Adam Graham: Year in review: Memorable moments of 2007
MUSICAL REWIND: Consumers found many ways to listen to their favorite tunes in 2007
Wednesday, December 26, 2007
In music, 2007 was the year of the future This was the year the old way of doing things just felt old. Groundbreaking moves by Radiohead and Madonna foreshadowed the future of the music industry, and artists continued to self-promote using MySpace and YouTube.
Meanwhile, consumers continued to turn away from traditional music industry channels. Album sales were anemic, with no album crossing the 3-million sales mark, a feat 18 discs managed in 2000.
However, as the industry scrambles to find ways to save itself, fans are the ones emerging as the winners, and are arguably consuming more music than ever in more ways than ever before.
So while we keep one eye fixed on exciting the road ahead, here's a look back at the year that was the year in music.
Artist of the year: Lil' Wayne. He didn't officially release an album in 2007, but he didn't have to. Wayne kept a steady stream of engrossing mixtape product -- check out the hazy, drugged-out "I Feel Like Dying" or anything from the jackin'-for-beats "Da Drought 3" -- and guest verses (Kanye, Jay-Z, Swizz Beatz) flowing throughout the year, ensuring he was everywhere without playing by the old rules. Wayne represents the new model of the record industry, where artists, not corporations, are in control and songs can be released on-demand, 24/7. It helps, of course, that he consistently lives up to his self-appointed title of Best Rapper Alive.
Story of the year: The death of the major labels. Album sales continued to erode while heavy hitters like Radiohead and Madonna re-wrote the industry rule book. Radiohead empowered its fans by letting them name their own price for their new album "In Rainbows," while Madonna signed a lucrative deal to leave Warner Bros. for Live Nation, rolling her touring, merch sales and recording contracts into one hefty $120 million payday. Major labels may want to start looking for work in more steady industries -- like real estate or automobiles, which in comparison are booming growth areas.
Live act of the year: Daft Punk. The French robots toured the world on a giant LCD pyramid and left oceans of jaws agape in their wake. Suddenly, groups of guys standing around on stage playing instruments seemed so last century.
Trend of the year: Reunions. 2007 was the year that myriad groups -- Rage Against the Machine, Genesis, the Police, Van Halen, the Smashing Pumpkins, the Spice Girls, Led Zeppelin, et al -- decided to bury the hatchet and get the band back together. Expect more bands to get back together in the years to come -- if there are any left who didn't already reunite this year, that is.
Reunion of the year: Van Halen. On a Saturday night in October, it was 1983 all over again as Van Halen -- with a surprisingly limber David Lee Roth back in the driver's seat -- had a sold-out crowd at Joe Louis Arena dancing the night away.
Chorus of the year: From Miranda Lambert's "Gunpowder & Lead": "I'm goin' home gonna load my shotgun, wait by the door and light a cigarette/ he wants a fight, well now he's got one, and he ain't seen me crazy yet/ slapped my face and he shook me like a rag doll, don't that sound like a real man?/ I'm gonna show him what little girls are made of: Gunpowder & lead." Gangsta rap is rarely this cold-blooded, let alone country music from a "Nashville Star" runner-up.
Worst lyrics of the year: From Fergie's "Big Girls Don't Cry (Personal)": "I'm gonna miss you like a child misses his blanket." In comparison, it makes "My Humps" look deep.
Overexposure of the year: T-Pain. A one-trick-pony who multiplied that trick ad nauseam, T-Pain's vocoder-style vocals made us long for the days of Roger Troutman.
YouTube video of the year: Led Zeppelin performing "Kashmir" at its December reunion concert. Heart-racing, even after a dozen viewings. Runner-up: (Tie) Soulja Boy's instructional "Crank That" clip and Brit opera sensation Paul Potts singing "Nessun Dorma" on "Britain's Got Talent."
"High School Musical 2" song of the year: (Tie) "You are the Music in Me" and "Fabulous." The show-stopping ballad and Sharpay's own version of Fergie's "Glamorous" were both highlights of the smash Disney Channel sequel.
Hot mess of the year: Amy Winehouse. The female Pete Doherty squandered almost all of her buzz by no-showing countless appearances and racking up more arrests than hit singles. It's about time she says "yes-yes-yes" to rehab. Runner-up: Akon, who in April was caught on tape violently freak-dancing with a 15-year-old girl, resulting in Verizon pulling its sponsorship from his tour, and who in June decided to body slam a fan at a radio-sponsored concert. He atoned for his sins by releasing a semi-sincere single, "Sorry, Blame It On Me."
