With 2009 quickly coming to a close top ten lists for 2009 are popping up everywhere. We'll see them for games, for music, for news stories, for sports, and many other areas as well. Perhaps the most comprehensive list of top tens comes from Time Magazine. Time's influence, mirroring the decline in the influence of print media in general, is not what it was when I was growing up. Time's selection of their "Man of the Year" used to be a news story in and of itself. This year their list of top tens almost passed me by without notice.

As with any top ten list you will likely not agree with some of the choices Time makes. But some are interesting because of what they say about our society and the way it has changed. For example, two of the top five albums for 2009, including the number 1 album, are country music. Brad Paisley's American Saturday Night taking top honors with Miranda Lambert's Revolution taking fourth. Also of interest here is that Lambert became a country star through a reality TV show, Nashville Star, which was an attempt at recreating American Idol's success but with country music artists.

More humorous, and perhaps of more interest to many of you, would be the choices for top commercials. I don't want much TV and what I do I watch I've TiVo'ed so many of the commercials on the list are ones I haven't seen, including Time's choice for the best commercial of the year:

One of the biggest surprises from the lists is that Kayne West didn't take top spot for Most Awkward Moment. He was relegated to a runner up position behind the (not) Balloon Boy. Better luck in 2010 Kayne. (Video games, movies, and TV after the jump)

On the brighter side, Captain Sullenberger, who landed a plane in the Hudson River after the engines failed, was honored as the top hero of 2009. His actions saved the lives of all 155 passengers and crew on the plane. Without his actions this might have been one of the top tragedies of 2009.

Time's Top 10 Video Games start as expected but there's some head scratchers here as well.

1. Modern Warfare 2
2. Batman: Arkham Asylum
3. DJ Hero
4. Borderlands
5. New Super Mario Bros. Wii
6. Geo-Defense Swarm
7. Scribblenauts
8. Halo 3: ODST
9. Assassin's Creed 2
10. Uncharted 2

Geo-Defense Swarm? The only way I see this making sense as feeling that they had to include an iPhone game on the list. Scribblenauts had it's fifteen minutes of fame but I'm not hearing anyone saying it should be on a top ten list. Halo 3: ODST? Time Magazine so I guess we had to expect this. 

I'm also surprised, pleasantly so, that Borderlands made the list. This is a great game and Gearbox is continuing to support it with DLC. Batman is less of a surprise given that he is iconic in our culture and the game deserves to be on the list. DJ Hero seems a bit of a stretch but I'm not the target market for the game and so I'm willing to say it might deserve the spot and not just be there on the tails of Guitar Hero/Rock Band.

Much more pleasing to Parris will be that for TV shows they picked Mad Men as number one and Big Love was number four. Jay will be happy to see Modern Family at number two. Lost was number six on the list which seems low to me, but I'm learning to accept that my tastes no longer directly coincide with the mainstream. VicJo's Son's of Anarchy shows up at number 9 on the list. Basically I've heard people around the site discuss every one of these shows, including Glee, so it seems to be a pretty solid list.

1. Mad Men
2. Modern Family
3. Breaking Bad
4. Big Love
5. Battlestar Galactica
6. Lost
7. Friday Night Lights
8. Glee
9. Sons of Anarchy
10. (Tie) The Office / Parks and Recreation

Of particular interest, and perhaps cause for debate, for Remember When fans will be Time's Top 10 Movies for 2009.

1. The Princess and the Frog
2. Up
3. Fantastic Mr. Fox
4. The Hurt Locker
5. Up in the Air
6. The White Ribbon
7. A Single Man
8. Of Time and the City
9. District 9
10. Thirst

It probably says something about me that I've not seen one of these movies yet. But it is interesting that the top two are animated films. Given what we've seen in recent years I suspect this may occur more frequently.

In many ways what Time has chosen to rank in their Top 10 lists are as interesting as what's on the list. These include:

• Top 10 Animal Stories
• Top 10 Apologies
• Top 10 Break Ups
• Top 10 Facebook Stories (these are stories about Facebook not stories on Facebook)
• Top 10 Fashion Faux Pas
• Top 10 Fashion Moments
• Top 10 Feuds
• Top 10 Fleeting Celebrities
• Top 10 Scandals
• Top 10 Tweets - "Victory is ours!!!!!!!" from Ashton Kutcher

For the complete list you can go here.