It was a year of dubstep, saxophones, and Spotify, but another trend seeped into the music world. Indie and major, across all nations, saw 2011 embracing the instrument we all have inside of us--well, most of us--the whistle. Here's the top songs employing this age-old pastime of the year.1. "Moves Like Jagger" Maroon 5 & Christina Aguilera -- Ah, the whistle that we couldn't get away from in 2011. Taking their hit TV show "The Voice" to premiere track in late June, the track ended up hitting No. 1 in September and spent four non-consecutive weeks at the top. Over strumming guitars, electro-pop builds, and Adam Levine and Christina Aguilera's crooning, it was the whistle that stayed consistent throughout the track giving the other excellent moments of the song a nice centerpiece. The track is nominated for "Best Pop Duo/Group Performance" at the upcmoing Grammy Awards...hands down, "Jagger" takes the cake and catchiest whistle of the year.
2. "Pumped Up Kicks" Foster The People -- One of the biggest surprise hits of the year came from Foster The People. With a genre all their own, a whistle was thrown in on the bridge just to make the song a little more unique. It almost felt like FTP were giving us an easier way to sing the song to ourselves if we felt singing "you better run, better run, outrun my gun" was a little inappropriate on the sidewalk.
3. "Love Out Of Lust" Lykke Li -- Swedish darling Lykke Li crafted her folky-pop album Wounded Ryhmes around stories and confessions about moving into adulthood. "Love Out Of Lust" is a track that perfectly embodies the message of the album, and the backdrop of whistling on the chorus gives the song a mood that proves Lykke knows something the other 25 year-olds don't.4. "Good Life" OneRepublic -- Before hitting the chorus on this OneRepublic hit, Ryan Tedder sings "Please tell me, what there's to complain about," making the carefree whistling the appropriate accompaniment to the track. This Top 10 summer smash flooded airwaves during the season making it the perfect sing-a-long for roadtrips and hikes alike from "Paris to China to Colorado."5. "Don't Kick The Chair" Dia Frampton featuring Kid Cudi -- On this positive track taken from her debut "Red" album, Kid Cudi joins her for a quirky song that wouldn't sound out of place on the Foster The People record, making it even better than we hear some whistles as the beginning and on Kudi's verses. If she takes a look at this list, we expect this to be a future single.
