Tuned-On! Best of 2009, Part 1 (50-26)

To me, 2009 was the year that pop music exploded online.  Sure music has been available for many years online, and iTunes legitimized online sale of music downloads near the beginning of the decade.  But never in all these years has music been so close to listeners that they can practically taste it (and maybe that’s next!).

It has recently become a reasonable business strategy to make music available for free as a promotional tool, to attract listeners and fans to various websites and of course to iTunes, Amazon, CD Baby, or their local music store to download or buy CD’s.  And is it just me, or is the world even that much closer now?  Never have I been in contact with more people around the world than just through this 40 year old hobby of mine, which I transformed from website and message board to a blog this past Fall.  I’m absolutely loving it.

Music for me in 2009 stayed on the pop-rock-dance tip, with only a handful of modern-alt.rock tunes sustaining my interest.  Literally fantastic singers are now everywhere, waiting to be heard, and I’m so glad I found some of them.  For every enjoyable favourite who returned with new music, such as Chris Isaak, Duncan Sheik, or Pet Shop Boys, there were new stars glimmering like the UK’s LaRoux, Sam Taylor, Florence & The Machine, Gary Go, and Dan Black; Ireland’s The Script; Australia’s Presets and Nelson Clemente; Sweden’s Darin, Mans Zelmerlow, and Agnes Carlsson; Canada’s Colin Munroe and Noah; and the USA’s Evan Taubenfeld, Val Emmich, Matt & Kim, and Keri Hilson.  Dig deep enough online and you’ll find free downloads for Dan Black’s “Symphonies”, Matt & Kim’s “Daylight”, Munroe’s “Will I Stay”, Clemente’s “You Want Me Don’t You (Spekr Freks mix)”, 100 Akres & Roz Bell’s “Pink Cadillac”, and Newton White’s “Breathless” that are all artist-approved.  And online remixes even made it to national radio, witness the frenetic redux of The Fray’s “You Found Me” by Lenny B – a song I didn’t like in its original version instantly became one of my favourites of the year!!

So in this blog filled with lists I will add another list of favourites that will hopefully stand the test of time in some ways.  I’ll start with the first half, from 50-26, the rest will appear tomorrow with additional thoughts about some of the songs.

You can view the full list right here.

Tuned-On! Top 300 of the 2000’s, Part 4 (150-101)

As the numbers get smaller, so the songs begin to be increasingly difficult to talk about without going into many superlatives, so I will probably save those for the Top 50 or so.   When I look at this group of 50 songs, I see mainly songs that energize me or affect me emotionally.  So for every rave up that is Madonna’s “Sorry” or George Acosta’s remix of “Just Another Day” or Nadia Ali’s “Love Story” or Ricky Martin’s “She Bangs” or Alex Gaudino & Crystal Waters’ “Destination Calabria”, there is JC Chasez’s totally underrated and hurtin’ “Until Yesterday”, Stabilo’s almost-sinister “Flawed Design”, Darren Hayes’ very dark “I Like The Way”, Mary J. Blige & The Game’s heartfelt mashup “MJB Da MVP”, the emotions-run-wild in Mika’s “We Are Golden”, Florence & The Machine’s gothic “Rabbit Heart”, and the teen love’s growing pains in David Archuleta’s “Crush”.  Don’t discount the fabulous one-off’s that are “Jerk It Out” by The Caesars or “Summer Jam” by The Underdog Project either!

This will be my last update of this list until after December 29.  I’ll be away after Christmas for a few days but may blog about this and that if I have time.  Merry Christmas to all who celebrate it!

You can find the updated list right here – don’t forget to leave your comments!

Tuned-On! Top 300 of the 2000’s, Part 3 (200-151)

Let’s see – a few amazing dance anthems/comebacks (“It’s All True”, “Stamp Your Feet”, “Night Of My Life”), a solo debut (“Like I Love You”), two songs that re-entered my chart (“Last Train Home”, “You Want Me Don’t You” – the latter as a remix), doubles from Rufus Wainwright, Coldplay, Kanye West, and Marianas Trench, plus wondrous stuff from Tyler Hilton, iio, Darin, Blue Man Group, Mans Zelmerlow, Gary Go, Jamiroquai, Josh Kelley, and more!

You can find the updated list right here – don’t forget to leave your comments!

Tuned-On! Top 300 of the 2000’s, Part 2 (250-201)

From big worldwide hits (“Yeah”, “Naughty Girl”, “Can’t Get You Out of My Head”) to more localized hits (“That Girl”, “The Way (Put Your Hand In My Hand)”, “Alone In The Universe”), to club smashes (“Planets of the Universe”, “My My My”) to rock tracks (“Sometimes”, “Load Me Up”) to first timers (“There You Go”), to CD only tracks (“I’ll Do Anything”, “Hot Mess”) – you’ll likely find something you like a lot on this list.

