2008 > The Year in Music

[Double Down]

I'm putting together a list of my favorite music from 2008 and I was interested in hearing what everyone else really enjoyed this past year.

This excellent mashup of the top 25 hits of 2008 may help remind you of some of the hits (although I doubt any of the songs in it will make my list):

 

[The Chairman]

Completely dreadful year for pop music. Between Lil' Wayne, The Jonas Brothers, Rihanna and Beyonce and that awful as **** "Single Ladies", this year was one of the worst in recent memory. Katy Perry and Taylor Swift's albums were the high points for me.

 

[Mee]

It was the same as any other year. I don't care for 90% of mainstream music.


Favorite album of this year was The Raconteurs' Consolers of the Lonely.

 

[Mee]

Completely dreadful year for pop music. Between Lil' Wayne, The Jonas Brothers, Rihanna and Beyonce and that awful as **** "Single Ladies", this year was one of the worst in recent memory. Katy Perry and Taylor Swift's albums were the high points for me.

Dude.

 

[Double Down]

Completely dreadful year for pop music. Between Lil' Wayne, The Jonas Brothers, Rihanna and Beyonce and that awful as **** "Single Ladies", this year was one of the worst in recent memory. Katy Perry and Taylor Swift's albums were the high points for me.

I agree that the stuff on the charts was bad, but there was a lot of stuff of the charts that was well worth listening to.

 

[The Chairman]

Dude.

Katy Perry is actually really good. You obviously judge her by the only two songs you've heard from her.

 

[Gamma Ray]

2008 - The year "Guns n Roses" finally released Chinese Democracy... And nobody cared.

 

[Double Down]

2008 - The year "Guns n Roses" finally released Chinese Democracy... And nobody cared.

At least some people got a free Dr. Pepper out of it. Other than that, yeah, who cares about that CD?

 

[DDS]

Metallica's "Death Magnetic" album was the only thing I cared about.

 

[Poetic Chaos]

Strong year for hip-hop. Paper Trail by T.I. was my favorite album of the year followed by One of the Boys by Katy Perry.

 

[AxlsAppetite]

Rap and hip-hop sucked donkey d*** this year AND last, I honestly can't see why people listen to it. Every new song by T.I. sounds almost exactly the same to me as his previous songs.

I was a big fan of Three 6 Mafia, back in there Horrorcore days and I loved The Most Known Unknown, but their new CD sounded like crap.

 

[terry78]

I got three words for you.

Metro. Station. Shake. It.

 

[Poetic Chaos]

Never look to the singles for a real read on an artist.

 

[Double Down]

Rap and hip-hop sucked donkey d*** this year AND last, I honestly can't see why people listen to it. Every new song by T.I. sounds almost exactly the same to me as his previous songs.

I was a big fan of Three 6 Mafia, back in there Horrorcore days and I loved The Most Known Unknown, but their new CD sounded like crap.

I don't really listen to too much rap anymore, but what you are saying about rap is what people have been saying for year and years. People always think the new stuff isn't as good as the older stuff. That's just how it is with rap.

 

[DDS]

I'd say "Handlebars" was BY FAR the best rap (though it was a mix of other genres too) single this year.

 

[Arc-Light]

Dude.

double dude*10

 

[Dodger]

Katy Perry is actually really good. You obviously judge her by the only two songs you've heard from her.

I think your obviously distracted by her huge boobs. Like me.

Katy Perry rocks. I don't know what she is singing about I just know I love her videos. :heart:

 

[Manic]

The highest point for hip-hop this year was the fact that Q-Tip finally released another album. And much like Chinese Democracy, nobody cared.

R&B didn't do any better. Between Rihanna flooding the airwaves and Ne-Yo writing songs for everybody, the only things I walked away enjoying were Robin Thicke and John Legend (who even I'll admit can't sing that damn well).

This was also the year that Britney Spears managed to squeeze out another hit song, which is never good news where taste is concerned.

You know, I like Timbaland. I like Justin Timberlake. What I don't like is the fact that they've been joined at the hip all year.

Estelle crossed over to the US this year. Good for her. Maybe next year she'll learn how to sing. Or rap. Anything, really.

Speaking of British crossovers, we were also treated to Adele (who'll have to explain the concept of "chasing pavements" to me one day) and Duffy (...okay, fine. I liked "Mercy").

New Kids on the Block came back for the first time since 1994. I... kinda don't care, actually.

Erykah Badu released her concept album New Amerykah Part One, which I actually enjoyed thoroughly. There was even a nice tribute to deceased rapper J Dilla toward the end.

Jason Mraz came out with the catchiest song ever recorded, "I'm Yours." Seriously, it was catchy as hell.

Kardinal Offishall (who needs a spelling dictionary) joined Shaggy this year, in the ranks of semi-Jamaican rappers using fake accents.

Coldplay did manage to released the only song I've heard from them that didn't annoy me or bore me to tears, but it was soon revealed that the music in said song was lifted from... well, a lot of places.

Lil Wayne... ugh. Just-- no.

A honorable mention goes to TI for not only compelling me to search for the old "Numa Numa" video on Youtube again, but for inspiring Weird Al's new "Whatever You Like" parody.

 

[Double Down]

^ Nice breakdown.

 

[Sawyer]

This year is pretty note-worthy just for the fact that someone with at least a portion of actual talent won American Idol. I hate about 95% of the contestants in AI's history, but this David Cook actually looks promising.

Other decent artists this year...
One Republic
Katy Perry
Coldplay
Keane
Leona Lewis
Snow Patrol
AC/DC
Ray LaMontagne
Kings of Leon
MGMT
Augustana
Shinedown
The Killers

And I ****in' hate these Disney kids (The Jonas Brothers, Miley Cyrus, blah blah blah). I hate twelve year olds for making them so damn popular.

 

[Double Down]

As best as I can remember, these are my favorite 12 CDs from 2008:

We Are Scientists / Brain Thrust Mastery
Kaiser Chiefs / Off With Their Heads
Tokyo Police Club / Elephant Shell
The Dandy Warhols / Earth to the Dandy Warhols
Boy Kill Boy / Stars and the Sea
The Streets / Everything is Borrowed
Hot Chip / Made in the Dark
Bloc Party / Intimacy
Chester French / She Loves Everybody
The Kooks / Konk
Young Knives / Superabundance
The Black Keys / Attack & Release

 

[Manic]

I gotta say, I don't "get" all the hate people have for acts like the Jonas Brothers and Hannah Montana. People complain about it like it's everywhere, but I've managed to avoid those acts almost entirely.

 

[Sawyer]

I gotta say, I don't "get" all the hate people have for acts like the Jonas Brothers and Hannah Montana. People complain about it like it's everywhere, but I've managed to avoid those acts almost entirely.

Then you should consider yourself lucky.

 

[Tigerking]

Mainstream hip hop/rap sucked, though Cube's Raw Footage was pretty darn good. Kanye completly dissappointed me, and Eminem's and Dre's albums pushed back for next year makes me hop that 2009 will be a LOT better.

 

[Manic]

Then you should consider yourself lucky.

How lucky could I possibly be, though? I watch Fuse, MTV2, and VH1 in the middle of the night (when they actually play music videos), and I've yet to run into any of their songs. When I'm in the car, I sometimes listen to a couple of local stations that'll play Britney Spears, but never play Miley Cyrus or the Jonas Brothers.

I think I've heard one Jonas Brother song twice, and one Miley Cyrus song a handful of times. It's not like when I'm watching Nocturnal State on VH1, and they play "Womanizer" every half hour.