2012 in music: High points, down sides, dueling divas

• 'Call Me Maybe,' 'Gangnam Style' among viral sensations
• Van Halen's 'Different Kind of Truth'? Overrated
• Check out the top 10 album picks from each of our critics

Some songs and artists were irresistible; others were plain inescapable. USA TODAY's music critics round up 2012's highs and lows.

Most conspicuous tragedy: Whitney Houston

The music world lost a wide range of favorites in 2012 (Etta James, Donna Summer and Adam Yauch, to name a few), but no death was more shocking — or seemed more sadly inevitable — than that of Houston, the golden girl of pop-soul. At 48, Houston had struggled for years with substance abuse, leaving her voice — one of the most glorious instruments to grace a top 40 single — too ravaged to make her final album, 2009's I Look to You, the comeback that fans had hoped for. Still, we'll always love her for the heavenly sounds and buoyant spirit she brought to pop in her heyday. — Elysa Gardner

Most overexposed artists: Justin Bieber, Maroon 5, Rihanna

The Biebs, RiRi and Adam Levine's band all released popular albums and hit singles this past year. But their seemingly relentless presence owed at least as much to a celebrity culture in which personal foibles grab more attention than artistic triumphs. OK, so Levine's ticket to enhanced fame — a gig as coach on yet another TV talent show — was more cheesy than tawdry. And Bieber can't really be blamed for our enduring fascination with everything from his romantic life to his, um, onstage nausea. But Rihanna encouraged speculation about her relationship with former boyfriend/abuser Chris Brown by (among other things) inviting him on her album — for a giddy duet called Nobody's Business. — Elysa Gardner

MORE:'Channel Orange' our album of the year

PLAYLIST:On Spotify, our critics' 100 favorite songs of the year

Viral sensation:Call Me Maybe,Gangnam Style, Walk Off the Earth cover

If pop music were a disease, the CDC would have been overwhelmed in 2012. And the breakouts came from across the globe. This month, South Korean rapper Psy's pandemic Gangnam Style became the first YouTube video to reach 1 billion views. In Canada, the five members of Walk Off the Earth gathered around one guitar to sing Belgian-Australian Gotye's Somebody That I Used to Know and wound up with 140 million YouTube views, plus a deal with Columbia Records. And thanks to Justin Bieber's tweets about Carly Rae Jepsen's Call Me Maybe, the Canadian singer now has 4 million Twitter followers who would be more than happy to give her a ring. — Brian Mansfield

Song of the year: Somebody That I Used to Know

In a year that proved the mainstream mega-hit wasn't dead, no song had more life than Belgian-Australian musician Gotye's persistent earworm. The singer/songwriter recorded the track in his parents' home in 2011. By the time it hit the USA in 2012, it was already a worldwide hit. Then it just got bigger: Somebody That I Used to Know is on track to be the year's top-selling and most-played single. It also spawned countless cover videos (most famously by Walk Off the Earth) and got reworked on Glee and American Idol, while Kelly Clarkson and fellow breakout fun. performed it live. Its popularity appears endless, showing that, as in real life, while the greatest relationships may be only temporary, a good breakup can go on forever. — Brian Mansfield

Double divas: Adele and Taylor Swift

Established chart steamrollers Adele and Taylor Swift clobbered the competition in this year's album-sales race, in turtle and hare fashion. Adele's 21, at No. 21 after 95 weeks, steadily built to total sales of 10.1 million copies, leading last year's pack and returning as this year's best-selling album, a feat unmatched since Michael Jackson's Thriller topped sales in 1983 and 1984. Reinvigorated by a sweep of six Grammy Awards in February, the British singer's sophomore disc sold roughly 4.3 million this year. Ranking second is country superstar Swift's Red, currently atop Billboard. After selling 2.6 million copies in eight weeks, it's the best-selling album released in 2012. — Edna Gundersen

Overrated albums: Some Nights, fun.; Babel, Mumford & Sons; A Different Kind of Truth, Van Halen