"American Idol" of the Year: Chris Daughtry. The bald-headed rocker's album was one of the year's best sellers, outselling Taylor Whatshisname's album by more than four-to-one.
Music-related film of the year: "Once." No film this year better captured the human spirit or the process of creation.
Soundtrack of the year: "There Will Be Blood." Radiohead's Jonny Greenwood coughs up terrifying, Hitchcock-worthy strings for Paul Thomas Anderson's turn-of-the-century oil epic.
Non-shocker of the year: System of a Down lead singer Serj Tankian's solo debut "Elect the Dead" sounds exactly like a System of a Down record.
Ego of the year. The-Dream. The "Umbrella" songwriter tops Kanye in this category simply by naming himself "The-Dream."
Guest rapper of the year: OutKast's Andre 3000, who emerged from his post "Idlewild" funk to class up UGK's "Int'l Player's Anthem" and the remix of Rich Boy's "Throw Some D's." Runner-up: Lil' Wayne, for making even Nicole Scherzinger sound good during his performance at MTV's Video Music Awards.
Most ridiculous song of the year: (Tie) R. Kelly, "Sex Planet"; R. Kelly, "The Zoo." In one, he makes a reference to Uranus only an 8 year old could love; in the other, he rhymes "rainforest" with "sexasaurus." Any chance these recordings are admissible in court?
"Huh?" of the year: The tear-your-hair-out craze over Hannah Montana tickets. Runner-up: Live Earth, the environmental awareness concerts that somehow rationalized the pollution caused by countless miles of intercontinental travel by building sets made of recycled tires.
"Try again next year" of the year: Lead Pussycat Doll Nicole Scherzinger, who saw her debut album miss numerous release dates before being unceremoniously shuffled off onto next year's schedule.
Blink and you missed it of the year: Will.i.am's "Songs About Girls," which disappeared from the charts faster than you can say "Fergalicious."
Rip-off of the year: In order to hear the uncensored version of Avril Lavigne's "Girlfriend" -- where Lavigne coins herself the "mother(bleeping) princess" -- fans had to either buy the deluxe version of "The Best Damn Thing," or download the single off iTunes. Fans who bought the regular album were left out in the cold.
Best reason to look forward to 2008: Guns N' Roses' "Chinese Democracy." It has to come out, right? Right??
Top 10 albums of 2007
1. Kanye West, "Graduation" -- Kanye's dissertation is the year's most triumphant album, full of stadium shakers made up of equal parts egotism and self-doubt. Stand up and cheer -- you already know Kanye is.
2. Against Me!, "New Wave" -- Producer Butch Vig rounds off the sharper edges of these Florida punks, and the result is a shimmeringly gritty reminder that "punk rock" and "punk-pop" are worlds apart.
3. Lily Allen, "Alright, Still" -- The Brit chanteuse and MySpace sweetheart is as clever as a whipper-snapper and doesn't need you to remind her of such. This is the kind of brainy pop that could have only come from overseas.
4. Bruce Springsteen, "Magic" -- Springsteen isn't going to sugarcoat things: Everything is not OK, and he's not afraid to tell you so. But something about the way he does it makes you feel like everything's going to be alright.
5. LCD Soundsystem, "Sound of Silver" -- Dance music for people who don't dance, LCD Soundsystem is nouveau disco for people too young to remember the real thing, or too hip to care.
6. Avril Lavigne, "The Best Damn Thing" -- Instead of going all introverted on her third album, Lavigne projected outward on this effervescent blast of hyper cheerleader pop. Hey, hey, you, you!
7. The White Stripes, "Icky Thump" -- The ex-Detroiters are so consistently thrilling they run the risk of being taken for granted. Take notice: "Icky Thump" is their most consistent, rewarding effort to date.
8. Jarvis Cocker, "Jarvis" -- Britpop holdover Jarvis Cocker reveals he doesn't need his Pulp band mates to craft wry, witty pop songs. Best lyric: "It all starts tonight, tonight's the night I guess/ So let's go take some drugs, and let's go have some sex."
9. Arcade Fire, "Neon Bible" -- The Canadian collective explores issues of hope and fear, life and loss and comes up with no easy answers. Challenging and haunting, but as utterly full of life as an E Street shuffle.
10. Britney Spears, "Blackout" -- The year's most miraculous album, by sheer existence alone. That it's a highly danceable, super-sexified, trashy state-of-the-art romp is merely icing on the messy cake.
