2010 Year End Charts

Top Songs of 2010
Rank	Song	Artist	Plays
1	Empty Room	Arcade Fire	109
2	1901	Phoenix	99
3	Sweet Disposition	Temper Trap	99
4	Hey, Soul Sister	Train	97
5	How You Like Me Now	The Heavy	94
6	The High Road	Broken Bells	93
7	Rhinestone Eyes	Gorillaz	93
8	O.N.E.	Yeasayer	88
9	Indestructable	Robyn	87
10	The Suburbs	Arcade Fire	85
11	Windstorm	School of Seven Bells	84
12	Not Afraid	Eminem	84
13	I Dream of Crystal	Maps	83
14	I'm the Best	Nicki Minaj	80
15	Entrance Song	The Black Angels	79
16	Royals	Deftones	79
17	Empire State of Mind (Part II)	Alicia Keys	78
18	Crush	Pendulum	76
19	Walk in the Park	Beach House	75
20	Always	The Birthday Massacre	74
21	Love the Way You Lie	Eminem, Rihanna	72
22	Half Light I	Arcade Fire	72
23	Mushrooms & Roses	Janelle Monae	71
24	Dancing On My Own	Robyn	69
25	Russian Roulette	Rihanna	67
26	When They Come for Me	Linkin Park	66
27	Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains)	Arcade Fire	66
28	Wondaland	Janelle Monae	66
29	Pack Up	Eliza Doolittle	65
30	Baptism	Crystal Castles	64
31	What Did My Lover Say?	Wolf Parade	64
32	Moth's Wings	Passion Pit	63
33	The Waiting One	All That Remains	63
34	Sleepdriving	Grand Archives	62
35	You Can Tell it To Everybody	Air	61
36	Apple Pie Bed	Lawrence Arabia	60
37	On Melancholy Hill	Gorillaz	59
38	California Gurls	Katy Perry	59
39	In the Dark	The Birthday Massacre	59
40	Nothing is Something Worth Doing	Shpongle	58
41	To Kingdom Come	Passion Pit	57
42	My Body	Young the Giant	55
43	Cranberry	The Ruby Suns	55
44	Diamond Eyes	Deftones	52
45	Pins and Needles	The Birthday Massacre	50
46	Like Ice	Conjure One	49
47	Empire Ants	Gorillaz, Little Dragon	48
48	Madder Red	Yeasayer	48
49	Beauty School	Deftones	47
50	Los Angeles	Phosphorescent	47
2010
Top Albums
Rank	Album	Artist	Units (M)
1	The Suburbs	Arcade Fire	7.2
2	The ArchAndroid	Janelle Monae	6.9
3	Odd Blood	Yesayer	4.6
4	Diamond Eyes	Deftones	3.9
5	Plastic Beach	Gorillaz	3.7
6	Body Talk	Robyn	3.6
7	Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix	Phoenix	3.2
8	Recovery	Eminem	3.2
9	Option Paralysis	The Dillinger Escape Plan	2.9
10	The Element of Freedom	Alicia Keys	2.8
Top Books
Rank	Book	Author	Units (M)
1	The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest	Stieg Larsson	3.3
2	The Spirit Level	Richard Wilkinson, Kate Pickett	1.8
3	There Is Power in a Union	Philip Dray	1.5
4	The Help	Kathryn Stocket	1.5
5	The Art of Racing in the Rain	Garth Stein	1.4
6	The Lost Symbol	Dan Brown	1.2
7	Cleopatra	Stacy Schiff	1.1
8	Outliers	Malcolm Gladwell	1.0
9	Freedom	Jonathan Franzen	1.0
10	Nothing to Envy	Barbara Demick	1.0
Top Movies
Rank	Movie		Units (M)
1	Avatar		24.3
2	Inception		16.2
3	The Social Network		10.8
4	Toy Story 3		10.2
5	Shutter Island		9.7
6	127 Hours		8.6
7	Easy A		8.5
8	2012		8.2
9	Sherlock Holmes		8.0
10	Agora		7.9

2010 Film Triad

The three best films of the year were directed by three of the most innovative current directors. They are Christopher Nolan’s Inception, David Fincher’s The Social Network, and Darren Aronofsky’s Black Swan.  All three of these directors are at the top of their game, directing the familiar psychological thrillers we’ve become accustomed to (Nolan did Memento & The Dark Knight, Fincher did Se7en & Fight Club, Aronofsky did Pi & Requiem For A Dream).  It’s hard to choose which is the best film of 2010 overall, but I’ve given the edge to Black Swan. 

Inception was the first to come out, and it took the summer by storm.  I believe it was the top-grossing film of the summer, which is highly unusual for a psychological thriller. Of the three this was the longest, the most visually captivating, and the most difficult to follow.  It’s about a spy undergoing corporate espionage inside the dreams of the enemies of those who hired him. The intellectual engagement and intensity is a solid 10, and there’s an incredible fight scene in which the camera revolves around a room that is synchronizing time lapses with altered states of consciousness.  These dream adventures were highly intriguing to me personally because it reminded of the different states of astral projection.  Astral projection was not mentioned in the film, but the methods of attaining dream infiltration were the same.  The ending was good and open to interpretation, but a couple weaknesses in this film were the mediocre acting and the ultra-in-your-face-conceptuality-blowout that isn’t ever balanced with emotional relaxation.  Too much emphasis is placed on the concept of the story and not on the emotional aspect. 

The Social Network came out next, and it was also a blockbuster hit.  This may have been more of a drama than a psychological thriller, but the plot was still interesting enough to keep me guessing.  Like Inception it was very fast paced (the dialogue was intentionally fast to cement the originality of the film) and had an in-your-face intensity, but it was the acting in this film that really made it shine.  The guy who plays Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook, will probably win an Academy Award for best actor.  But considering the intellectual engagement of Inception I don’t judge The Social Network to be quite as good.  To me the ending wasn’t very strong, and there’s too much foul behavior and backstabbing to savor my taste the way Inception did, but the way it’s presented is still a riveting interpretation of the one of the most influential people of our time.  Even though I didn’t fancy the film, I have a lot of respect for it and I may watch it again for the witty dialogue and great acting. 

Black Swan is currently out in theaters (just saw it a few days ago), and this one barely edges out Inception, only because the ending comes together more nicely.  The two films are generally similar in that they are both intensely psychotic with plethoras of altered-state experiences.  Yet they are thematically different in that the artistry and emotional engagement of Black Swan complements the intellectual, conceptual ambience of Inception.  I chose Black Swan because it more clearly depicts the archetypal struggles in female psychology than Inception depicts, well, frankly an unrealistic issue, unless corporations eventually do master astral projection, which shouldn't surprise me!  Like The Social Network, Black Swan had some really good acting- I’ve never seen Natalie Portman do a roll so well.  Even though the ending was predictable (the film’s only weakness), it was executed to perfection and I’ll never forget it. 

I haven’t seen Toy Story 3 yet, which I’ve heard was also one of the best films of the year, but I chose to write about these three because of their stylistic proximity.  A hundred years from now 2010 might be remembered for these similar, stellar films by legendary directors that all came out at roughly the same time.  Unfortunately Black Swan has not gotten the marketing that it deserves, so it will probably be a cult classic like Pi.  Aronofsky might be the most underrated director in Hollywood.