Pop Music: What Are We Thankful For?

Happy Thanksgiving!! Now everyone gather 'round the table for grace, and tell us a few music related things that YOU'RE thankful for this year. I'll start...

LESS OF THE SAME OL' SAME OL'

There was a brief period on radio when every.song.sounded the same.

Thankfully, radio has been more open to diversity and spinning unconventional songs this year.

It was becoming soul-crushing to hear the same voices on radio over and over again (*glares at Robyn Fenty* -- how many times did I have to endure "We Found Love," two songs later "Take Care," five minutes later "Princess of China," then flip to an urban station and "Birthday Cake" was on?!...I digress..), so to have mainstream radio give massive amounts of airtime to new voices like .fun, Gotye, Carly Rae Jepsen, Havana Brown, Calvin Harris, Frank Ocean, Alex Clare, One Direction and Ellie Goulding, etc. was refreshing.

I was going through my Twitter timeline the other day, and someone said (and I paraphrase) "There's a difference between a song being basic and a song being generic," which is totally true. So while 2012 has had it's fair share of basic songs (I'm looking at you Flo Rida!), nothing this year has been carbon-copy generic for the most part....and for that, I am thankful.

Besides, If you're going to shove a song down my throat every hour, I much rather it be something relatively fresh than the same ol' voices and production I've been hearing for the past year or more.

Even many big-time artists have been more open to explore new sounds and release 'the not-obvious' song as a single. For example, kudos to Katheryn Elizabeth Hudson-Brand.

BILLBOARD RE-TOOLING HOT 100 FORMULA:

I'm thankful that Billboard re-did their Hot 100 formula, placing a greater emphasis on streaming and more power in radio airplay than digital sales. The amount of No. 1 single debuts would have been absurd this year without the changes. No offense, but when you have the likes of Ke$ha and Katy Perry joining this company: Michael Jackson, Elton John, Aerosmith, Celine Dion, Britney Spears, Lauryn Hill, and Mariah Carey, at the drop of a hat we have a problem. "Part Of Me" will probably be the last song to debut atop the Billboard Hot 100 for a very long time.

"I'M ADDICTED" BY MADONNA

Random, right? I don't know why, but hearing this song was a spiritual experience for me. After the song built to that huge climax and dropped me into a dance blaze oblivion, I awoke from my temporary dance coma to myself 90% naked and drenched in sweat from dropping dat ass so low to the ground that Einstein himself would have had to do a double take at me defying gravity. I almost pop, locked and dropped the gay right outta me, until I realized I was climaxing to a Madonna track..... I might have impregnated someone that night, and for that - I am thankful.

BRITNEY $PEAR$ 

I'm thankful that my fav continues to out-perform (not on stage, I mean on the charts) and out-gross your favorite artists with only half of the effort.

THE "HOW TO BE A HEARTBREAKER" VIDEO

Amen.

What music related things are YOU thankful for this year?