Top 10 singles of 2007
1. Rihanna featuring Jay-Z, "Umbrella" (from "Good Girl Gone Bad") -- Rihanna (anna, anna, ay, ay, ay) makes robotic sound dead sexy on this paean to devotion when the going gets rough. The anthem of the year, hands down.
2. LCD Soundsystem, "All My Friends" (from "Sound of Silver") -- A melancholy lament for aging hipsters that plays like an instant nostalgia piece for Gen Xers. News flash: 30 is not the new 20, it's the same old 30. Deal with it.
3. Against Me!, "Thrash Unreal" (from "New Wave") -- The most ecstatically melodic yet thoroughly punk rock ode to a heroin junkie, I don't know, ever?
4. UGK featuring OutKast, "Int'l Player's Anthem" (from "Underground Kingz") -- A jubilant southern rap celebration that served as a fitting eulogy for Houston's Pimp C.
5. Mark Ronson featuring Lily Allen, "Oh My God" (from "Version") -- This infectious, horn-spiked Kaiser Chiefs cover occupies a spot that could have gone to any number of Allen's works (see: "Smile," "LDN"or her collaboration with Common, "Drivin' Me Wild").
6. Avril Lavigne, "I Can Do Better" (from "The Best Damn Thing") -- Third grade-level poetry -- "I hate you now/ so go away from me" -- has rarely sounded so exhilarating or so alive.
7. Rich Boy, "Throw Some D's" (from "Rich Boy") -- Gross consumerism gets a celestial makeover courtesy of Polow Da Don's heaven-sent beat.
8. M.I.A., "Paper Planes" (from "Kala") -- One of the most euphoric singles of the year features a chorus made up of gun shots and emptying cash registers. Go figure.
9. Arcade Fire, "Intervention" (from "Neon Bible") -- Both moving and deeply unsettling, "Intervention" is full of darkness and light, faith and skepticism.
10. Plain White T's, "Hey There Delilah" (from "Every Second Counts") -- An emo prom theme that's like "Wonderful Tonight" for the Facebook set. The one-hit wonder of the year.
You can reach Adam Graham at (313) 222-2284 or agraham@detnews.com.
Source: MUSICAL REWIND: Consumers found many ways to listen to their favorite tunes in 2007
MUSICAL REWIND: Consumers found many ways to listen to their favorite tunes in 2007
Wednesday, December 26, 2007
In music, 2007 was the year of the future This was the year the old way of doing things just felt old. Groundbreaking moves by Radiohead and Madonna foreshadowed the future of the music industry, and artists continued to self-promote using MySpace and YouTube.
Meanwhile, consumers continued to turn away from traditional music industry channels. Album sales were anemic, with no album crossing the 3-million sales mark, a feat 18 discs managed in 2000.
However, as the industry scrambles to find ways to save itself, fans are the ones emerging as the winners, and are arguably consuming more music than ever in more ways than ever before.
So while we keep one eye fixed on exciting the road ahead, here's a look back at the year that was the year in music.
Artist of the year: Lil' Wayne. He didn't officially release an album in 2007, but he didn't have to. Wayne kept a steady stream of engrossing mixtape product -- check out the hazy, drugged-out "I Feel Like Dying" or anything from the jackin'-for-beats "Da Drought 3" -- and guest verses (Kanye, Jay-Z, Swizz Beatz) flowing throughout the year, ensuring he was everywhere without playing by the old rules. Wayne represents the new model of the record industry, where artists, not corporations, are in control and songs can be released on-demand, 24/7. It helps, of course, that he consistently lives up to his self-appointed title of Best Rapper Alive.
Story of the year: The death of the major labels. Album sales continued to erode while heavy hitters like Radiohead and Madonna re-wrote the industry rule book. Radiohead empowered its fans by letting them name their own price for their new album "In Rainbows," while Madonna signed a lucrative deal to leave Warner Bros. for Live Nation, rolling her touring, merch sales and recording contracts into one hefty $120 million payday. Major labels may want to start looking for work in more steady industries -- like real estate or automobiles, which in comparison are booming growth areas.
Live act of the year: Daft Punk. The French robots toured the world on a giant LCD pyramid and left oceans of jaws agape in their wake. Suddenly, groups of guys standing around on stage playing instruments seemed so last century.
Trend of the year: Reunions. 2007 was the year that myriad groups -- Rage Against the Machine, Genesis, the Police, Van Halen, the Smashing Pumpkins, the Spice Girls, Led Zeppelin, et al -- decided to bury the hatchet and get the band back together. Expect more bands to get back together in the years to come -- if there are any left who didn't already reunite this year, that is.
