photo from http://colehaan.tumblr.com/

New York Fashion Week wrapped up this weekend, and through all the sponsored events, product placements, and in-your-face advertising, one brand really stood out: Cole Haan.  They stole the show (marketing-wise) with their #SubwayStyle campaign.  It all started last spring when Cole Haan introduced their new collection known as “CQLE HAAN” using NYC subway lines (C, Q, A, etc.) to designate each line of clothing in the spring collection.  Almost a year later, Cole Haan revived this NYC-centric strategy to really capitalize on the marketing opportunities of New York Fashion Week.

Fashion fans flock to New York from all over the world to see the latest on the runways, yet the street styles of bloggers, models, and fashion show regulars share the spotlight.  Pictures of the fashion week attendees regularly pop up across the internet, cover magazines, and fill newsfeeds.  Cole Haan saw an opportunity here, an opportunity to leverage this behavior into a branded experience.

Cole Haan launched #SubwayStyle, a hashtag meant to capture the underground (and literally underground) fashion world of NYC.  And to ensure this campaign went viral, the brand teamed up with Tumblr, the platform nearest and dearest to the hearts of fashion bloggers everywhere.  Using #SubwayStyle, bloggers, tweeters, and instagrammers across the city could tag their favorite styles.  Cole Haan’s own Tumblr page lets visitors sort the collected photos by neighborhood, train line, and trends, as well as vote for their favorite style between two photos (“this or that”).

To quote the eloquent Dan Buczaczer, “The great promise in digital has always been about engagement, not just exposure.”  Cole Haan created a digital fashion destination that, aside from the brand label at the top, seems to be devoid of product promotion all together.  Instead, the success of this campaign lies in the bridging of unique styles and brands, all crowdsourced from the brand’s target audience.  And it’s this engaging content that has been shared virally, ultimately spreading the culture and message of Cole Haan.

This is the first of two installments about how agency work is evolving to become part of the IP conversation. Part 1 will be a basic overview of the relevant legal terrain, while Part 2 will address why we should care.

After the recent squabble between social product development company Quirky and OXO, I’ve been pretty fascinated by intellectual property issues and, well, patents. I find this dispute much more interesting than the ongoing Apple vs. Samsung battle because it has played out in the real world, rather than behind closed courtroom doors, and the conversation has been (largely) in laymen’s terms not legalese. Also some of the language used reminds of Mean Girls! But hopefully I am not alone in my dorky fascination, nor in my realization that – crap! – there’s a lot about the current state of intellectual property that I don’t exactly understand…especially as more and more of these disputes center around the very technology that we as agencies are not only using but starting to create.

If you didn’t follow this wannabe debaucle, Quirky accused OXO and partner SmartDesign of stealing an idea: a dustpan with teeth to comb out the gross fuzzies that stubbornly stick to the bottom of a broom. Quirky’s model beat OXO’s to market by two years and the designer had shopped it around to various companies, including OXO, years back. The accusation came in the form of a “campaign” that included marching protesters and hanging a huge banner outside Quirky’s New York City offices. OXO calmly countered that the design element in question – the “comb” – had been patented in 1919 and that after its expiration 20 years later, the idea was now property of the public. Basically Quirky tried to pull a David vs. Goliath, while OXO articulately and politely pointed out reality.

Quirky followed that up with self-galvanizing blog posts, an appearance on “The Tonight Show” one week later (showcasing the dustpan among other products, with no mention of the hoopla), and – hooray! – increased awareness. OXO also got a boost in social, as people discovered they have a Facebook page.

Back to the point of this post. Most people have a general idea of what patents are – they protect some type of invention. Intellectual property. But what constitutes legally protected intellectual property? Is it the idea, the created thing itself, or a part of the thing? And what about digital – interfaces and the like? We all know the law is constantly playing catch-up to technology and we have a general sense of what is going on in the news, but what are all the various claims and lawsuits flying around really about?

For starters, here is a quick U.S. Patents 101 cheatsheet: there are two kinds that are relevant to this discussion – utility and design.  Feel free to click the below links if you prefer to subject yourself to legalese.

Utility patents protect the way an item is used or works. They can cover many different variations under one application even if they were not included in the original claim. If a competitor makes some minor tweaks to your invention to create a similar product, you can sue the bejesus out of them. The function must provide beneficial and practical use and be operable; it cannot be linked to common sense, meaning if anyone familiar with the technology and precedents (prior art) would have come to the same conclusion then the patent can be challenged. The legal definition of “utility” has recently been extended to cover non-tangible objects such as procedures and processes (ex: business methods). Utility patents provide protection for 20 years but they do not cover any ornamentation (see design patents). “Cool ideas” are not eligible, so applications for perpetual motion and time travel will be chucked. Software patents tend to be a subset of utility patents, but present their own can of worms because you can’t patent algorithms as math belongs to the public. Really?

