Now That’s What the Dilemma Calls Music 2012!

Happy New Year, PCHA-ers!

It’s time once again to present my annual mix modeled after the abysmal Now That’s What I Call Music series.

As always, this mix is not intended to be a pure rundown of the best songs of the year — it’s a mix of the best songs of the year run through my own “Now”-style filter. These are the hit singles that play on the imaginary radio station in my alternate universe where people have good taste. So it’s a CD-length (approximately) playlist of my favorite songs of 2012, heavily weighted toward the upbeat, the singles and the songs I played over and over again throughout the year.

Forthwith, the music.

The Top 20 PCHA Comments of 2012

Pop Culture Has AIDS isn’t a lecture. It isn’t a monologue. It’s not a polemic or a soliloquy. It’s a conversation.

This blog is as much yours as it is ours, and you guys are what makes this a great place to live, work and write. You are the reason we do this. David Simon Cowell and I like to say that we have the best commenters on the Internet, and we often spend our limited time together poring through the comments section, letting you spark discussions and ideas and the best kind of intellectual fulfillment.

This is your time to shine. We turn the spotlight to you for the very best comments of the year on Pop Culture Has AIDS. Take a bow, you beautiful creatures. You’ve earned it.

2011: The Year in (More) Lists

Well, we’ve counted down our favorite films, TV shows and music of the year, but some loose ends still need tying. Let’s look back at 2011 one final time, and look at how pop culture did in its ongoing battle against the ravaging effects of the AIDS virus.

More lists! You know you love them.

Now That’s What The Dilemma Calls Music 2011!

Confession time: at the end of every year, I make a mix modeled after the abhorrent Now That’s What I Call Music series.

These aren’t mixes of the best songs of the year — they’re mixes of the best songs of the year run through my own “Now”-style filter. These are the hit singles that play on the imaginary radio station in my alternate universe where people have good taste. So it’s a CD-length (approximately) playlist of my favorite songs of 2011, heavily weighted toward the upbeat, the singles and the songs I played over and over again throughout the year.

This year, I’m going to share my mix with you. Because I’m open like that.

Musical Accountability Pt. II

Last week, David Simon Cowell and I announced our top ten albums of 2011. Last year, I went back and looked at previous year-end top-ten lists to see where I had been right and wrong. Mostly, my lists have weathered the passing of years pretty well.

However, I may have neglected to include one list that I’m not particularly proud of. I definitely have a few regrets about this one. In the interest of transparency, and of continuing to hold ourselves accountable to you, our loyal Pop Culture Has AIDS readers, I owe it to myself and to all of you to own up to my past mistakes.

Click here to see the one top-ten list I’d really like to take back.

2 Idiots Discuss: The Year in Music

Oh, yes. We know you’ve been waiting for this. Best albums. Best songs. Raging against some of the most popular music of our time. It’s 2011 in music, and it starts right after the jump. Will David Simon Cowell lose himself in an obsessive yet incomprehensible quest to identify the hip hop version of Pet Sounds? Will The Dilemma botch his picks because of undue sentimentality? Let’s all find out. Together.

The Best Television of the Year

No pretense. No fucking around. It’s the top ten TV shows of the year, as decreed by two guys who watch a whole lot of television. Let’s do this.

The Year in Moments

When it’s all said and done, what we remember about any given year are individual moments. We don’t remember entire TV seasons, entire games or even entire movies — we remember small, fleeting instances within those larger wholes. We may think we remember that the first season of Survivor was great, but all we really remember is Susan Hawk’s speech in the finale, or Richard Hatch taking off his clothes. We don’t remember the entire 1986 World Series play by play, we remember the ball going through Buckner’s legs and Jessie Orosco hurling his glove in the air after the last out.

Life is ephemeral, and human memory diminishes with age. In the end, the moments are all we have.

So how will we remember 2010 a few years down the road? The best moments of the year, coming right up:

The Best Music of 2010

2010 in music, you guys! If someone made a Girl Talk-type sound collage of all of 2010′s hottest hits, what would it sound like? What songs would be featured? I’m not sure, except that I don’t think very many of our year-end choices would be included.

Because we’re massive elitists, you see.

After the jump, find out what David Simon Cowell and I considered the best albums of the year. Where will Katy Perry rank? How many American Idol finalists will make our top ten? Let’s find out together.

Mea Culpas and I Told You Sos

As David Simon Cowell and I prepare to unveil our best-of-the-year music lists next week, I thought I would take a step back for a moment and think further back than just the last 12 months.

Year-end music lists are a tricky and random cultural oddity. They place random time parameters on the music being released, and they give an advantage to music that was released early in the year, which has had more time to grow on the listener. In that way, they’re the opposite of year-end film awards, which are always heavy on films released in the fall and early winter that are fresh in voters’ minds (it also helps that “prestigious,” Oscar-baiting movies are usually held back until autumn intentionally). Music as an art form also often takes months or even years to reveal its true greatness, or lack thereof, so even a full year may not be enough to properly judge an album.

Thus, year-end music lists are hindered by short-sightedness. So I’m going to take a look back at my own year-end lists from the last few years, see where I was right and where I was way off, and try to keep that in mind as I develop this year’s list.

A little self-examination never hurt anyone, right?