Reunion of the year: Van Halen. On a Saturday night in October, it was 1983 all over again as Van Halen -- with a surprisingly limber David Lee Roth back in the driver's seat -- had a sold-out crowd at Joe Louis Arena dancing the night away.
Chorus of the year: From Miranda Lambert's "Gunpowder & Lead": "I'm goin' home gonna load my shotgun, wait by the door and light a cigarette/ he wants a fight, well now he's got one, and he ain't seen me crazy yet/ slapped my face and he shook me like a rag doll, don't that sound like a real man?/ I'm gonna show him what little girls are made of: Gunpowder & lead." Gangsta rap is rarely this cold-blooded, let alone country music from a "Nashville Star" runner-up.
Worst lyrics of the year: From Fergie's "Big Girls Don't Cry (Personal)": "I'm gonna miss you like a child misses his blanket." In comparison, it makes "My Humps" look deep.
Overexposure of the year: T-Pain. A one-trick-pony who multiplied that trick ad nauseam, T-Pain's vocoder-style vocals made us long for the days of Roger Troutman.
YouTube video of the year: Led Zeppelin performing "Kashmir" at its December reunion concert. Heart-racing, even after a dozen viewings. Runner-up: (Tie) Soulja Boy's instructional "Crank That" clip and Brit opera sensation Paul Potts singing "Nessun Dorma" on "Britain's Got Talent."
"High School Musical 2" song of the year: (Tie) "You are the Music in Me" and "Fabulous." The show-stopping ballad and Sharpay's own version of Fergie's "Glamorous" were both highlights of the smash Disney Channel sequel.
Hot mess of the year: Amy Winehouse. The female Pete Doherty squandered almost all of her buzz by no-showing countless appearances and racking up more arrests than hit singles. It's about time she says "yes-yes-yes" to rehab. Runner-up: Akon, who in April was caught on tape violently freak-dancing with a 15-year-old girl, resulting in Verizon pulling its sponsorship from his tour, and who in June decided to body slam a fan at a radio-sponsored concert. He atoned for his sins by releasing a semi-sincere single, "Sorry, Blame It On Me."
"American Idol" of the Year: Chris Daughtry. The bald-headed rocker's album was one of the year's best sellers, outselling Taylor Whatshisname's album by more than four-to-one.
Music-related film of the year: "Once." No film this year better captured the human spirit or the process of creation.
Soundtrack of the year: "There Will Be Blood." Radiohead's Jonny Greenwood coughs up terrifying, Hitchcock-worthy strings for Paul Thomas Anderson's turn-of-the-century oil epic.
Non-shocker of the year: System of a Down lead singer Serj Tankian's solo debut "Elect the Dead" sounds exactly like a System of a Down record.
Ego of the year. The-Dream. The "Umbrella" songwriter tops Kanye in this category simply by naming himself "The-Dream."
Guest rapper of the year: OutKast's Andre 3000, who emerged from his post "Idlewild" funk to class up UGK's "Int'l Player's Anthem" and the remix of Rich Boy's "Throw Some D's." Runner-up: Lil' Wayne, for making even Nicole Scherzinger sound good during his performance at MTV's Video Music Awards.
Most ridiculous song of the year: (Tie) R. Kelly, "Sex Planet"; R. Kelly, "The Zoo." In one, he makes a reference to Uranus only an 8 year old could love; in the other, he rhymes "rainforest" with "sexasaurus." Any chance these recordings are admissible in court?
"Huh?" of the year: The tear-your-hair-out craze over Hannah Montana tickets. Runner-up: Live Earth, the environmental awareness concerts that somehow rationalized the pollution caused by countless miles of intercontinental travel by building sets made of recycled tires.
"Try again next year" of the year: Lead Pussycat Doll Nicole Scherzinger, who saw her debut album miss numerous release dates before being unceremoniously shuffled off onto next year's schedule.
Blink and you missed it of the year: Will.i.am's "Songs About Girls," which disappeared from the charts faster than you can say "Fergalicious."
Rip-off of the year: In order to hear the uncensored version of Avril Lavigne's "Girlfriend" -- where Lavigne coins herself the "mother(bleeping) princess" -- fans had to either buy the deluxe version of "The Best Damn Thing," or download the single off iTunes. Fans who bought the regular album were left out in the cold.
