Alright, time for another go around of this.
New rules: can't reuse songs that have already been reviewed.
Pop
(#1-#4 were already done last time--Blurred Lines, We Can't Stop, Radioactive, Get Lucky)
#5 on the charts...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eRD7O4AtRzAJay-Z: Holy Grail
You know, it's funny, I've never really gotten into Jay-Z. He does have a reputation for lyrics, but as a rule I listen to rap for the music, not the lyrics. And Musically I've never been impressed with Jay-Z. I've heard he raps without even knowing what beat he's going to rap over, which explains a lot. Because I tend to side with the really oldschool when it comes to rap, back to like...Grandmaster Flash using the turntables as a musical instrument, and talking over it to get people dancing. The point of rap is to be an MC and emphasize and work with what's going on in the music.
This is how you do it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lgxBHRDyniIYou take a really good sample, in this case a 15 second clip from AC/DC, loop it because it's more awesome than the rest of the song, and then rap over it in different ways that makes it sound different each time. (Ignore the part that says it's a mashup--it's not, just AC/DC didn't allow their song to be sampled...).
Anyway, uh, yeah, guess the lyrics to the Jay Z song are interesting enough. And it's decent musically just because 70% of the song is Justin Timberlake singing and not actually Jay-Z anyway.
Country:
EDIT: wait, got the wrong song
(#1-#4 were done previously--Cruise, I want Crazy, Runnin outa moonlight, crash my party)
#5 on the charts...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZGsrbM_klW4Brett Eldredge - Don't Ya
EDIT: well, got the wrong song at first. This song is definitely a step up in just about every way. Better instrumentation, better lyrics, better singing. Fun up-tempo song about a woman rather talented at flirting in fun subtle ways.
K-Pop
#1 on its chart...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YVyAII4sOsUf(x) - Rum Pum Pum Pum
Yeah...not going to lie, I glanced at the group and was like "welp, I have a pretty good guess about who's winning music this round". At the same time, this was not the song I was expecting.
Let me sidetrack a little into Raph Koster's book "A Theory of Fun for Game Designers" -- I can't say I learned much I didn't already know about game design from that book, but I did learn a thing or two about music, and the cognitive appeal it has. Music actually fills similar roles to games--it's pattern learning. Until you learn the pattern it just sounds like noise. For instance, a friend of mine (I think actually Mike for those of you who were at DLCon) was telling me about this one heavy metal group who all plays in different time signatures--which sounded awful to him at first, but after several listens the moments when all the different tracks were completely in-sync, or exactly off phase became really interesting. Conversely, I think everyone's had moments of "I'd like this song to be a bit more complex."
But music is more nuanced than "people over 30 don't understand dubstep because they didn't learn it when they were young". There are genres that trend easy or trend hard. Within a genre, a song can trend easy or hard.
I went through all of this to say that Rum Pum Pum Pum is hard. I can listen to it 20 times, get to the point that I'm simultaneously following four tracks in my head at the same time, only to just now realize that there is actually a fifth and a sixth track I hadn't yet noticed.
Now, hard is not inherently a positive or negative. If games are any indication, it's usually easier to make due to fewer design restrictions, but also allows some patterns you just couldn't do in an easy game. But because it's much less of a focus, it's rare to see it done well. Does f(x) do it well? Hmm...well there's parts of the song that I was initially thinking were really weak, but then I realized the real reason I didn't like those sections: they were too easy. Just someone rapping over an unusual beat? Pfft, what a disappointing few bars of music.... So...yeah, it certainly has grabbed my attention and study, which makes it successful for me.
Lyrics:
1. Pop
2. Country
3. K-Pop
Yeah, ok, Jay-Z's lyrics here are actually pretty good, I have to admit. In most of his songs they go by fast enough that I don't remember more than a couple words. But stopping to read the lyrics...these are pretty clever. Not something I see myself singing at karaoke; still good.
EDIT: hmm...now that I've got the right country song in there with better lyrics...no I think Jay Z still takes it. The country song is about a girl being clever with her flirting in fun and interesting ways. Jay-Z's lyrics have a lot of Jay-Z being clever with words in fun and interesting ways.
Music:
1. K-Pop
2. Country
3. Pop
Yeah, the f(x) song is legit what I'm listening to right now. The Jay-Z song is propped up by having more Justin Timberlake than Jay-Z (the Jay-Z sections are actually pretty weak musically). The country song...EDIT: wait, had the wrong country song. Well this new stronger country song...actually I think it works better as a cohesive whole than the Jay-Z song--and I mean the Justin Timberlake sections compared to the singing sections of the country song. The tempo and pacing are faster, the vocals and instruments support each other better. Yes yes, Justin Timberlake is really good at singing, but the country song is a very well-coordinated whole.