Nicki Minaj is "Automatic" for Best Pop Singer of second half of 2012

Nicki Minaj was the Best Pop Singer in the second half of 2012, although her album and the big hit single "Starships" were released in the first half of the year.

She was the best, in my opinion, because she had more songs with great singing than other pop singers/artists and I'm also counting her songs that weren't singles. The songs, however, will qualify to get in the 25 Best Pop Songs of 2013. I don't have other lists for Rap and Dance songs. Most of Nicki's songs being considered for the 2013 list are pop songs.

Rap and Dance songs, like other kinds of songs, can get in one or both of the 25 Best lists but they have to get in as pop songs, rock songs or crossover songs.

A couple of her hit singles from 2012's second half were "Va Va Voom" and "Pound The Alarm", which just missed getting in the 25 Best Pop Songs of 2012 along with several songs by other artists. There were lots of great songs and that's what happens, they don't all get in. However, her singing was wonderful and even better in the great songs "Automatic", "Marilyn Monroe", "Fire Burns", and possibly some others.

Nicki Minaj joins Ai Shinozaki in my list of Best Pop Singers of 2012 (full year). I haven't decided on the others yet.

Here's who I think were the top 6 Pop Singers of the second half of 2012:

Best Pop Singers - Second Half of 2012
(singer and "song")

Nicki Minaj "Automatic"
P!nk "Try"
Samantha Potter "Give It Everything"
Bell Nuntita "Rak Khon Ror"
Bruno Mars "Locked Out Of Heaven"
Florence Welch "Sweet Nothing" (Calvin Harris song)

Note: This is not the order since I didn't decide who was second, third, and so on.

Chris Brown, Mudhoney, Ai Shinozaki are the Best and There Will Be More Best Songs and Singers

I have already done my lists of 10 Best Pop Songs and 10 Best Rock Songs for the first half of 2013. There will be 25 Best lists in each category after this year is over, which will be published (posted) here on this blog. This is where I review songs and put rock and pop lists.

Ai Shinozaki was the Best Pop Singer of the First Half of 2012.

"Chardonnay" by Mudhoney was the Best Rock Song of the First Half of 2013. Alyssa Turkowski was second on the rock list with her song "Waiting In Two".

"Fine China" by Chris Brown was the Best Pop Song of the First Half of 2013. Mudhoney was the second song on the pop list with "Chardonnay". That does show a song can get on both lists.

I probably won't decide on best singers of 2013 until 2014. However, I will decide on best Rock Singer/Vocalists of 2012: first half, second half, and 2012 full year. Also Best Pop Singer of the second half of 2012 and for the full year.I had a long process of deciding that Ai Shinozaki was the Best Pop Singer of the First Half of 2012. 

2012 songs in 2013 Best

Please read the article below. Apparently, it's not on the internet so maybe it's being blocked...

Nicki Minaj and 2012 Songs

It's less than two hours after Christmas and I'm thinking about allowing tracks/songs from last year (2012) to qualify for the 25 Best Rock Songs and 25 Best Pop Songs of 2013.

I didn't allow all songs in last year because it would have been unfair to some of the artists but I listened to all singles I could find and had time to listen to plus one or two more songs of each artist, including bands, solo artists, and of course as many 'original song'(s) as possible of artists/musicians/songwriters/singers on YouTube and elsewhere.

I know what I just wrote is confusing and it confuses me too.

My main reasons were to not show favoritism, also to give artists/bands enough time to release more singles, and to encourage them to release more great songs as singles. What I'm hearing many, many music fans saying is they want to hear better songs on the radio, YouTube, and elsewhere. I'm hoping what I'm doing will make a difference.

Now here's something very interesting. The last few days it's clear to me what I thought last year was true: Nicki Minaj has more songs from 2012 that still qualify and she could smash the 25 Best Pop Songs again, if I allow album/CD tracks from last year that did not qualify last year due to my fairness decision.

Here's the real interesting part: The last two songs that I listened to by other bands both showed a very specific Nicki Minaj influence and those are rock bands I'm talking about. That tells it all. I was hoping to hear some of those songs on the radio, but that doesn't matter since she will be getting in with these other songs anyway.

Another key point is that the Foo Fighters smashed the 25 Best Rock Songs of 2011 with 5 songs on the list. I bought their CD "Wasting Light" earlier in the year/ Nicki Minaj had 3 songs in the 25 Best Pop Songs of 2012 and 2 songs as crossover songs to the 25 Best Rock Songs. I also bought her CD, the Deluxe Edition of "Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded" (Explicit) in 2012. I didn't realize how many great Pop and crossover artists and bands there would be in 2012 and I didn't think I could be fair and listen to all their songs. What I'm saying here is it's clear to me that Nicki Minaj was every bit as great in 2012 as the Foo Fighters were in 2011.

Mudhoney's song "Chardonnay" is Number 1

This is my list of what I think are the Best Rock Songs of the first half of 2013. There are rock songs, but also alternative (rock), pop, and metal. Mudhoney is at Number 1 followed by Alyssa Turkowski and yet another great song by Black Sabbath, followed by the the collaboration (or is that a supergroup for one song) with Stevie Nicks on vocals, nearly tying. This is a list of songs released up to the end of June. There were some very good and great songs released in July, but I'm counting those as songs of the second half of 2013.

