Music Monday: 2012

By Leon Stevens on September 9, 2024

There is a radio show on CBC here in Canada that occasionally does a feature called SYNTH: Songs You Need To Hear.

Now, I can't say to someone, "You'll like this song" (or book for that matter) because I can't presume that others will share my taste in music (or books), so it is safer to say, "You might like this" and if they don't like it, so be it.

Maybe you will find a new favorite.

CBC MUSIC, Central · Mornings with CBC Music

[Note: If you are reading this on my Goodreads page, music videos do not display]

Warning: I included 14 songs this week. That might be a record.

2012: Toby Keith introduced us to something we already knew about, the red solo cup. Adele had a few hits and so did Maroon 5. And The Lumineers gave us the shout/clap sound.

But the breakout artist of the year?

How big was it? ABC news did a exposé of it:

https://abcnews.go.com/blogs/entertainment/2012/06/why-call-me-maybe-is-so-catchy

Jimmy Fallon's cover using elementary school music instruments was the first time for this now long running bit.

And when Sesame Street uses your song, you know it's special.

Carley had five hits on the Canadian charts, second only to some guy named Justin Bieber who had seven.

Speaking of seven hits, Goyte had his one and only hit:

Here is an absolutely brilliant cover of that song from Walk Off the Earth, which could also be considered a parody of sorts.

But wait! There's more. That cover sparked an actual parody by The Key of Awesome:

We did have some .fun in 2012, didn't we?

This is my favorite Katy Perry song:

I always forget that Train has some good tunes.

Like Carly Rae, Taylor hits us four different hooks in the same song.

Speaking of favorite songs, this is my mine from Coldplay:

Ask me to name a Flo Rida song and I can't, but I remember this one:

How long did it take you to figure out Flo Rida was Florida split up?

Goyte would have been the year's top one-hit wonder if it hadn't been for this guy:

Yeah, it's a catchy tune. Admit it.

Did I miss any of your favorites from that year?

-Leon

(Note: I'll probably do two more editions of this topic. Why? I'm thinking 10 years is not a real long time to look back on, so 2014 will be the last until 2025.)

Want to read more music blogs? Here are some of the ones I follow: Mostly Music Covers, Take it Easy, Beetley Pete, A Sound Day, PowerPop… An Eclectic Collection of Pop Culture, SuperdekesVinylReviews, Peat Long's Blog, Fox Reviews Rock

Leon Stevens is a multi-genre author, composer, guitarist, songwriter, and an artist, with a Bachelor of Music and Education. He published his first book of poetry, Lines by Leon: Poems, Prose, and Pictures in January 2020, followed by a book of original classical guitar compositions, Journeys, and a short story collection of science fiction/post-apocalyptic tales called The Knot at the End of the Rope and Other Short Stories. His newest publications are the novella trilogy, The View from Here, which is a continuation of one of his short stories, and a new collection of poetry titled, A Wonder of Words.

My new book page: http://books.linesbyleon.com/