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This wasn't the most innovative year in songwriting, but scandals and unusual behavior kept it interesting
By Malcolm X Abram
Beacon Journal music writer
Published on Sunday, Dec 28, 2008
2008 was almost an extension of 2007. There were no specific musical movements and there was no ''new'' genre such as emo bubbling up from the blogosphere to boil over into the mainstream.
On the charts, Lil Wayne could sit happily next to Trace Adkins and Vampire Weekend and there seemed to be room for anyone who could make a song that caught folks' attention.
The Mouse House had another big year in music with young, squeaky- clean superstar Miley Cyrus taking her Hannah Montana guise on the road, raking in millions of dollars and causing much consternation for parents who simply can't say no to their kids and couldn't get a ticket to one of her shows.
Cyrus was also embroiled in controversy when the then-15-year-old's Vanity Fair photo shoot — featuring her with her back exposed and another with her father — sent her fans' parents into a tizzy and prompted Cyrus to apologize for being herself. Adding insult to injury, Cyrus was further exposed when private photos of her in the shower and in various states of non-Disney-sanctioned undress were hacked from an e-mail account and spread around the Internet.
But while Cyrus was overcoming ticketing and photographic problems, her fellow Disney Machine mates the Jonas Brothers were becoming a true pop phenomenon and causing blood vessels to burst in the throats of millions of 'tween girls. The trio — Kevin (the tall cute one), Joe (the really, really cute one) and Nick (the brains of the outfit and he's awful cute, too) — released its third album, A Little Bit Longer, which quickly sold platinum plus, and the brothers spent much of the summer gracing the cover of magazines.
While Cyrus' Disney halo was tarnished, the JoeBros, who all wear promise rings denoting their commitment to abstinence before marriage, were hailed for being nice young men with good family values.
During their tour stop in Northeast Ohio, the trio visited the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum, donated the outfits worn on the cover of their latest album and took a tour of the museum where they were surrounded by a swarm of nearly hyperventilating young girls, many amused parents and international press.
In 2008, the flailing music industry was still flailing, but began to figure out how to make money in the digital age.
While CD sales continued to plummet, the number of songs downloaded doubled since 2006 and 150 million more songs were sold digitally in 2008 then in 2007. All told, digital sales for 2008 are estimated to reach 1.4 billion legally downloaded songs with Leona Lewis' Bleeding Love coming out on top with more than 3.3 million U.S. sales.
Additionally, the RIAA, which has been diligently suing song swappers since 2003 in an attempt to scare all music lovers into becoming law-abiding consumers, has been quietly dropping its lawsuits and instead is sending cease-and-desist warnings to offending users.
Video games are boost
The industry, and more importantly artists, also discovered the importance of video games as an added revenue stream and avenue of exposure. Global music-themed hit games such as Rock Band and Guitar Hero continued to be hot commodities and have become their own medium with many artists such as Metallica and the Killers premiering new music via the games to coincide with new full-length releases.
Classic rock acts are also making money with the games. Aerosmith made more money from Guitar Hero: Aerosmith than its last two albums combined, and Pat Benatar's 1980 hit Hit Me With Your Best Shot saw a 180 percent jump in downloads after it was included on Guitar Hero III.
Major comebacks
The year also brought a few more big classic rock and indie rock reunions.
Influential alternative/indie rock legends My Bloody Valentine, whose two albums are considered monoliths in the alt-rock canon, re-formed for a sold-out U.S. tour that generated more than a million dollars. Jazz fusion legends Return to Forever also mounted a successful tour as did '90s grunge stars Stone Temple Pilots and '80s teen phenoms New Kids on the Block.
Though Guns N' Roses has been sporadically active for the past decade, after a 17-year, reportedly $13 million gestation, Axl Rose finally gave birth to the band's sixth album, Chinese Democracy, which received mostly positive reviews and debuted at No. 3 on the album charts.
Election soundtrack
2008 was also the year that many musicians became politically active, stumping for U.S. Sen. Barack Obama with several concerts in key states. Jay-Z performed at Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland and the Beastie Boys brought its party-hearty, old-school rhymes to Toledo.
The word ''change'' became a hot buzz word and Obama's candidacy inspired many artists to write songs such as Will.i.am's Yes We Can, which featured Obama's celebrity stalker Scarlett Johansson, John Legend and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar among others.
In actual music, the autotune trend in pop songs came to its ridiculous conclusion.
The digital plug-in adds a metallic, computerized sound to vocals (similar to the talk box used by Zapp's Roger Troutman and guitarist Peter Frampton, which requires some actual musical talent). It was originally designed to help talent-challenged singers sound competent and was introduced to the mainstream in the '90s on Cher's Believe and later on Jennifer Lopez's Waiting for Tonight.
In 2008, R&B singer/songwriter T-Pain, who seemed to appear on every third single on the charts for much of the year, made it his signature sound. Kanye West was so taken by the effect that it dominates his most recent album, 808's and Heartbreak.