Mumford's rootsy folk warranted excitement in 2009, but not the breathless praise and sales frenzy that greeted this year's earnest but average Babel. Nothing else on fun.'s sophomore power pop album matched the uplifting shimmer of hit Some Nights. Yet the Grammy Awards over-rewarded both groups with six nominations each. At least voters got it right in the case of Van Halen, which has zero nods for A Different Kind of Truth, the band's first album in 14 years. Delivered amid deafening hype, the reheated meat-and-potato riffs of Van Halen's past had critics swooning and fans panting, but vanished from the charts after the band's tour was scrapped. — Edna Gundersen

Best debuts: Alabama Shakes, The Lumineers, Kendrick Lamar

OK, One Direction had the year's biggest debut with Up All Night. Even if British boy bands aren't your scene, though, 2012 offered plenty of exciting new acts, including Frank Ocean, our album-of-the-year recipient. We also like the down-home retro-soul of Alabama Shakes, whose live shows are even more revelatory than the band's album, Boys & Girls. Then there's The Lumineers, a Denver folk-rock trio that released a self-titled album on an independent label and wound up with one of the year's biggest crossover hits. In hip-hop, Kendrick Lamar graduated from the mixtape scene to release his major-label debut, good kid, m.A.A.d city and become the new King of the West Coast. — Brian Mansfield

Our critics' top 10 albums for 2012

Jerry Shriver:

1. Wrecking Ball, Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band
2. Handwritten, The Gaslight Anthem
3. Rebirth, Jimmy Cliff
4. Faithful Man, Lee Fields
5. Show of Strength, Michael Burks
6. Women and Work, Lucero
7. Gloryland, Kevin Gordon
8. Celebration Day, Led Zeppelin
9. Boys & Girls, Alabama Shakes
10.Carnivale Electricos, Galactic

Steve Jones:

1. Channel Orange, Frank Ocean
2. good kid, m.A.A.d. city, Kendrick Lamar
3. Food & Liquor II: The Great American Rap Album, Pt. 1, Lupe Fiasco
4. Vicious Lies and Dangerous Rumors, Big Boi
5. Black Radio, Robert Glasper Experiment
6. Kaleidoscope Dream, Miguel
7. Life Is Good, Nas
8. Greater Than One,Dwele
9. Most of My Heroes Still Don't Appear on No Stamp/The Evil Empire of Everything, Public Enemy
10. Write Me Back, R. Kelly

Elysa Gardner:

1. Pour Une Ame Souveraine: A Dedication to Nina Simone, Meshell Ndegeocello
2.Home Again, Michael Kiwanuka
3.Glad Rag Doll, Diana Krall
4.Is Your Love Big Enough?Lianne La Havas
5.Forbidden Broadway Alive and Kicking!various artists
6. Channel Orange, Frank Ocean
7. Over the Moon: The Broadway Lullaby Project,various artists
8. Out of the Game, Rufus Wainwright
9. The Origin of Love, Mika
10. Dear Diz (Every Day I Think of You), Arturo Sandoval

Edna Gundersen:

1. Channel Orange, Frank Ocean
2. Tempest, Bob Dylan
3. good kid, m.A.A.d city, Kendrick Lamar
4. Shields, Grizzly Bear
5. Visions, Grimes
6. Boys & Girls, Alabama Shakes
7. Old Ideas, Leonard Cohen
8. Kaleidoscope Dream, Miguel
9.Celebration Rock, Japandroids
10. Django Django,Django Django

Brian Mansfield:

1. Red, Taylor Swift
2. Wrecking Ball, Bruce Springsteen
3. Uncaged, Zac Brown Band
4. Tornado, Little Big Town
5. Blue Mountain, Brandon Heath
6. How About I Be Me (And You Be You)? Sinead O'Connor
7. Hard 2 Love,Lee Brice
8. Sun Midnight Sun, Sarah Watkins
9. Little Broken Hearts, Norah Jones
10. Light for the Lost Boy, Andrew Peterson