What Was This Summer's Tolerable Pop Song?

As I get older, I get less and less connected to pop music. I'm sure that happens for everyone. But the difference with me is that when I do watch some awards show or something, I'm not all "What is this crap? In my day we had good music, like 2 Live Crew! And Gerardo!" I'm often more like "OK, well 80% of this stuff sucks, but that's always been the case. The other 20% here is actually quite good! How about that!"

And each summer I discover that I really like at least one artist that is eating up the pop charts (is that the right phrase? Is it "heating" up the pop charts? "Beating" up the pop charts? "Shooting" up the pop charts? "Shitting" up the pop charts? I like "shitting up the pop charts.") Last summer it was MIA, who I've been a fan of for a while. The previous summer it was Gnarls Barkley. They (not he) are awesome, even if they have the worst band name in the history of music. (Can you think of another that's more confusing while also being terribly un-clever?)

This summer I don't recall any pop artist being tolerable. Of course, I'm not paying a lot of attention. Oh, I did actually like the Beyonce song, the one in which she was proposing that everyone who likes her hand has to put a ring on it (does she have some kind of wonderful hand or something? I thought she was more famous for the more interesting parts of her anatomy. Unless she's secretly saying that if you like her ass you should put a ring on it? I've never heard of ass rings, but I am 100% sure that they will become all the rage very soon).

And by the way, Kanye was right. Beyonce should have won for that. That was such a great video that even I saw it. I'm not saying he should have rushed the stage like a lunatic and said so, of course. Though I do genuinely love bizarre interruptions in live TV. If Kanye had run up and said "Wu-Tang is for the children!" (see below video to catch reference) then I'd be totally behind him. But he kinda pissed on Taylor Swift right in front of her, and defended someone who wasn't interested in being defended, so that's kinda weird.

That's all I have to say. I'm more interested in what other people felt was this year's tolerable pop act. While you're thinking, here's the late, great Ol' Dirty Bastard just being Ol' Dirty Bastard:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b2-5GSjZvW8