redfiona99

The original reason for the posts (far back in the mists of time in 2009) was that I really loathed the Rolling Stone list of top 50 albums of that time span. I felt it was so determinedly, dementedly lo-fi indie (and bad lo-fi indie at that, it's like Fugazi without the fun and the tunes) hipster nonsense that even I could do better. It wasn't like I actually listened to that much music in that decade but I was at least willing to accept there were things out there that weren't 4 boys with guitars.

I accepted that Rolling Stone were going to skew slightly to the US because that's where they're based, and mine had the opposite slant because I'm based in the UK.

So, who would I have on my list:

There's a reasonably good shout for 2000-2009's stand-out, the world stops for them, artist to have been Beyonce.

In terms of impact, to other people's sound/image, Lady Gaga has to be on there. To quote someone (sorry, I can't find who, google has failed me), "do you think Rihanna would be out there dressed like that singing about S&M without Gaga having been a huge hit?"

In the UK, Amy Winehouse changed what record companies were signing (see also Duffy, Adele, Mark Ronson) and the direction artists were going (see Plan B).

More generally, the sound of pop and pop RnB went from Dr Dre to Timberland to David Guetta.

In the UK, there was the brief but beautiful flowering of Britpop Version 2.0, so I would have had a Libertines album and one out of the Kaiser Chiefs or Franz Ferdinand. Meanwhile, Muse went from opening the bill for Feeder to arena-selling-out-colossuses (I don't even like Muse, but not having them on was when I realised the Rolling Stone list was pish). They also totally missed the rise of emo. Which is not my cup of tea at all but was still a major movement in music. It was almost as though anything less obscure than hipster indie, or louder than shoegazing was disregarded. Although at least they did have American Idiot on their list which was definitely on my top 10 list. I'm still looking forward to the 2010s-equivalent.

In the UK there was also the rise of UK hip-hop, garage and grime, or whatever you call it (this is the perfect time to drop a Wiley track - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e1YKFV45M18) so The Streets, Wiley and Dizzee Rascal.

Certainly in the UK, you couldn't avoid "reality" stars and contestants, downloads started to be counted as single sales and both of the above had a huge effect on popular music. Word of mouth still mattered but it's hard to compete against the major labels and TV shows. Also, with the honourable exception of Later with Jools, there's almost no live music on TV any more which has a huge effect.

Music 2008

( Albums: )

( Singles: )

( Dance: )

~~~~

Special cases -

Sara Bareilles - Love Song - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qi7Yh16dA0w Released 2007, big 2008

I am ignoring both Leona Lewis's version of Run (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jqpAgMxhx30) and Alexandra Burke's version of Hallelujah (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aplWTXEcY70).

Music 2007

( Albums: )

( Albums I Bought: )

( Singles: )

Dance Tracks:

Destination Calabria - Alex Gaudino - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=APtj3EvhfWA Video so NSFW. The tune is pretty fantastic.

Special Cases:

Albums:

All The Right Reasons - Nickelback - Was actually 2005, but only made a splash over here when Rockstar came out in 2007 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T3rXdeOvhNE&feature=channel

Robyn - Robyn - Be Mine Again, Swedish release was actually 2005 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_PDNRTCuPyQ

A real mix this time, not that many albums, but lots of singles, despite being before the download chart got mixed in with the physical sales chart.

( Albums: )

( Albums I Own: )

( Singles: )

( Dance Tracks )

Special Cases

Back to Bedlam - James Blunt - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wVyggTKDcOE Release 2004, went huge in 2005

Eye To The Telescope - KT Tunstall - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HYEU91d8ngc&feature=fvst So, I'm watching Jools and expecting Paul Weller. He's got a throat infection and can't perform, so we get this instead. And much though I love Paul Weller, definitely happy with the replacement :) (And squee, that was the first time I heard the Futureheads live, I think).

Sorry about the gap between years :)

( Albums )

( Albums I own: )

( Songs: )

Special Cases:

Justified - Justin Timberlake - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Mu8MrCR5pQ Was actually released at the tail-end of 2002, but my main memory of going out anywhere in 2003 was JT on the soundtrack. I've gone with Cry Me A River as the exemplar track because it's so good, and yet, it's by the Timberlake.

First, Gareth Thomas came out. The article, on the BBC website, must have been taken from a pretty long interview (for the Daily Fail, hence no link to that), and it's totally worth a read - http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/rugby_union/welsh/8421956.stm

And don't worry Alfie, I'm sure people are far more likely to remember those awesome tries you scored than anything else.

The Times have put up it's top 5 sporting moment of the decade: I disagree with number 5, but I like the rest:

( 4. 2005 Andrew Flintoff offers hand of friendship to Brett Lee )

( 3. 2005 Liverpool triumph thanks to the 'Miracle of Istanbul' )

( 2. 2003 Jonny Wilkinson secures World Cup with that kick )

( 1. 2008 Usain Bolt sets world record on his way to gold )

I cut the blurb but you should read it, because it's a perfect piece of Simon Barnes writing. Because he's not wrong. By the time Bolt ran, we had twitter, we had facebook, everything was instant, and in that instant, the only thing anyone wrote was, 'wow'.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/more_sport/article6956568.ece

Numbers 80-61 - several of these are less than happy for me.

( 80. 2002: South Korea 2, Italy 1, Daejeon )

( 75. 2009: James Anderson and Monty Panesar’s last stand, Cardiff )

( 69. 2009: The 30-game final set, Wimbledon )

( 67. 2000: Paolo Di Canio’s sporting gesture, Liverpool )

( 63. 2005: Brian O’Driscoll spear-tackled, Christchurch )

So after a year when not much happened, a year where everything happened. Slightly less English-based, given there's people singing in Russian, Spanish, German and French.

( Albums: )

( Albums I Own: )

( Songs )

Two exceptional cases:

Teenage Dirtbag - Wheatus - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8jJWQkVgDs4
Released in 2000, but only made it really big over here in early 2001 (this is the problem with using Wiki as my main resource). My boy cousin has the album, and the plot of the video (minus the threat of violence) did pretty much occur to a friend - during the great Maiden revival, he managed to get a spectacularly attractive girl to go with him to a Maiden gig.

White Ladder - David Gray - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jT8Q7Y5nq-E
Released in 1999, but huge from summer 2000 onwards.

From nhw - These are the top 106 books most often marked as "unread" by LibraryThing's users (as of today). As usual, bold what you have read, italicise what you started but couldn't finish, and strike through what you couldn't stand. The numbers after each one are the number of LT users who used the tag of that book (that is, last time that the algorithm was done - when I checked, I found most of them had a few more added to the total). I've also added that any that are underlined are unfinished through no fault of their own.

( In which it becomes obvious that I have the attention span of a gnat, and a gnat on speed at that )