A year in music

• 27th Dec 2006

For me this year has been full of surprises and discovery in the music world. Since I was about ten years old, I have been fascinated by the media industry, in particular music.

Firstly the new ‘The Strokes’ album was released in early January. Having watched and listened to the evolution of the band from when they were first formed in 1999, to the present, I bought this album as soon as I could an loved it. You could tell it was by ‘The Strokes’ as soon as the first track started. Julian Casablanca’s lyrics and the guitar playing by Nick Valensi and Albert Hammond Jr. made this release one of the highlights of my year.
Then in late January came the release of ‘The Kooks’ debut album ‘Inside In/Inside Out’. Having heard the demo tracks, I thought they were pretty good, but had no idea they were destined for a big success. That day also gave us ‘Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not’. January was a high point of 2006.
In February there were two large awards ceremonies. Firstly was the 48th annual Grammy Awards, in which Madonna opened the evening for the 3rd time and U2 received 5 awards. Then came the 4th annual TRL awards with Madonna winning the ‘Lifetime Achievement Award’, which is good for her, because she is now forty-something and still going strong!
‘The Rolling Stones’ played a free concert in front of 3 million people in Brazil, which is pretty amazing because Mick Jagger and the guys are getting on in life!
And a few days later, the one-billionth song was downloaded from iTunes.
In March Three 6 Mafia made history as they became the first African-American hip-hop group to win an Academy Award for Best Song and also became the first hip-hop artists to ever perform at the ceremony. Good for them!
James Blunt also became the first British person to top the US billboard charts since 1997, which is pretty amazing because he has only recently surfaced as an artist.
Not much happened in April that I can recall apart from that Alice Cooper was rumoured to be recording material for a new album, which would be his 27th album. Only knowing ‘School’s out for the Summer’ by him I don’t really know a huge amount about him, but I love that track so I will include it!
May gave us the ‘Red Hot Chili Peppers’ new album, ‘Stadium Arcadium’, which was a bit of a let down after ‘By The Way’. I can’t recall much else!
In June, 'Keane' release their second studio album Under the Iron Sea, which sold in its first week 75,702 copies. I think this album follow on really well from their debut, although they have contaminated their piano and drums with a lot of sound effects.
Also, Shakira’s single ‘Hips don’t Lie’ sells over 250,000 downloads and had the highest amount of airplay in a single week with 9,657 plays!
During July, for you opera fans, Luciano Pavarotti is diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. And a few days later, Syd Barret, who formed ‘Pink Floyd’, died of complications from diabetes.
At the end of July, the last weekly show of Top of the Pops is shown on TV.
August 1st commemorated the 25th anniversary of MTV’s original launch. ‘Christina Aguilera’ releases her 3rd album, ‘Back to Basics’, and Kelis releases her 4th studio album, ‘Kelis Was Here’.
In September ‘Beyonce’ released her 2nd album ‘B’day’ and the Mercury music awards were held with the ‘Arctic Monkeys’ debut album ‘Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not’ winning ahead of entries from U2 and Thom Yorke.
Justin Timberlake released his long awaited second album, ‘FutureSex/LoveSounds’
In October, Justin Hawkins, the lead singer of ‘The Darkness’ announces he is leaving the band.
The famous New York club ‘CBGB’ closes after a long rent dispute. It then announced that it would re-open in Las Vegas.
‘The Corrs’ release their greatest hits album ‘Dreams-The Ultimate Collection’
November gave us ‘Ricky Martin’s’ MTV Unplugged album, and on the same day ‘Britney Spears’ files for divorce from Kevin Federline.
‘Snow Patrol’ became the first UK band to get to the Top 5 of the Billboard Hot 100 in 13 years.
In December ‘Beyonce’ got her 4th US Number 1 with ‘irreplacable’ and I don’t think as whole lot else has happened, well, I did write this!

I hope this summary of Music of 2006 has filled your appetite of information for the day! If you have any comment just e-mail me mail and I’ll be happy to answer any questions.

MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR