The Record 2:03 pm Tue September 4, 2012  Requiem For A Monster
Hit  Originally published on Tue September 18, 2012 7:15 pm
Summer hisses damply to a close, and the pop charts begin to
shudder. After a span of 23 consecutive weeks during which only
three songs topped the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart, two new
songs have broken through in the last few weeks: Flo Rida's
"Whistle," a late-comer to the beach party that flexed and
preened while everyone else was packing up coolers and shaking
the sand from towels, had a mercifully short run at No.1; Taylor
Swift's "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together," a break-up
anthem that sounds like gossip hurtling across a buzzing
lunchroom, arrived at the peak two weeks ago and seems poised to
carry us into back-to-school season and beyond.  But before we
plunge headlong into the future, let's take a break from pop's
shark-like need for forward motion to acknowledge one of those
three tentpole songs that held up the pop charts over the last
five months. Not "Call Me M