I'm not a music snob but I love to listen to a great tune.  I like pop as much as I like a great rock or even an alternative song.  Over the last twenty years music has morphed into so many categories that it's hard to categorize anything anymore.  But recently Time released the <a href="http://entertainment.time.com/2011/10/24/the-all-time-100-songs" target="_blank">Top 100 Greatest Popular Songs</a> since the magazine was first published, or roughly 90 years. Time describes the list as:
<blockquote>"Our critics pick the most extraordinary English-language pop recordings since the beginning of TIME magazine in 1923. Here are 100 (unranked) songs of enduring beauty, power and inventiveness."</blockquote>
For the sake of this article I'm going to stick with this millennium and reflect.  The list is broken down by decade making it so easy to take pop shots at it.

2010s - Janelle Monáe: <a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/B002ZFQD0E" target="_blank">Tightrope</a>

Suffice it to say I've never even heard of Janelle, and her music is not on any playlist I can find.  I'm sure she's talented but to call her the greatest son of this decade, when no one has heard of her.  Please.

2000s - Missy Elliot: <a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00005J7GF" target="_blank">Get Ur Freak On</a>, Outkast: <a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0000AGWFX" target="_blank">Hey Yeah</a>, Jay-Z: <a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0000DZFL0" target="_blank">99 Problems</a>, Arcade Fire: <a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0002IVN9W" target="_blank">Wake Up</a>, Kanye West: <a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0009WPKY0" target="_blank">Gold Digger</a>, Lil Wayne: <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Iex5BEXR2w" target="_blank">Georgia… Bush</a>, LCD Soundsystem: <a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000M3452Y" target="_blank">All My Friends</a>, Beyoncé: <a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/B001GQACGE" target="_blank">Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)</a>, and Lady Gaga: <a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/B002W6Z0UK" target="_blank">Bad Romance</a>.

Lists like the inherently reflect the music tastes of the person picking the list, which means the list is actually a reflection of the critic.  And critics don't really like pop, which is to say that the title is inevitably not accurate.  The problem with lists like this is the title.  If we're looking at popular, it's would be important to really quantify the songs against charts and sales.  But it's not.  Only Hey Yeah, Bad Romance and Single Ladies were real chart listers. So it's clearly not about sales or charts.

What surprised me about the list is that there is not one song by such influential artists as U2, Alicia Keys, Pearl Jam, Trent Reznor, Death Cab For Cutie, the White Stripes, the Killers, Eminem, or Linkin Park.  I know this gives away my rock tendencies, but the author suggests these are songs of inventiveness.  I would even suggest Lady Gaga's Poker Face was more inventive than Bad Romance. Sometimes I wonder if the relevancy of inventiveness has to be so esoteric in critics circles to avoid any backlash.

But my real point is to get you involved.  You listen to music.  What song in the last decade has been a song of beauty, power and inventiveness? What should have been on that list?