Best reason to look forward to 2008: Guns N' Roses' "Chinese Democracy." It has to come out, right? Right??
Top 10 albums of 2007
1. Kanye West, "Graduation" -- Kanye's dissertation is the year's most triumphant album, full of stadium shakers made up of equal parts egotism and self-doubt. Stand up and cheer -- you already know Kanye is.
2. Against Me!, "New Wave" -- Producer Butch Vig rounds off the sharper edges of these Florida punks, and the result is a shimmeringly gritty reminder that "punk rock" and "punk-pop" are worlds apart.
3. Lily Allen, "Alright, Still" -- The Brit chanteuse and MySpace sweetheart is as clever as a whipper-snapper and doesn't need you to remind her of such. This is the kind of brainy pop that could have only come from overseas.
4. Bruce Springsteen, "Magic" -- Springsteen isn't going to sugarcoat things: Everything is not OK, and he's not afraid to tell you so. But something about the way he does it makes you feel like everything's going to be alright.
5. LCD Soundsystem, "Sound of Silver" -- Dance music for people who don't dance, LCD Soundsystem is nouveau disco for people too young to remember the real thing, or too hip to care.
6. Avril Lavigne, "The Best Damn Thing" -- Instead of going all introverted on her third album, Lavigne projected outward on this effervescent blast of hyper cheerleader pop. Hey, hey, you, you!
7. The White Stripes, "Icky Thump" -- The ex-Detroiters are so consistently thrilling they run the risk of being taken for granted. Take notice: "Icky Thump" is their most consistent, rewarding effort to date.
8. Jarvis Cocker, "Jarvis" -- Britpop holdover Jarvis Cocker reveals he doesn't need his Pulp band mates to craft wry, witty pop songs. Best lyric: "It all starts tonight, tonight's the night I guess/ So let's go take some drugs, and let's go have some sex."
9. Arcade Fire, "Neon Bible" -- The Canadian collective explores issues of hope and fear, life and loss and comes up with no easy answers. Challenging and haunting, but as utterly full of life as an E Street shuffle.
10. Britney Spears, "Blackout" -- The year's most miraculous album, by sheer existence alone. That it's a highly danceable, super-sexified, trashy state-of-the-art romp is merely icing on the messy cake.
Top 10 singles of 2007
1. Rihanna featuring Jay-Z, "Umbrella" (from "Good Girl Gone Bad") -- Rihanna (anna, anna, ay, ay, ay) makes robotic sound dead sexy on this paean to devotion when the going gets rough. The anthem of the year, hands down.
2. LCD Soundsystem, "All My Friends" (from "Sound of Silver") -- A melancholy lament for aging hipsters that plays like an instant nostalgia piece for Gen Xers. News flash: 30 is not the new 20, it's the same old 30. Deal with it.
3. Against Me!, "Thrash Unreal" (from "New Wave") -- The most ecstatically melodic yet thoroughly punk rock ode to a heroin junkie, I don't know, ever?
4. UGK featuring OutKast, "Int'l Player's Anthem" (from "Underground Kingz") -- A jubilant southern rap celebration that served as a fitting eulogy for Houston's Pimp C.
5. Mark Ronson featuring Lily Allen, "Oh My God" (from "Version") -- This infectious, horn-spiked Kaiser Chiefs cover occupies a spot that could have gone to any number of Allen's works (see: "Smile," "LDN"or her collaboration with Common, "Drivin' Me Wild").
6. Avril Lavigne, "I Can Do Better" (from "The Best Damn Thing") -- Third grade-level poetry -- "I hate you now/ so go away from me" -- has rarely sounded so exhilarating or so alive.
7. Rich Boy, "Throw Some D's" (from "Rich Boy") -- Gross consumerism gets a celestial makeover courtesy of Polow Da Don's heaven-sent beat.
8. M.I.A., "Paper Planes" (from "Kala") -- One of the most euphoric singles of the year features a chorus made up of gun shots and emptying cash registers. Go figure.
9. Arcade Fire, "Intervention" (from "Neon Bible") -- Both moving and deeply unsettling, "Intervention" is full of darkness and light, faith and skepticism.
10. Plain White T's, "Hey There Delilah" (from "Every Second Counts") -- An emo prom theme that's like "Wonderful Tonight" for the Facebook set. The one-hit wonder of the year.
You can reach Adam Graham at (313) 222-2284 or agraham@detnews.com.
Source: MUSICAL REWIND: Consumers found many ways to listen to their favorite tunes in 2007
