not counting collabos), and three Timbaland songs (not counting productions). That’s nearly half of the Top 100 controlled by 15 artists, or a quarter of it controlled by seven if we only count the ones that scored three or more slots. Plus Feist was in the Top 20 albums, but download sensation “1-2-3-4” doesn’t even show up until No. 80! So much for the new model.

[EDIT: The full list of the Top 100 best-selling singles is now posted after the jump thanks to the Excel skillz of commenter extraordinaire therichgirlsareweeping, and looking at it has cooled my ire a little, as many more decent-to-great songs start appearing the further down you go. However that Top 20 is, with a few exceptions, still awful awful awful.]

Top Singles

1 Big Girls Don’t Cry (Personal)- Fergie 2 The Sweet Escape- Gwen Stefani 3 Hey There Delilah- Plain White T’s 4 Girlfriend (Radio Edit)- Avril Lavigne 5 Glamorous – Fergie 6 Stronger – Kanye West 7 Makes Me Wonder- Maroon 5 8 Don’t Matter – Akon 9 The Way I Are (feat. Keri Hilson & D.O.E.) – Timbaland 10 Party Like a Rock Star – Shop Boyz 11 Crank That (Soulja Boy) – Soulja Boy Tell ‘Em 12 Umbrella (feat. Jay-Z) – Rihanna 13 Apologize (feat. OneRepublic) – Timbaland 14 Rockstar – Nickelback 15 Bubbly – Colbie Caillat 16 Give It to Me (feat. Justin Timberlake & Nelly Furtado) – Timbaland 17 Say It Right – Nelly Furtado 18 Buy U a Drank (Shawty Snappin’) – T-Pain featuring Yung Joc 19 Cupid’s Chokehold / Breakfast in America (feat. Patrick Stump) [Bonus Track] – Gym Class Heroes featuring Patrick Stump 20 It’s Not Over – Daughtry 21 This Ain’t a Scene, It’s an Arms Race – Fall Out Boy 22 Thnks Fr Th Mmrs – Fall Out Boy 23 This Is Why I’m Hot – Mims 24 Beautiful Girls – Sean Kingston 25 Home – Daughtry 26 Irreplaceable – Beyoncé 27 What I’ve Done – Linkin Park 28 What Goes Around…/…Comes Around Interlude – Justin Timberlake 29 If Everyone Cared – Nickelback 30 Fergalicious – Fergie 31 No One – Alicia Keys 32 Shut Up and Drive – Rihanna 33 The Great Escape – Boys Like Girls 34 How Far We’ve Come – Matchbox Twenty 35 Cyclone – Baby Bash 36 U + Ur Hand – P!nk 37 Pop, Lock & Drop It (Video Edit) – Huey 38 Kiss Kiss (feat. T-Pain) – Chris Brown 39 Summer Love/Set the Mood Prelude – Justin Timberlake 40 Never Again – Kelly Clarkson 41 A Bay Bay (Main) – Hurricane Chris 42 Bartender (feat. Akon) – T-Pain 43 Beautiful Liar – Beyoncé & Shakira 44 Rehab – Amy Winehouse 45 Face Down – The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus 46 Here (In Your Arms) – Hellogoodbye 47 Wait for You – Elliott Yamin 48 First Time – Lifehouse 49 Girlfriend (Featuring Lil’ Mama) [Dr. Luke Mix] – Avril Lavigne 50 Gimme More – Britney Spears 51 I Wanna Love You – Akon featuring Snoop Dogg 52 The Way I Live – Baby Boy Da Prince featuring P. Town Moe 53 Paralyzer – Finger Eleven 54 Teardrops On My Guitar – Taylor Swift 55 Smack That (Dirty) – Akon featuring Eminem 56 Me Love – Sean Kingston 57 Potential Breakup Song – Aly & AJ 58 Sorry, Blame It On Me – Akon 59 SexyBack – Justin Timberlake & Timbaland 60 Walk It Out – Unk 61 Welcome to the Black Parade – My Chemical Romance 62 We Fly High – Jim Jones 63 Waiting On the World to Change – John Mayer 64 I Tried – Bone Thugs-N-Harmony featuring Akon 65 Suddenly I See – KT Tunstall 66 Last Night (Featuring Keyshia Cole – Diddy featuring Keyshia Cole 67 Keep Holding On – Avril Lavigne 68 Lip Gloss – Lil Mama 69 S.O.S. – Jonas Brothers 70 Runaway Love – Ludacris 71 Wake Up Call – Maroon 5 72 Good Life – Kanye West 73 Who Knew – P!nk 74 Candyman – Christina Aguilera 75 Get It Shawty – Lloyd 76 Because of You – Ne-Yo 77 Misery Business – Paramore 78 Big S**t Poppin’ (Do It) – T.I. 79 Like a Boy – Ciara 80 1234 – Feist 81 Nobody’s Perfect – Hannah Montana 82 Hate That I Love You – Rihanna 83 Icky Thump – White Stripes 84 Over It – Katharine McPhee 85 Ayo Technology (feat. Justin Timberlake) – 50 Cent 86 Lost In This Moment – Big & Rich 87 Everything – Michael Bublé 88 Low (feat. T-Pain) – Flo Rida 89 My Love – Justin Timberlake & T.I. 90 Ice Box – Omarion 91 Whine Up (English Version) – Kat DeLuna 92 Over You – Daughtry 93 I’m a Flirt (Remix) [Radio Version] – R. Kelly featuring T.I. & T-Pain 94 When You’re Gone – Avril Lavigne 95 Go Getta – Young Jeezy featuring R. Kelly 96 We Takin’ Over – DJ Khaled featuring Akon, T.I., Rick Ross, Fat Joe, Baby & Lil’ Wayne 97 Dance Floor Anthem – Good Charlotte 98 Teenagers – My Chemical Romance 99 So Small – Carrie Underwood 100 LoveStoned/I Think She Knows Interlude – Justin Timberlake

Top Albums

1. Maroon 5, It Won’t Be Soon Before Long 2. Kanye West, Graduation 3. Amy Winehouse, Back To Black 4. Daughtry 5. Colbie Caillat, Coco 6. Linkin Park, Minutes To Midnight 7. High School Musical 2 8. Timbaland, Shock Value 9. John Mayer, Continuum 10. Hairspray (Soundtrack) 11. Fall Out Boy, Infinity On High 12. White Stripes, Icky Thump 13. Justin Timberlake, FutureSex/LoveSounds 14. Norah Jones, Not Too Late 15. Feist, The Reminder 16. Across The Universe (Soundtrack) 17. The Shins, Wincing The Night Away 18. Lily Allen, Alright, Still 19. Rascal Flatts, Still Feels Good 20. Modest Mouse, We Were Dead Before The Ship Even Sank

Top Videos 1. Nickelback, “Rockstar” 2. Rihanna feat. Jay-Z, “Umbrella” 3. Soulja Boy Tell ‘Em, “Crank That (Soulja Boy)” 4. Avril Lavigne, “Girlfriend” 5. “Weird Al” Yankovic, “White And Nerdy” 6. Justin Timberlake, “What Goes Around… Comes Around” 7. Shakira and Beyonce, “Beautiful Liar” 8. Fergie, “Glamorous” 9. Carrie Underwood, “Before He Cheats” 10. Sean Kingston, “Beautiful Girls”

*I love you guys, but I just couldn’t type out the full 100 entries for each of these lists, let alone the nine lists broken down by genre. And please don’t tell me there’s an easy way to copy and paste this info from iTunes or I will cry and/or feel like a feeb.