Solange Knowles breaks through with an R&B flavored alt rock sound.
The folks at Trouble And Bass didn’t break dub-step over here and all the major players Tiesto, Guetto, Oakenfeld, took a step back relying on remixes instead of bringing out their own stuff.
Brooklyn peaked and passed on.
The West Coast started a revival on highly melodic power pop with a glam art basis. A series of small interlocking scenes where everybody knew each other and everybody played together and finally the world began to pay attention. New York ran an “IS Downtown LA The New Brooklyn” cover and nearly derailed the entire scene before it started. Dave Longreth mentioned how his parents turned him on to the Doors and the Eagles and all that Fleetwood Mac shit” to Pitchfork. “It’s like real ethno-American Musicality”.
The Live Nation/Ticketmaster merger went through in March and by August the cost of an average tix had risen by 15% and counting.
The new British Invasion failed to invade as the Cribs generic Anglo rock failed to put a dent in the market place.
Gubba Gubba, Ryan Leslie, and Freddie Gibbs shake up R&B but not to its roots. Gucci Mane got outta jail a superstar and Lil Wayne got outta jail with disappointing sales of his No Ceiling. The leaked mix tape was better. Missy Elliot comes up with the Chinese Democracy of hip -again, a potential masterpiece marred by overproduction and too many guest stars.
Drake is the best selling artist of the year.
The Stones are the biggest tour of the year, U2 are the second biggest tour of the year, Coldplay open for the Stones and are blown off stage. Phish tour nonstop till drug abuse derails em again. Crosby, Stills, and Nash, Bonnie Raitt and Jackson Browne fail to sell out. Otherwise, everynody from Miley Cyrus to Jay-Z fail to sell out stadiums.
Confusion over MP3s, CDs, streaming and other methods of distribution leads to mass confusion and as many apps as there are bands.
After a decade of genre splinters, there begins to be a merging of various disparate musical forms into a new sound. Call it dance rock plus soul singing…
Solange knows in 2010
So looking back on 2010 and what did we learn? Not a damn thing of course though it is becoming a bitch to steal from other websites since New York Times started charging for content. 2010 was a holding pattern and a sophomore slump: Vampire Weekend, Arcade Fire, Animal Collective, Beyonce, Titus Andronicus… they’re all came back but not all of them were welcomed back.