Now that 2011 is upon us, we can really reflect back on the best 2010 had to offer. From a music standpoint, there were some breakout artists and really great songs, but it's hard to whittle down the truly best song of the year. After arguing back and forth, we decided to leave it up to you, the fine folks of the Internet, to help us decide the 2010 song of the year. This or That has created a tournament bracket similar to the NCAA tournament that pits last year's hottest songs against each other in a bid to be crowned the top song of 2010.

How the Tournament Works

We're kicking off the tournament this Friday, January 14^th, at 7:00 am PST. It's your standard 64 entry tournament, with 16 seeds. We've broken up the voting windows into 6 rounds that are outlined below:

• Top 64 to Top 32: Starts 1/14/11 at 7:00 am PST, ends 1/16/11 at 5:00 pm PST
• Top 32 to Sweet 16: Starts 1/17/11 at 7:00 am PST, ends 1/19/11 at 5:00 pm PST
• Sweet 16 to Elite 8: Starts 1/20/11 at 7:00 am PST, ends 1/22/11 at 5:00 pm PST
• Elite 8 to Final 4: Starts 1/23/11 at 7:00 am PST, ends 1/25/11 at 5:00 pm PST
• Final 4 to Final 2: Starts 1/26/11 at 7:00 am PST, ends 1/28/11 at 5:00 pm PST
• Championship Round: Starts 1/29/11 at 7:00 am PST, ends 1/31/11 at 5:00 pm PST

Each time we kick off a round of voting, we'll have a countdown that lets you know how long that round will last. Once the round ends, we'll have a break so we can advance the winners and prepare the next round. You can sign up to be notified when a new round starts so you can vote for your picks and share with your friends. The final round will begin on January 29^th, 2011, and will end on January 31^st, at which point we'll know what you've chosen to be the Best Song of 2010.

How You Vote

Tournament voting is the same as voting for a regular ToT on This or That. When a round begins, you can vote for every match up in that round by clicking for your favorite song of the two presented. Make sure to vote for your favorites in each round to ensure that your picks advance further into the tournament! You can also share each round with your friends via email, Facebook, and Twitter to try and scrounge up support for your favorite artists and songs.

If you vote on every single match up and have "perfect attendance," you'll be eligible to win some prizes! We'll give away a This or That t-shirt to 25 random users who voted on every match up in the tournament, and one lucky winner chosen at random will receive a pair of Beats by Dre Studio over-ear headphones. Remember, only those who vote on each and every match up will be eligible to win!

How We Chose the Songs

We began our list by compiling top songs of the year according to the Billboard Hot 100 chart. To seed each song, we analyzed their placement on the Hot 100 chart and also factored in how many views the song's official video received on YouTube plus the number of Facebook and Twitter followers the artist had. While our seeding is by no means perfect or 100% accurate, we feel we've created solid brackets that should spark some healthy debate.

Guess the Winner, Get a Prize!

We don't plan to reveal the actual list of songs and their match ups until the tournament kicks off this Friday. Why? Because we want you to take a shot in the dark and guess the winning song! Is your Spidey sense tingling? Do you have a hunch as to what the top song will be? Leave a comment in this post with your guess and you could win a prize! Here are the gritty details:

• Comment on this post with your guess for the best song of 2010
• We'll only take your first guess, so make it count and don't spam us!
• Contest ends Friday, January 14th at 7:00 am, at which point the tournament will begin
• The first 25 people who correctly guess the winning song will each win a This or That t-shirt, and we'll randomly choose a grand prize winner who will walk away with a pair of Beats by Dre Solo HD headphones

Blog About the Tournament and Win Some Goodies

Do you own a blog or write for one? Write about which song you think should win our awesome 2010 Song of the Year Tournament and you could win a prize! 25 lucky bloggers will each receive a This or That t-shirt, and one blogger will win a year's subscription to Pandora One, Pandora radio's upgraded desktop application, as well as a $150 gift card to Amazon.com that you can use to buy CDs, headphones, or any other goodies your music-loving heart desires.

Choose the Play-In Song

Like the NCAA tournament, we have two songs vying for the last slot in our Song of the Year Tournament and we need you to vote for your favorite. These two Internet sensations started out as a meme but won our hearts (and ears) by getting remixed into auto-tuned masterpieces. In one corner we have the Bedroom Intruder song, created from a news piece in which an irritated Antoine Dodson urged us to hide our wives, hide our kids, and hide our husbands because "obviously there's a rapist in Lincoln Park."

 

In the other corner, we have the Double Rainbow song featuring Paul "Bear" Vasquez, a man so entranced by the appearance of a double rainbow that he pondered its meaning and its majestic beauty.



Both "songs" were put together by the Gregory Brothers, but only one can win a spot in our tournament and will go up against one of our #1 seeds.

So which will be our play-in song and become a #16 seed in our 2010 Song of the Year Tournament, Bedroom Intruder or Double Rainbow? Vote for your favorite below, and don't forget to comment with your guess as to which of our mystery songs will be crowned the 2010 Song of the Year! Check back in on Friday when we kick off the tournament, and don't forget to vote for your favorites!

Which should be the play-in song for the 2010 Song of the Year Tournament?