Design patents cover only the appearance of products, regardless of function. Such patents are granted if the design is “novel and not obvious for all items,” meaning nobody could ever have patented the roundness of a tire because, duh, the shape is what makes it work and there is prior art – the wheel predates the tire, and it too is round. Design patents provide protection for 14 years, but are are easy to circumvent through slight ornamental modifications as each can protect only one specific look. A competitor could claim “mine has rounder corners than yours, and is less square in shape, so it’s not exactly the same.” Also, design patents can be invalidated if someone proves the design is actually useful. Go figure.

Fun fact: Did you know the Statue of Liberty was patented in 1879? It was a design patent.

Now that you can overanalyze every tangible thing in sight, imagine moving from the physical to the digital world – try to figure out what is design vs. utility on and behind a screen.  In comparison to Apple vs. Samsung, Quirky vs. OXO battle is much easier to understand – we all know how to sweep the floor, so only the comb is in question. But when we apply the law to digital – to interactions and interfaces – things get dicey. Interaction design patents have been on the rise for quite some time, but how do you classify them when the laws haven’t been updated to reflect what’s going on today? Interfaces encompass both aesthetics and function, yet the patent structure requires separation for protection. But before that point, you’ve got to figure out how much of the invention qualifies as the interface vs. the technology (and if you can even protect that particular piece of technology).

One way to think about it is a door handle. The mechanisms that might keep a door shut, allow it to be opened, and keep it locked are the technology elements. The interface is how you use the door – do you interact with a door knob? A latch? Buttons that create a security code? A palm scanner? After going through that exericise, discerning which parts of the interface and required interactions are design, utility, both, or neither requires more overanalysis. Clearly there is confusion about that even at the highest level, based on Apple’s late summer courtroom victory followed four months later by tentative patent invalidations. There’s plenty of bickering over what is obvious and novel.

So now that we’ve got a slightly better understanding of how patents work, stay tuned for Part 2 when I explain why this matters to agencies as they broaden their reach.

Ah, Instagram. The perfect app? It checks all the boxes of success: explosive growth out of the gate with near universal praise plus a quick acquisition for a ridiculous sticker price. And, it’s still growing.

What makes Instagram, Instagram? Why was this the app that turned us all into photographers and not Hipstamatic or another of the countless filter apps that came onto the scene at the same time? Why did Instagram’s now cliche aesthetic (heavy filters + square photos) catch on?

Instagram is simple. Minimal. It created a dummy proof way for anyone with a smartphone (i.e. everyone) to share the near constant stream of images we create in today’s mobile world. It turned the folder full of photos on your phone into another way for you to tell your story, to share your process. Something that’s easier to create (and consume) than a tweet or a tumblr post but just as impactful.

But as the sins of the father rub off on Instagram (now sharing offices with Facebook) and their growth continues to include people like my mother and her high school friends, those itching to discover the next big thing are growing increasingly loud. Who (if anyone) can do the same for video that Instagram did for images? Which apps will raise to the top and who will fail, if they haven’t already.

Can the process creating a movie on mobile be as simple and powerful as snapping a photo on Instagram? There are plenty of people trying to tackle that puzzle.

Searching for the Instagram of Video

Many have written about what the “Instagram of video” should do. It’s requirements for success. Some focus on the technical specifications like video quality and transcoding speeds, others believe success pivots on understanding the difference in how users engage with photos vs videos.

I’ll let other nerds argue about codecs and content management systems. I want to take a step back. What is it that makes video so much harder that images? iMovie has been around for ages but it’s rare to see a friend throw together a quick “home movie” like every happy family from every computer commercial does on the regular.

Images are powerful. They are snapshots into other world. Glimpses frozen in time and consumed (usually) for just a few seconds.

Video is a different animal. It can tell a progressive story. It can build, crescendo.

Instagram was able to reduced work of photography (using a very lose definition of photography here) down to the most basic tenets of what separates a “good photo” from a “bad photo”. It’s not about manipulating brightness levels or curve adjustments or layers, leave that to the pros. They realized that simply forcing users to spend an extra second considering the composition of their photo (by requiring you to crop it into a square) and picking from a swipeable list of preset filters, users could elevate the photos with minimal effort.

