Summer Jam 2010: May 24 Winners

Week 2 of our Summer Jam tracking and there hasn't been much mix-up for the top three, but there's some shifts with the rest of the crowd. Trying to add a bit more non-Pop genres here that are looking pretty popular and indicative regardless of this wonderful Summer of 2010. Here we go:

#8: "Airplanes" - B.o.B. ft. Haley Williams

This is pretty new and just breaking but may make some waves in a couple weeks. It's got a lot of drama for a summer song and isn't really catchy and singable enough to be that worthy of a Summer Jam. B.o.B. does a worse job laying down hot spit on this than "Nothing on You," although the Haley soothing vocals are haunting. Summer's not for haunting though. Loosen up, kids.

#7: "Lay Me Down" - The Dirty Heads ft. Rome

This track is a spiritual successor to Sublime in every possible way and feels instantly like a summer song. It's such a mellow, meandering song that seems to belong in the mid-90s instead of early 2010s. It's a great lounging beer sipping song and its summer positioning at this point has only to do with respective popularity.

#6: "My Chick Bad" - Ludacris ft. Nicky Minaj

This track is pretty old but I feel like I saw the vid and heard it everywhere this week for some reason. It's still doing well on the Rap and R&B charts (who decides what genre these songs are, anyway?). It is a fantastic song off a fantastic album and both Nicky and Luda deserve a good summer song, but this won't be it. It's inflated presence this week was more exception than standard.

#5: "Your Love is My Drug" - Ke$ha

After another week of being inundated with this song I've come to realise how formulaic this track's lyrical structure is compared to some other more varied tracks like "Imma Be" or "Alejandro," even "OMG." It follows a very specific pattern and feels much more Pop-ey than even "Tik Tok" or "Blah Blah Blah." There's a focused chorus, hook and moaning chicky tuning. It's not nearly as edgy as some of Ke$ha's other stuff and ends up reading as a weird High School Crush song rather than feminine empowerment. Regardless it gets the spot it deserves.

#4: "Break your Heart" - Taio Cruz ft. Ludacris

I do still love Luda's contribution to this song, but its Electronica influences are also still irritating. It's getting pretty popular but until I hear it every time I step into my car or FYE it'll remain here.

#3: "OMG" - Usher ft. will.i.am

#1 on the Billboard Hot 100, but I don't think it's really as ubiquitous as that yet. Listening to this thing over and over by now, I'm starting to really like the slow build up of this song - it's a good pump up. There's always new wrinkles added to the beat that keeps increasing as the song goes along. It's pretty generic lyrically and its title capitalises on LOLspeak, which is awesome but the next step here, Usher, is to sing the entire song like you're typing on AIM. C'mon.

#2. "Nothing on You" - B.o.B ft. Bruno Mars

Little shake up here for the top two, "Nothing on You" is certainly still everywhere (Literally this week it was the last song I heard when I turned my car off and the first song playing when I came back two hours later) but I believe the wave is starting to crest and its starting to tip just a bit in favour of the Barbados Chick.

#1. "Rude Boy" - Rihanna

Is this Rihanna's second year as Summer Queen? It's looking like it right now, although like Baseball the season's young and the Nationals haven't even called up Strasburg yet. Anything can happen. Man this song is irritating and I actually don't consider the beat or chorus that interesting or catchy to really prove itself over the long term.

So that's it for this week. GaGa is getting pretty close but I need to be hearing "Alejandro" at least 7 times a day to consider it, also look at Drake and Katy Perry getting their own.

Also, that Eminem song sucks.