Take a glance back at the last year in music, and as usual it is littered with chart-scaling successes, dismal failures, award winners and sad losses.
While 2002 turned into the year of the TV talent show warbler, 2003 witnessed two stars scale the ladder of global superstardom.
In the laydeez' corner is Beyonce Knowles, who became a solo phenomenon thanks to a whole lot of rump-shaking.
The all-conquering man is Justin Timberlake, who collected a fistful of MTV awards - and caused a ripple by dirty dancing with Kylie Minogue at the Brits.
He was denied a solo UK chart-topper, but shared the spoils of the Black Eyed Peas' best-selling single by providing backing vocals to Where Is The Love?
While their stars went stratospheric, other colossal musical forces saw their fortunes falter.
Madonna, 20 years at the top of her game, released American Life to fans' delight and mixed critical reaction.
But her collaboration with Britney Spears - sealed with a Sapphist clinch - seemed a less canny move, and their single faltered at 38 in the US charts.
Lesbianism briefly became an integral part of pop music earlier in the year, courtesy of Mother Russia.
School uniform-clad teen duo Tatu created a stir with their self-styled mutual love - and scored a number one smash.
The pair represented their country at the Eurovision Song Contest, behaved impeccably on the night and came a creditable third behind Turkey.
Le Royaume Uni's fortunes made far more of a splash, as hapless pair Jemini finished at the bottom of the heap without a single point.
Eurovision flops Jemini explain their dismal showing in Riga
But it wasn't all red faces for British music - new offerings from Coldplay, Blur and Radiohead picked up plenty of points from fans far and wide.
Homegrown songstress Dido returned to the fray, repeating the formula of her debut and turning in the swiftest-selling album of the year.
It was the unheralded Suffolk town of Lowestoft that provided the year's most unusual musical success story.
Spandex catsuits, ear-piercing falsettos and the retro flavour of rock seemed an improbable hit recipe in 2003 - but The Darkness made their mark.
Rock with a touch of goth topped the charts courtesy of Arkansas's Evanescence, who became the darlings of black-clad teens across the land.
Kylie Minogue's star continued to shine in the UK, although she caused a few ripples in November when the star famous for her skimpy costumes said she was "horrified" by the amount of sex portrayed in the music industry.
On the bling scene, hard-bitten rapper 50 Cent emerged as a major star (as predicted by BBC News Online in our Sound 0f 2003 poll) and cleaned up at the Mobo Awards, while Jamaican Dancehall seeped into the mainstream thanks to Sean Paul.
On the music scene, there was tATu, the lesbian girl team from Russia. They proved that mediocre music can be kicked up a notch with hugging, kissing, and other antics.
Download This - You kept the pop world cool in 2003 with just a few mouse clicks—good on ya. - by Jeff Inman
Whether you knew it or not, the biggest person in the music business this year was you. You rocked. You were it. You were the man, the one that everybody wanted and the Recording Industry Association of America hated.
You were like some mad business guru, with the weight and success of multinational corporations resting on your back—no golden parachute required. You held the key to thousands of jobs. You kept an industry afloat while launching a new way of thinking. You dominated everyone like a pissed-off, latex-clad chick named Helga.
You even made a few dreams come true. You transformed a group of scruffy Australian kids into airbrushed post-garage gods (Jet), gave a fat gay Danish guy a chance to play George Michael (Junior Senior), scrawny British dudes a reason to prance in cat suits (The Darkness), even welcomed a goth chick into rock’s boys-only sandbox (Evanescence). You watched Beyonce flaunt her ass solo—as long as Jay-Z said it was cool—and got hot as two Russian teens pretended to be lesbians (Tatu).
You were omnipresent this year, picking trends before they were mainstreamed, calling out liars named Fred and giving props to lovelorn rappers who take Polaroids. You were amazing, even if your compilations were a bit weak.
The music that was in 2003 - Dave Hilson / Daily Yomiuri Staff Writer
Every "year in music" has something special about it, and this year is no exception. There was the kiss seen around the word. Rock continued to make a comeback. Female musicians thrived. And a few bands solidified their spots at the top. Unfortunately, what 2003 might best be remembered for is all the litigation.
With record sales continuing to slump, largely due to the increasing use of the Internet to illegally download songs, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) decided in September to take 261 individuals to court--some of them just kids. Evidently, the RIAA thought drastic steps had to be taken to stop the bleeding, and no matter how young these "criminals" were they had to be brought to justice. We're still waiting to see how it all turns out.
But record companies weren't the only ones to sue in 2003. On at least two occasions, dissatisfied concertgoers sued bands, taking Creed and Limp Bizkit to court for failing to live up to expectations.