So what is the video equivalent? Where should the focus be? Should we focus on automation with apps that pull together multiple clips and sounds and spit out a final product with little to no user input? Or should the emphasis be on the storytelling, on using video to tell compelling stories even if it is just about our trip down the road to munch on some poutine.

Trying to answer this question is an increasingly crowded gaggle of apps attacking video from slightly different angles. Many slightly tweaked variations on the same theme. Taking different routes to the same goal: creating videos as fun to share and addicting to browse as Instagram. He we look at four different approaches.

Video 101 – The most basic approach. Filters, music and share buttons, oh my!

The first round of apps trying to crack the Instagram nut are fairly simple. Social Cam (the most Instagram-y app of the bunch) lets you shoot a video (no length requirement) add a filter, overlay some music and voila, a masterpiece ready to share. Celebrity backed Viddy has a near identical feature set with the added benefit of a popular Facebook Timeline app. Klip is similarly straightforward with basic filters and shooting options resulting in quick bursts of fairly boring videos.

GIF Hybrids – Walking the line between static images and full motion some are looking to gif-esque videos to fill in the gap.

Lightt thinks the key to success is in shear volume of sharing. Lightt creates an ongoing timeline of short, gif-ified video clips. The looping stream of gifs is fun to watch but, also kind of disconcerting. It feels like you are channel surfing through someone else’s camera roll. Glmps on the other hand aims to use video as context for photos. Snap a picture and glmps will also record a video of what is happening when the photo is taken. You can browse the images and see clips of the “behind the scenes” action.

Auto-pilot – Point these apps in the direction of your videos and let them handle the rest

Lumify will take all the clips you feed it and output a fast paced final product that automatically cuts between filtered clips and adds music. Magisto achieves a similar finished product after users designate clips and choose from a handful of video themes like “Happy Birthday” or “Holidays at home”. Strum from Smule builds on the success of their “I am T-Pain” app but this time, with video. Strum asks for nothing more than a 15 second video of a person talking. After a few seconds of processing magic it produces a highly stylized music video with both video and, wait for it… audio filters!

Storytelling Platforms – Apps that harness the power of storytelling rather than low hanging visual gimmicks

PTCH is a video editing app with a laundry list of features and abllities. Building a video is easy: simply pull in “assets” from your own camera and remix them to fit your needs. The interesting approach PTCH takes comes into play after you share your creation. Your followers have the ability to remix (or “re-ptch”) your video, allowing them access to all assets you used in creating your film. Breaking the ingredients free of a final video into malleable chunks rather than a single, static youtube video.

In my opinion, the most promising of the group is Directr. You may not be Spielberg or Cameron but that doesnt mean you can’t learn from them. Directr uses “scripts” in the form of premade story borads that help you create videos of everything from “My trip to the cafe” to “My 10 favorite things of the week”. Directr gently guides you through the process of taking multiple shots to tell your story then combines them into a beautiful short (always less than 40 seconds) film. The focus is squarely on storytelling rather than visual gimmicks or over complicated social sharing schemes.

Here are a couple examples of  beautifully simple Directr video.

Bottom line

The space is crowded. There are more ways to upload a polished video than ever before but, should that be the goal? The “Instagram for video” will likely be a storytelling platform, not a visual effects warehouse. Images will always be easier to create and consume but videos can tell stories. They can weave a narrative.

The winner of this race will be the team that strikes a solid balance between automatically handling the video “production” side of things allowing users to focus on creating stories worth sharing.

What are your favorite apps for sharing video these days and what do you think the current offerings are missing?

The hype around native ads only gets louder. BuzzFeed secured another round of funding on the back of their native focus while everyone from Facebook to Twitter to Tumblr to Forbes is moving it to the center of their monetization strategy. There are those proclaiming it’s the future of digital advertising and others dismissing it as the latest fad that will disappear as quickly as it got here. So who’s right?

The reason the hype is so fast and furious is because other solutions are becoming increasingly problematic. Marketers finally seem fed up with their anemic click-through rates in banners and now have to contend with a mobile-ad landscape that is still problematic and a plummet in the number of Facebook feeds they reach without paying. What seemed like easy answers in digital aren’t working out exactly as planned and the industry seems hungry for a next big thing. So how did native become the on-deck belle of the ball?  It’s because the idea of a marketer’s message appearing endemic to the media property in which it appears is incredibly powerful. It tends to sit in the middle of an experience, right alongside editorial content from the property itself, and uses the same voice and format. The hope is that here (finally!) is an advertising message the audience cannot easily ignore.