10 Best Rock Songs of 2013's first half

Band (or artist), song

1. Mudhoney, Chardonnay
2. Alyssa Turkowski, Waiting In Two
3. Black Sabbath, God Is Dead?
4. Stevie Nicks, Dave Grohl, Taylor Hawkins, Rami Jaffee, You Can't Fix This
5. Killswitch Engage, In Due Time
6. Slash, Anastasia
7. Big Ass, Music for Life...
    ดนตรี...เพื่อชีวิต
8. Chris Brown, Fine China
9. Airbourne, Live It Up
10. Halestorm, Freak Like Me

Alyssa Turkowski- Waiting In Two (Original Song)

This is a great song and I can't stop listening to it. I've been following Alyssa Turkowski's songs on YouTube since last year and she was very close in the final comparisons of 2012 songs, especially for another of her songs that is very nice-sounding with it's layered vocals. It's called "No Trust".

I may choose to allow some songs such as that one to get on a list in 2013 but haven't decided that for sure. Some artists, including bands, are releasing songs on YouTube or in other countries one year, then putting out the radio singles of the same songs the next year. Also, I couldn't listen to all songs last year and wanted to give bands and solo artists a chance to release more singles in 2013.

I only two main categories (of song lists) and those are Rock and Pop. I can feel this song in my heart, think about it with my mind, and of course hear it with my ears. If my heart, mind, and ears could talk I'm sure they would say what I'm typing and it's that "Waiting In Two" by Alyssa Turkowski could be on either list, or both.
Great song!

Kyary Pamyu Pamyu is Number 1 in Pop, Mackinzie is Number 1 in Rock for 2012

25 Best Pop Songs of 2012

1. きゃりーぱみゅぱみゅ - ファッションモンスター,
    Kyary Pamyu Pamyu, Fashion Monster  
2. Nicki Minaj, Starships (Explicit Version)
3. Drake featuring Rihanna, Take Care
4. Soundgarden, Been Away Too Long
5. Young Jeezy featuring Ne-Yo, Leave You Alone
6. Ke$ha, Die Young
7. Rain, Want To Forget
8. Bruno Mars, Locked Out of Heaven
9. Cherri Bomb, Act The Part
10. Calvin Harris featuring Florence Welch, Sweet Nothing
11. Kelly Clarkson, Stronger (What Doesn't Kill You)
12. Mackinzie, Watch me
13. Samantha Potter, Give It Everything
14. Britney Spears, Strangest Love
(14) 2NE1, Take The World On (unofficial, fan-made song)    
15. Pink, Try
16. Rihanna, Diamonds
17. Nicki Minaj, Stupid Hoe
18. Katie Woodward, There's Still Time
19. Nicki Minaj featuring Chris Brown, Right by My Side
20. Katy Perry, Wide Awake
21. Chris Brown, Turn Up The Music
22. Rihanna, Where Have You Been
23. Silvia Duyer, Say Whatcha Want
24. Swedish House Mafia featuring John Martin, Don’t You Worry Child
25. Madonna, I'm Addicted

Note: This list is my opinion based on many hours of comparing songs. It includes pop songs, mainstream hits and crossover songs from other music genres. There are two songs at number 14 (that’s not a misprint) because this isn’t the real 2NE1 song because they didn’t release it yet.  The song “Take The World On” is a fan-made song from a song sample or song samples.  As a result, there are 26 songs on a “25 Best” list.

2012 Best Rock Songs List Includes Other Songs Too

25 Best Rock Songs of 2012

1. Mackinzie, Watch me
2. 5R6, K
3. Nicki Minaj featuring Nas, Drake and Young Jeezy, Champion
4. Rain, Want To Forget
5. Chevelle, Same Old Trip
6. SHOCKBREAKER, Organization Crisis
7. Project 86, SOTS
8. Rain, a rock song from Myanmar that didn’t have song title with it.
9. Nicki Minaj, Starships (explicit version)
10. Katie Woodward, There’s Still Time
11.Silvia Duyer, Born To Kill (She Goes) - Demo
12. Gin Wigmore, Man Like That (song from the video)
13. Gin Wigmore, Dirty Love
14. In This Moment, Blood
15. Rihanna, Where Have You Been
16. Kiss, Hell or Hallelujah
17. Black Country Communion, Big Train
18. Machine Head, Darkness Within
19. Spacegoat, Without Ceremony
20. The Rolling Stones, Doom And Gloom
21. Mustasch, It’s Never Too Late
22. Deftones, Tempest
23. Slash featuring Myles Kennedy, You’re a Lie
24. Katie Woodward, The Secret Message
25. Chevelle, Hats Off to the Bull

Note: This is my list. It includes rock songs and other songs that I feel deserve to be on this list.

It took me longer than I expected to finish my 2012 rock songs list, so I want to apologize and explain that it was important to take the extra time because I did find some songs uploaded by bands/artists on YouTube near the end of 2012 and even on the last day of 2012.  I'm also sorry that I didn't have time to  listen to even more songs.  Keep making new songs everyone and have a great 2013!

2012's Best Songs - Rock and Pop lists

I'm working hard on finishing my lists of best rock songs and best pop songs of 2012.  It takes a lot of time to compare the songs. This is my opinion, which will be quite obvious, and I haven't read or listened to other 2012 song lists and basically had to turn off the radio when the radio stations were doing their lists.  My lists are not based on requests, popularity of the songs, sales or anything other than what I think and feel are the best songs.

My goal is to finish these lists this weekend.  I try to listen to many songs but it's impossible for me to listen to all of the songs and therefore some songs released in 2012 could also be on the 2013 lists, especially if those songs are 2013 radio singles. 

As I've mentioned before, there will be crossover songs, for example pop songs on the rock songs list and rock songs on the list of pop songs.