Lil Wayne is big
But 2008's hardest-working man in show business easily was rapper Lil Wayne, whose album The Carter III sold more than 1 million copies in its first week of release. While rap sales have fallen consistently in the past few years, Wayne became a bona fide pop star, receiving eight Grammy nominations (the most one artist can earn) and appearing on seemingly every other hot single of the year. Wayne also crossed the few remaining genre boundaries when he became the first rapper to appear on the Country Music Awards, performing with Kid Rock.
His single Lollipop, one of the weakest songs on the album, was also a No. 1 hit.
The mono-monikered Beyonce also returned to active duty as half of a superstar couple following her secret marriage to Jay-Z and with her split album I Am . . . Sasha Fierce, which features a disc of ballads and a disc of uptempo R&B/pop sass.
R. Kelly's decade-in-the-making child pornography case was finally resolved with the singer unsurprisingly being acquitted despite videotaped evidence of the crime. The singer followed his victory with a creepy and utterly clueless interview on BET where the 41-year-old husband and father admitted, among other things, that he still hangs out with 19-year-old girls.
American Idol runner-up Clay Aiken surprised many folks when he announced that he would be a father and a few months later surprised considerably fewer folks when he ''revealed'' that he was gay, prompting some of his fan base to abandon him.
Amy and Britney
Last year's musical trainwrecks, Amy Winehouse and Britney Spears, continued their downward spirals with Winehouse entering rehab early in the year after a video of her allegedly smoking crack was released (no charges have been brought against her). She was also publicly pilloried after a video shot by her husband, Blake Fielder-Civil, featuring her singing a racist ditty was also released.
Most recently, Winehouse's husband, whom many of her friends and family have identified as one of the biggest roots in her growing tree of woe, said he wanted to divorce the singer in order to save her life.
Winehouse found her spot as a hot European soul-influenced singer challenged by a slew of women dubbed the ''new Amy.'' They included Duffy, Lilly Allen, Leona Lewis, Estelle and Adele who all made inroads into the U.S. mainstream.
Meanwhile, Spears' year started bad with her custody battle with ex-husband Kevin Federline still on front pages and a subsequent hospitalization for psychiatric evaluation. By the fall, Spears had begun mounting a comeback with appearances on the sitcom How I Met Your Mother and a return to MTV's Video Music Awards show, the sight of her trainwreck 2007 performance, where she won the video of the year and and other honors for her song Piece of Me.
In November, she released her sixth album, Circus, which debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard charts and was generally well received. It won Billboard's Reader's Choice poll for album of the year.
Tragedy and loss
As always, the world of music lost many of its own this year, but there were also some who survived tragedy.
Former Blink 182 drummer Travis Barker and DJ AM escaped death in a fiery Lear jet crash that killed four and severely burned both men.
Academy Award-winning actress/singer Jennifer Hudson had the long-awaited release of her self-titled debut album marred by the shooting deaths of her mother, brother and 7-year-old nephew.
Many other artists shuffled off this mortal coil in 2008, including former Jimi Hendrix Experience drummer Mitch Mitchell and Hendrix cohort and Band of Gypsys drummer Buddy Miles, 1960s folk/civil rights icon Odetta, Four Tops singer Levi Stubbs, rock 'n' roll pioneer Bo Diddley, jazz organist Jimmy McGriff, E Street band keyboardist Danny Federici, blind guitarist Jeff Healy, 2007 rock hall inductee Mike Smith, Pink Floyd keyboardist Richard Wright and saxophonist and founding member of the Dave Matthews Band LeRoi Moore among others.
Malcolm X Abram can be reached at mabram@thebeaconjournal.com or 330-996-3758.
2008 was almost an extension of 2007. There were no specific musical movements and there was no ''new'' genre such as emo bubbling up from the blogosphere to boil over into the mainstream.
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Comments
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LA, CA
Posted 05:16 AM, 12/28/2008
I'd like inform you that Scarlett Johansson (actress)actually is a clone from original person,who has nothing with acting career.Clone was created illegally using stolen biomaterial.Original Scarlett Galabekian last name is nice, CHRISTIAN young lady.I'll tell more,those clones(it's not only 1)made in GERMANY-world leader manufacturer of humans clones,it's in Ludwigshafen am Rhein,Rhineland-Palatinate,Mr.Helmut Kohl home town.You can't even imaging the scale of the cloning activity.But warning,H.Kohl staff strictly controlling their clones spreading around the world,they're NAZI type disciplined and mind controlled,be careful get close with clones you will be controlled too.Original family didn't authorize any activity with stolen biomaterials,no matter what form it was created in,it's all need to be back to original family control in Cedars-Sinai MedicalCenter in LA.Controlling clones is US military operation.Original Scarlett never was engaged,by the way
Akron, oh
Posted 06:15 PM, 12/28/2008
test
WADSWORTH, OH
Posted 06:20 AM, 01/03/2009
COPYING REVIEWS from the internet doesnt qualify MALCOM WISH to be a music writer-bet he dont go to ACDC to write a real review either-'WHAT FO'?