Is the hype justified? Yes. The great promise in digital has always been about engagement, not just exposure. Commanding a reader’s or viewer’s attention in this medium could cause them to spend a significant block of time with you, share your message with friends, opt in to hear more and possibly even purchase your product with only a few clicks. Although this industry seems to be perennially distracted, that’s the promise of online (and now mobile) that separates it from other forms of media. Communicating a brand message in a manner that actually adds to, instead of subtracts from, an experience on a site holds great promise.

But, as is often the case, there is a caveat. Critics argue that native advertising isn’t easy to execute, that the workflow won’t scale, and here they are right. But scale isn’t the only reason to pursue a tactic. Television ad production is incredibly time consuming and doesn’t scale particularly well but is used regularly because it’s been judged to be incredibly effective. And by plugging this tactic into a broader content strategy, you can greatly increase the efficiency with which it is executed . Doing native advertising well means really understanding why audiences are drawn to particular properties in the first place, then delivering something similar. But it also means really understanding what your brand is trying to accomplish with content in the first place. Media properties have hired plenty of people to help you with the former but in most cases it is up to the brand and their agencies to really nail the latter. The brands who succeed in this space will be those who already come to media partners with a well-developed sense of what they want to say and can then collaborate on how to say it.  That’s because you can’t successfully pursue native advertising in any depth without a broader approach to content marketing.  Otherwise, you’re just borrowing the equity of someone else and it can get confusing or even downright bizarre (Take, for example, Ragu’s sponsorship on BuzzFeed of “10 Haircuts That Were Much Cooler When We Were Kids” and explain to me how bad hairstyles relate to pasta sauce).

Like any Next Big Thing, there is plenty of noise and lots of brands doing it wrong. But hitched to a serious content strategy, the promise and potential around native advertising is strong.

Image Credit: Chris Blakeley and damian m

Three things about 2012:

First, this year’s list has way more songs that got heavy airplay than any other list I’ve ever done. By airplay, I don’t just mean radio. I mean YouTube, Pandora, TV shows, commercials, you name it. It felt like the same 10 songs were absolutely everywhere this year. The very good news is that 5 or 6 of those songs were actually good. Can’t remember the last time that was the case (early 90’s?). The bad news is those songs got pummeled into the ground as if nothing else was being released. I tried to be as objective as possible, not penalizing a song for being overplayed while also not rewarding it for merely being stuck in my head from being on repeat.

Second, the explosion of EDM into the mainstream this year may have influenced this list indirectly. You won’t find any DJs on the list and I find most of the stuff tedious. But at the same time I felt like there was more dance music out there this year that actually had heart and sounded human. Maybe it’s me feeling nostalgic for LCD or maybe dubstep is working insidiously behind the scenes to influence my psyche. Either way, anything on the list this year without a banjo or power chords tended to have a big beat.

Third, I might be imaging this but I feel like there is more happy music on the list this year. Is that because of me or because of what was released? We’ll probably never know. But I was struck by how much on the list this year seems uplifting.

Enough navel gazing. As always, let’s start with the rules:

+ All songs are listed in reverse order because that is the only real way to do a list. Any of you with any sense of drama will listen to the whole thing from 100 slowly building up to number 1, at which point you will practically be bursting with excitement.

+ These are tracks, not necessarily singles. Covers qualify as well though I usually only include ones that are markedly different than the originals (and are good).

+ I only have one song per artist because the list is way cooler that way. It’s no fun for one artist to horde a bunch of spots on the list. Best track only.

+ They were all released in 2012 on either an album or as a single. Sometimes the album came out last year but it was released as a single this year (or vice versa). That is a loophole I happily exploit.  There is also a chance I got the year wrong.

Thanks to Rhapsody or Spotify, you can listen to the entire list as a single stream. Spotify impressively has the entire list this year except #79 which you can find here.

Rhapsody is missing 89, 88, 79, 51, 44, and 25. As always, listen and then tell me what I missed. And now, the list.