Four Chicago-area fans filed a lawsuit in April on behalf of about 15,000 people who attended a Creed concert at the end of 2002. Apparently, frontman Scott Stapp couldn't sing the complete lyrics to any song because of intoxication. The four asked for their money back, plus the price of parking. A judge eventually threw the case out.
Another case, still pending, involves Limp Bizkit's rifle-toting frontman Fred Durst. The group's July 26 show in Chicago (must be something in the water) only lasted 17 minutes, with Durst waving the gun around before hurling abuse at concertgoers as he left the stage. Fans are asking for their cash back, plus court costs. (They should also ask to be compensated for the pain and suffering that goes along with attending any Limp Bizkit show.)
Speaking of pain and suffering, it was rather painful to watch Madonna and Britney Spears' contrived kiss at the MTV Music Video Awards. Not only because someone actually thought it would be titillating but because Madonna has aligned herself with a lesser talent like Spears. It seems that Spears has decided to make the move from pop princess to pop queen and has enlisted the help of Madonna to make it happen. She has also admitted to doing drugs and, heaven help us, premarital sex!
But perhaps most painful of all was seeing Michael Jackson slide further and further into freakdom by appearing in a television interview in February to clear his good name. Sad thing is, all he did was make us believe he really is crazy. He has since been charged with child molestation.
However, all was not gloomy. U.S. duo the White Stripes released one of the best albums of the year, the blues-fueled Elephant, and then toured it worldwide. They put on a stellar performance at Shibuya AX in Tokyo in October and proved they are one of the best live acts around. Music magazines Q and Spin both named Elephant as top album of the year.
Another band to solidify their spot as a top live act was English quartet Coldplay, who constantly toured on the back of 2002's A Rush of Blood to the Head (9 million in sales worldwide). They put on an uplifting set at Fuji Rock this July, and got a message across while doing it. Frontman Chris Martin, who has made himself the champion of the underdog, had "Fair Trade" written prominently on the side of his piano. Both NME and Spin named Coldplay band of the year.
Cutting-edge British band Radiohead also had a new album out, Hail to the Thief, and their appearance at Summer Sonic this August helped give that festival its best attendance ever.
It was a pretty good year for women, too, which can be seen by taking a look at the best-seller lists at HMV and Tower Records here in Japan. Six female artists were among the international Top 10, including Beyonce, Stacie Orrico, and female-led rockers Evanescence. Russian teenage girl pop duo t.A.T.u took top honors on both charts.
On a sad note, the music world lost Warren Zevon and Johnny Cash, both of whom wrote the equivalent of their own eulogies before dying. Cash did it in the form of a video, the heart-wrenching Hurt, which showed a much-debilitated Cash and juxtaposed him with clips from his 50-year career. He died Sept. 12, aged 71. The introspective Zevon, who was diagnosed with a rare form of lung cancer, released Wind, which includes appearances by the likes of Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen and Tom Petty. He died on Sept. 7, aged 56, soon after the album was released.
If losing those two weren't bad enough, Q magazine and Rolling Stone named U.S. male pop singer Justin Timberlake artist of the year. Go figure?
But no point in getting too upset, after all, 2004 is another year.
While most of us here at ChartAttack look forward to spending some quality time with our television sets this time of year to catch old faves like Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer and National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, we’re also gearing up for the cheesiest television event of the holiday season. No, we’re not talking about December 25th's World Idol Broadcast — rather, it’s time for MuchMusic’s annual Fromage show with Ed The Sock!
Fromage 2003 will air Saturday, December 27 at 6 p.m. and 9 p.m. EST. With the advent of things like American Idol and the trend of pop tartlets’ outfits getting tinier and tinier, this year’s edition should be a doozy — although, judging from the nominees in the People’s Cheez awards, it looks like it’ll be another case of Much denouncing the very videos that they played all year in heavy rotation. Nevertheless, it’s always a fun time to see Ed The Sock wax poetic about the general crappyness of modern pop music.
This year’s show is subtitled "Why Music Sucks" and features some new categories, including Cheeziest Idol Video (it’ll be a close race between Clay Aiken’s "Invisible" and Ryan Malcolm’s "Something More") and Cheeziest Justin Timberlake video. There will also be a new feature called Cheeze Dips (videos that start off good, but turn to crap) and a tribute to the most ridiculous band of the year, TATU.
Kelly Osbourne (for her "Papa Don’t Preach" video) was the big "winner" last year, but the names of the 2003 Fromage champs will be up to you. Voting is currently activated on the Fromage website. http://www.muchmusic.com/specials/fromage2003/
The contenders for the very uncoveted Cheeziest Video Of The Year award include Britney Spears and Madonna’s "Me Against The Music," Aiken’s "Invisible," TATU’s "All The Things She Said" and Justin Timberlake’s "Senorita."
