Cake "Sick Of You"

Homer Simpson once called them the two greatest words in the English language:

De. Fault.

In spite of Homer's claim, it's got to be a little a dispiriting/depressing/embarrassing to win by default.

To be crowned Miss America, like Suzette Charles who won the honor after Vanessa Williams had to relinquish her crown.

To win a playoff slot, despite a losing record, like the 7-9-but-division-winning Seattle Seahawks did in the NFL this year.

To have the Number One record in the country, like Cake, who also have the honor of selling the least amount of records by any band to get to Number One.

It's not a knock on the band. Like most cases of winning by default, it's that the bar has been lowered.

Cake is actually pretty consistent at selling a certain amount of records. But across the board in the music industry, sales have plummeted so far in the last decade and a half, that selling enough records to be Number One in 2011 wouldn't have even gotten you in the Top 10, in 1995.

In keeping with most of this week's posts, which all seem to relate to stories in the news, here's a New York Times story about this post.