What were the 80 most important musical recordings, artists, trends, events, and performances of 2008? What were the eight things this year that broke our hearts—or, at least, our ears? We're happy to announce 80 '08 (and Heartbreak), Idolator's year-end overview. The list is below the jump.
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Idolator spent a good chunk of time this summer discussing Pete Wentz's Friday-night music video hour FNMTV, because his attempt to bring the video back to MTV seemed like a pretty big deal at the time. A few premieres, a live performance, and a hat tip to a classic video—sounds like good television for the pop fan, or at least the sort of person who's vaguely interested in having newish songs on in the background while getting ready to start her weekend.
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3:00 PM on Wed Dec 17 2008
By Dan Gibson
721 views,
8 comments
Latest by T'Challa: FNMTV was a most admirable attempt at getting music videos (and decent music in general) back on MTV. I was able to attend the taping with No Age, and it was equally surreal/awesome to see them in the middle of more »
The rise of the artist blog as official mouthpiece in 2008 may have been in part because record labels can't afford to hire decent PR staff anymore, but hey, you take the good with the bad. And there was a lot of good to come out of artists hitting up Tumblr, MySpace, et al; these blogs were really effective at humanizing the vacuum presented by endless paparazzi shots and press releases, whether through "clarity posts," in which artists put gossips on blast, or posts explaining what life is like when bands graduate to bigger tours, or just posts about how they liked shoes. After the jump, nine examples of why more artists should make a tour stop in Blogtown. Not only is the trip entertaining, its fruits give people like me great material!
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10:00 AM on Wed Dec 10 2008
By Maura Johnston
513 views,
4 comments
Latest by bcapirigi: Who would have thought Tracey Thorn would have been so into Fleet Foxes and Vampire Weekend? Hmmm... Although I do like that the Unbending Trees replied to her in a blog comment. more »
Fall Out Boy debuted their video for "I Don't Care" today, complete with cameos by Mark Hoppus, Spencer Pratt and Cobra Starship's Gabe Saporta. Except Pete Wentz, on his blog, said that it's not the exact version of the video they made:
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Perry Farrell's takeover of Chicago's Grant Park is taking place right now, and the skies seem to have cleared in time for Radiohead to headline tonight's installment of the weekend-long fest. Sadly, I will not be making my second trip to Chicago in three weeks, so here instead are some news items of note trickling out of the Windy City.
• For the first time in its four-year stint as a single-city, multi-day festival, Lollapalooza has sold out a day; "primary market" tickets for today's bill are all gone, thanks in no small part to the presence of Thom Yorke & Co. Of course, Craigslist still provides. [Jim DeRogatis]
• Also, it's really freakin' hot—so hot that the longest lines aren't for beer, but for water. Sacrilege! [Time Out Chicago]
• Probably not helping the lines: If the temperature hits 90 degrees or higher, water will be free. [WBEZ]
No matter how cool you are, or how many hoodies you own, parenthood is a pretty big deal. Sometimes it overcomes people in such a way that they feel compelled to make absurd analogies, such as "parenthood is like making a record," a tidy nugget of wisdom for you to sew onto your next throw pillow courtesy of soon-to-be dad Pete Wentz. "You're going to mix it for 18 years," he adds, further digging his own grave.
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Another Friday, another installment of FNMTV starring our pal Pete Wentz. This week, there are mysteriously only three new videos (T.I., No Age, and Day 26) to go with two live performances (Rihanna and Maroon 5 featuring Rihanna). I wondered what effect the program had on the number of videos played on MTV, and there's good and bad news. The good (?) news: MTV is certainly devoting a larger amount of its airtime to music videos. The bad news: I hope you like Boys Like Girls.
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After a lot of buildup that stretched all the way to an Idolator reader poll, I watched Pete Wentz's effort to bring videos back to MTV, FNMTV Premieres, on DVR-delay Saturday morning. And it was... OK. Friday night's premiere didn't result in ground-breaking TV by any stretch, but it wasn't completely awful despite the musical presence of both will.i.am and the Pussycat Dolls. The biggest complaint I had, really, was that the show was full of filler; Anthony's prediction last week that the hourlong show would air seven videos in toto was actually over the night's tally by three. (A few older videos got a bit of screen time, but most of the music within was papered over by Wentz's explaining the clips and the collective "whooooo"ing of the well-manicured crowd.)
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We're excited to announce the winner of Idolator's first "What Should Pete Wentz Play On His New MTV Show That Apparently Is Going To Be Better Than The Press Release Or The Title Made It Sound?" poll. First of all, thanks to Pete for sending some traffic our way with his blog post reminding people to vote. Secondly, thanks to the eighteen people who had the good sense to vote for "Fish Heads." I thank you, America thanks you, Barnes & Barnes thank you. And now, our winner...
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