The Singles Jukebox stats update Q3 2012
It’s the end of September so it’s that time again! See previously: Q1, Q2.
We’ve now reviewed 585 singles in 2012. The overall mean of the songs’ scores is back down to 5.40, from 5.48 up to the end of June. The most common score remains 5.00 and the median score is 5.50.
The mean number of contributors per song is just over 8. Taylor Swift’s “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together” [6.17], with 18 blurbs, has surged well ahead of the 15 blurbs for Madonna ft. Nicki Minaj & M.I.A.’s “Give Me All Your Luvin’” [5.93] to set a new 2012 high.
Now, the comparison of scores by nationality of artist, once again only including those where we’ve covered at least 5 songs:
The big news is that Japan has taken the top spot from South Korea! We have only reviewed two Japanese songs in the last three months: Perfume’s “Spending All My Time” [5.89] and Sakanaction’s “Yoru no Odoriko” [7.33]. Some poor South Korean scores have made a difference, most notably Wonder Girls ft. Akon’s “Like Money” [3.88] and Psy’s “Gangnam Style” [5.25]. Yes, the two songs which have managed to make their way onto American music channels. That middling average score for “Gangnam Style” masks a far from standard spread - its individual scores were 8, 8, 9, 2, 8, 3, 2, 2. And that was back before it blew up everywhere!
It’s not yet on the chart, but Chile could well jump ahead of both Japan and South Korea by the end of the year. The belated release of Javiera Mena’s “Luz de Piedra de Luna” [8.50], 2012’s top scoring single so far, has left Chile with an amazing average score of 7.38 from 4 appearances. The others: Los Embajadores [5.70], Alex Anwandter [7.33] and DJ Raff [8.00].
Elsewhere, the UK has managed to slip behind the USA and it looks like we might yet even have a chance of landing behind the slowly improving Canada. Biggest successes on the Canadian side: Carly Rae Jepsen’s “This Kiss” [7.44], last week, and Nelly Furtado’s “Parking Lot” [7.33], yesterday. Chief offenders on the UK side: Conor Maynard [3.50], Example [3.70], Redlight [3.71], Devlin ft. Ed Sheeran [2.43] and Professor Green ft. Sierra Kusterbeck [3.83]. Or, to summarise: white British rappers, please stop.
While still behind for now, Canada is no longer in last place, thanks to the addition of France. Its ten scores include 2 x Guetta and 2 x Madeon, neither of whom have done brilliantly, but it’s Cedric Gervais’s “Molly” [2.22] which did the worst.
As ever, this whole exercise says at least as much about our selection policies as about which countries have been producing the best pop music. This quarter also included a particularly good example of the unfairness of determining nationality by the lead artist credit - the [3.15] for Aaliyah ft. Fucking Drake counting against the US.