You can find the updated list right here – don’t forget to leave your comments! 🙂

Mix Pod Playlist

I discovered My Space has a new playlist compiler called Mix Pod, so I thought I’d give it a shot today.  The playlist has 20 songs that are current (mainly on my chart, and the usual suspects) or recent within the last few years.  Click on “Get Tracks” below, which will take you to the playlist page where you can hear the songs!  The tags below this post will tell you who’s on the playlist 🙂

MusicPlaylist
Music Playlist at MixPod.com

Tuned-On! Top 300 of the 2000’s, Part I (300-251)

Yes it’s that time once in every ten years when I get to recap the list of my favourite songs of the decade.  Of course this list is likely to change even as early as next year, but it’s a snapshot of all that I thought was worthwhile in the decade.  In some ways it corresponds to my bi-weekly chart, but there have been some past favourites that I no longer play or hear as much as in the past, and those songs are not on this list.  This list is not exclusive to singles or songs on the radio…  there are many album tracks.

I will eventually post the full list in the sidebar to the right, but for now you’ll have to watch the blog each day this week for the first 200 songs.  The Top 100 will be revealed sometime during the week of December 28.

You can view the first 50 songs right here and of course by the tags you can see some of the artists who are on the list.

Enjoy, and post some comments about your favourite songs on the list!!

The UK Singles Chart: Randomness Returns to a Stagnant Music Industry

It’s really, really hard for me to believe that it’s happening.  But thanks to an online drive to send “Killing In The Name” by Rage Against The Machine (1992) to the top of the UK Singles chart to prevent X-Factor winner Joe McElderry’s cover of “The Climb” from being the Christmas UK #1, the online world has truly spoken to the music industry.  Everyone who read about this with interest, not to mention anyone who bought the Rage Against the Machine song, has got to feel victorious.  Hello, unpredictability and randomness, and welcome back!  I think we’ll see a few of these online campaigns, and they may continue to work.

Music Industry:  Are you listening?  What is your response?  My final question comes courtesy of a Diana Ross song:  Do You Know Where You’re Going To?

“Delusional” by Simon Curtis is #1 on the Tuned-On! Top 30 #316 – Dec 21/09

I’m so impressed with Simon Curtis’ “Delusional” that it arrives at the top from outside of the Top 10, the first time this has happened in two years. Darren Hayes’ “How To Build A Time Machine” debuted at #1 in December 2007, but prior to that the last time a song reached #1 from outside of the Top 10 was again with Darren Hayes’ “Step Into The Light”, which shot from 12-1 in June 2007. Those are great footsteps in which to follow for sure. I’m looking forward to Simon’s “pop mixtape” 8Bit Heart in the new year!  Simon’s gradually rolling out songs from 8Bit through his Twitter fan base – apparently the next one is called “Fell In Love With an Android” (yup Simon’s a sci-fi fan).

Simon’s #1 leaves Mika’s “Blame It On The Girls” stranded at #2 and Dan Black’s “Pump My Pumps” at #3. Jay-Z & Alicia Keys’ “Empire State of Mind” charges into the Top 5 with Lady GaGa’s “Bad Romance” itching to follow in two weeks, right behind at #6.  Canadian east coast singer Mitchell Hunter’s wistful pop candy “Someone Else’s” lands at #10.

The fastest riser on the chart though belongs to US-Sweden dance meisters Miike Snow with “Black & Blue” soaring 27-14. Pet Shop Boys also make a decent move with the increasingly catchy “Viva La Vida/Domino Dancing” at #18.  PSB are particularly great at taking songs that you wouldn’t expect them to cover and making them their own.

The pickings this week for debuts on the chart were mighty slim, though it’s nice to see one of these songs being remixed for radio, and that’s Joshua Radin’s delicate “I’d Rather Be With You” (see video below).

The Year End Top 50 is in the works as is my Top 300 of the 2000’s – it will be a busy two weeks. Happy holidays!

View the complete chart right here or use the link under **BILL’S PERSONAL CHART** to the right!

Today’s iTouch Shuffle Mix

Here’s what my iTouch shuffled for me today on my way home from work:

Pet Shop Boys “So Hard”

Breit Brothers “Feel My Body Shakin'”

David Usher “We Are Wolves Here (Electric City)”

Bob Seger “Hollywood Nights”

Demi Lovato “Here We Go Again”

Hugh Masekela “Don’t Go Lose It Baby”

Level 42 “Starchild”

Cyndi Lauper “She Bop”

Run-DMC vs. Jason Nevins “It’s Like That” (video below)

Justin Nozuka at The Mod Club in Toronto, Friday December 11/09

A year after concert dates that did not coincide with my schedule, or missing his show by accident after scheduling the wrong time, I finally caught up with our own Justin Nozuka’s set at The Mod Club in Toronto on Friday December 11/09.  The wait was well worth it, as Justin touched the audience with his deep, deep down-in-the-soul bluesy rock that seems to have a beautiful, mystical quality to it.  We got to hear some of those great songs from his CD Holly – among them, “Criminal”, “Save Him”, “Don’t Listen To A Word You’ve Heard” (with music, not spoken as on the CD), and a communal band/audience effort at my favourite “After Tonight”.   His brothers Henry and Christian Bridges also collaborated with him in an acoustic jam of sorts on a new song.  But the focus of this show was to give the audience a taste of his upcoming sophomore CD Gray.  The bluesy rock is still there but on some songs R&B/Soul seems to be more prominent, along with the intense emotion that sounded so original on Holly.  Justin’s the real deal, and at only 21 he can have as long a career as his bluesy soul is old and deep.  Catch his show before  you can say International Breakout 2010.  Below is a highlight from his Toronto set called “I’m Free”.