100. Gangnam Style by Psy. If every year gets the defining song it deserves, what the hell does that say abou this year?

99. Roman Ruins by Line & Circle. Wait, I thought R.E.M. broke up.

98. Stay Frosty by Van Halen. The Ice Cream Man is back in business.

97. Death Trap by Charlie Peacock. Makes death traps sound as pleasing as a square dance down at the county fair.

96. Push and Shove by No Doubt  (Feat. Busy Signal, Major Lazer). If you aren’t somehow dancing when you hear this, I have no idea what you’re doing

95. Crazy to Love You by Leonard Cohen. Just give Leonard a guitar and get out of the way.

94. Hit the Ground (Superman) by The Big Pink. For the piano bassline if nothing else.

93. Santo Domingo by Rodriogo y Gabriela (Feat C.U.B.A.). Award for fastest guitar playing goes to….

92. Some Place by Nick Waterhouse. Cmon everybody, let’s do the twist.

91. The Scientist by Willie Nelson. A song that is gorgeous across genres.

90. Waiting for Something by Nada Surf. Sounds like every other Nada Surf song. I mean that in a good way.

89. Leon Vs. The Revolution by The Melvins. Fight! Fight! Fight!

88. Jonti by Wild Cub. Can’t think of another band that really sounds like this

87. Lolita by Lana Del Rey. Provocative for provocative’s sake. I’m OK with that.

86. Groundhog Day by Corin Tucker Band. Riot grrrrls live!

85. Emmylou by First Aid Kit. ”Be the Johnny to my June” needs to be a valentine greeting.

84. Jealous Girl by Ben Kweller. Makes me want to hang Cheap Trick posters in my bedroom.

83. Eyeoneye by Andrew Bird. Andrew Bird is a genre onto himself.

82. Blank Maps by Cold Specks. When you sing like this, you don’t need much in instrumentation.

81. Turn it Around by Lucius. Tegan and Lucius?

80. This Summer by Superchunk. Proof that summer = power pop.

79. Awesome by Will Power. Take all the highest energy songs of all-time and combine them. Obvious and brilliant.

78. Stay the Night by Green Day. Dear haters, they do power pop well. Let the boys have fun.

77. Harley Dollar Bill$ by Turbo Fruits. This year’s Southern Rock torch bearer.

76. ITAL (Roses) by Lupe Fiasco. Like Kanye without all the over-the-top production.

75. R.A.P. Music by Killer Mike. A checklist of hip-hop’s backbone and best ever pronounciation of the word “chruch”.

74. Sweet Sipping Soda by Reptar. Is there anything called “college rock” anymore? If so, this is it.

73. I Am Your Leader by Nicki Minaj (Feat Cam’ron, Rick Ross). What every political candidate is murmuring under their breath.

72. Lunacy by Swans. This HAS to be used next year on “Game of Thrones”.

71. Bricks to the Bones by Suckers. Britpop singalongs always do well with me.

70. French Lessons by Levek. Lounge music for the 2010s.

69. Rashida by Rufus Wainwright. Part American standard, part soul song, part opera.

68. Gimme Click Gimme Grid by Jason Lytle. That ephermal voice and glitchy synth could belong to only one person.

67. White Freightliner Blues by Lyle Lovett (Feat. Keith Sewell, Luke Bulia, Ray Herndon). Cmon, if Lyle Lovett played a party who wouldn’t be there?

66. Lotus Flower Bomb by Wale (Feat. Miguel). Wale, you’re making me blush.

65. The Gravedigger’s Song by Mark Lanegan Band. Love songs are rarely this epic.

64. Dissolve Me by Alt-J. The only reason that fantastic riff stops in the song is so it can start back up again.

63. Abraham’s Daughter by Arcade Fire. Every bit as ominous as the Hunger Games themselves.

62. It’s Time by Imagine Dragons. Like reading daily affirmations backed by the cheer squad.

61. Trembling Hands by The Temper Trap. Feel the anguish.

60. The After Party by Bad Books. Could’ve been on the Singles soundtrack.

59. Elephant by Tame Impala. Ten thousand kids thrust their fists into their jeans and bob their heads in unison.

58. Always Waiting by Michael Kiwanuka. Like a voice from ages ago.

57. God’s Sure Good by Dr. John. Gospel, New Orleans style.

56. Money Trees by Kendrick Lamar (Feat. Jay Rock). The eternal question: Halle Berry or Hallelujah?

55. Doom and Gloom by The Rolling Stones. 50 years later!

54. I Found You by Alabama Shakes. I keep imagining them playing a party at Delta Tau Chi.

53. Same Love by Macklemore (Feat. Mary Lambert). Because of the bold lyrics and because Ryan Lewis.

52. Hard Way Home by Brandi Carlile. If this counts as country music then I like country music.

51. Origami Hearts by The Airplane Boys. Nothing is more hip hop than origami hearts.

50. Sisterly by Fang Island. Why aren’t they more famous?

49. That Old Black Hole by Dr. Dog. Levon Helm is up there smiling.

48. Hairspray Heart by Black Moth Super Rainbow. Cussing sounds cooler with vocal effects.

47. Hold On When You Get Love and Let Go When You Give It by Stars. As if New Order was the backing band and Kate Bush was guest vocals.

