Flavorwire

With only days left until the end of 2012, the Internet is full of best-of essays and lists and embeddable Spotify playlists that reaffirm critics’ and tastemakers’ street credit and perpetuate the myth that most people writing about music actually have any kind of significant impact on the way that pop music is created, packaged, and sold. I won’t bore you with such gas. Instead, here are some fun superlatives that summarize the world of pop this year, for those of you who may not have kept up with this realm. These are undeniable touchstones — meaning that should you, as esteemed people with ears, have scruples with this list, it would behoove you to make an appointment with a qualified audiologist post-haste. Otherwise, read! Click! Dance!

Best jingle about a cold beverage that you can sip on a hot day: At its heart, Pop For Skeptics has always been about providing a guide to the best pop music around — even as climate change threatens to burn down our world and turn us into a pile of cinders. It is in this spirit that the year’s best summer song comes courtesy of an Eastern European pop sensation who, after 2011′s inescapable hit “Mr. Saxobeat,” disappeared entirely from the American pop imagination.

Alexandra Stan – “Lemonade”