46. Flaggin a Ride by Divine Fits. Also knows as Spoon.

45. Let Your Heart Hold Fast by Fort Atlantic. Did Jackson Browne change his name to Fort Atlantic?!

44. Singularity by Hollow & Akimbo. Can’t wait for a full album from these guys.

43. The Paper Trench by Admiral Fallow. Makes “Holy Moses” actually sound rock n’ roll.

42. Lay Down by Alberta Cross. Sounds like they live in their own Kashmir universe.

41. Is Your Love Big Enough? by Lianne La Havas. When it’s time to write a bridge, just start singing about ice cream.

40. Oh Susannah by Neil Young & Crazy Horse. Not the way mom taught me this song.

39. Hollywood Forever Cemetery Sings by Father John Misty. Guy from Fleet Foxes makes a racket (relatively speaking).

38. I Will Wait by Mumford & Sons. Fist-pumping banjo.

37. Me and My Shadow by M. Ward (feat. Zooey Deschanel). Love She & Him a bit more when She is pushed into the background.

36. Artificial Nocturne by Metric. Like Depeche Mode’s kid sister.

35. Little Talks by Of Monsters and Men. Every time I write off group chants for good, another one sneaks in here.

34. Too Close by Alex Clare. Dubstep I can handle!

33. Live and Die by The Avett Brothers. As soft and cuddly as a kitten.

32. Angels by The xx. Makes being in love sound like a total bummer.

31. Paddling Out by Miike Snow. An anthem for the less-glamorous side to surfing.

30. All of Me by Tanlines. For achievement in handclaps.

29. Five Seconds by Twin Shadow. This song ends a John Hughes movie in my head.

28. The House That Heaven Built by Japandroids. The musical equivalent of lighting shit on fire.

27. Octopus by Bloc Party. A return to form.

26. That’s What’s Up by Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros. How can you tire of hippie music when it’s done this well?

25. The Mother We Share by Chvrches. One of my favorite new acts despite the slightly pretentious “v”.

24. Sixteen Saltines by Jack White. It’s not a DB Top 100 until Jack White shows up.

23. Change the Sheets by Kathleen Edwards. To new beginnings

22. She Brings the Sunlight by Richard Hawley. Drugs? What drugs?

21. Supermoon Made Me Want to Pee by The Flaming Lips (Feat. Prefuse 73). If I ever go completely batshit insane, I would like this to be the soundtrack.

20. Line by Line by The Walkmen.Time slows down during this song.

19. Splitter by Calexico. Aerobic music for mariachis.

18. Hot Knife by Fiona Apple. ”Row Row Row Your Boat” on steroids.

17. Anything Could Happen by Ellie Goulding. Did she just invent Electro-gospel?

16. Night and Day by Hot Chip. For Hot Chip, dance music is serious business.

15. We Are Young by fun. (Feat. Janelle Monae). High schoolers everywhere had a new anthem to sing together at the top of their lungs.

14. Everybody Talks by Neon Trees. Neon Trees have perfected the catchy pop song.

13. Take a Walk by Passion Pit. The riff that sold a million tacos.

12. Default by Django Django. Same old same old never sounded so funky.

11. Somebody That I Used to Know by Gotye (Feat. Kimbra)

10. Go Right Ahead by The Hives. The Swedish Ramones.

9. Ho Hey by The Lumineers. Singalong of the year.

8. Ain’t Messin’ Round by Gary Clark Jr. It was a slow year for horns but this one brought the brass.

7. The Magic Clap by The Coup. Since when did this anarchy-leaning outfit turn into Outkast?

6. Madness by Muse. Slinky.

5. My Love Won’t Wait by Two Gallants. Like the controls failing while you’re riding “Pirates of the Carribean”.

4. Thinkin Bout You by Frank Ocean. This song actually has the power to undress you just by listening to it.

3. Sweet Sour by Band of Skulls. Chinese food never sounded so heavy.

2. Simple Song by The Shins. Sometimes a simple song is all you need.

1. Cherokee by Cat Power. A song straight from the spirit world.