Tagged: hitlist

Filed under: The Hit List We present the first of our guides to more than 50 new albums to be released in 2011 -- mostly for the first few months of the year -- with more to come as 2011 progresses. (Note that all dates are subject to change, and albums are released on different days in different parts of the world.) We'll be putting up [...]

Filed under: The Hit List As a forward-thinking music fan, you're likely anticipating the new artists who will be releasing music in 2011. In our guide to 20 musicians to watch out for in the new year, we present the worthiest up-and-coming acts, which we guarantee you'll be hearing a lot about not only on our pages but also through your favorite music delivery system.

Filed under: The Hit List New Year's Eve is the biggest party night of the year and it needs a soundtrack worthy of that heady moniker. Across the country this year an eclectic array of performers, from Patti Smith , Phish , and Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings in New York City to Chris Isaak and Furthur [...]

Filed under: The Hit List Once upon a time -- or, say, 1997 -- electronic music was set-up to be the new alternative. But despite the music industry hype machine, it was not to be. The music, then still intrinsically tied to the rave scene, was simply too underground, no matter how popular it got and, besides, there was no Kurt Cobain -esque icon to push it mainstream. That is, until 2010, when dance music finally took over pop as [...]

Filed under: News , The Hit List Canadian acts continued to make their mark at home and abroad in 2010, with bands like Montreal's Arcade Fire topping the album charts in the US, UK and Canada while selling out shows wherever they went. Recently, the small town of Vevey, Switzerland, even played host to an all-Canuck festival featuring indie faves like Broken Social Scene (whose latest album debuted at number two domestically) and Owen Pallett , the Arcade [...]

Filed under: Pop Culture , The Hit List Whether you blame those 1970s Meow Mix ads, the 90s-era Jingle Cats albums or 2007's Keyboard Cat viral video, the masses have clearly decided that cats and music are a match made in heaven. But this year in particular saw a sudden explosion of feline love in the indie rock world -- spinning off of various other scenester obsessions like LOLcats and Hipster Kitties -- [...]

Filed under: News , The Hit List Pop, by definition, lacks a definition -- it is that which is popular. But much like pornography, you also know it when you hear it. So regardless of whether these post-millennial pop songs dipped in from club land, indie dance parties, Top 40 radio or YouTube, they are precisely what pop sounded like in 2010. Oh, and we went with songs instead of albums because even the greatest pop LPs are still a collection of singles [...]

Filed under: News , The Hit List , Movies The sucky thing about real life is there's no score. In movies, the music that alerts us to danger, tells us when to cry, and when to go in for that first kiss. Music can make a great movie better, and even a dreadful flick bearable. Here at Spinner, we've been waiting patiently for the release of 'Tron: Legacy' since we first heard electro kings Daft Punk [...]

Filed under: The Hit List , Around the World A project 14 years in the making, an artist who gathered force at home for two decades before finally getting international exposure, eccentric sounds that sat since the '70s and were ripe for rediscovery and two icons whose visionary prowess is only enhanced by experience - these were among the most-arresting 2010 world music releases. Not that there weren't a lot of noteworthy new talents arriving this year. And anyway, in a realm where [...]

Filed under: The Hit List Some tracks on our list of the best songs of 2010 were so gorgeous they gave us goose bumps; others rocked our freaking faces off. Some left us blissed out or melancholy, while others propelled us onto the dance floor. The common thread? Each speaks to the kaleidoscopic nature of the musical landscape today, and we're embracing the beautiful chaos with [...]

Filed under: Video , The Hit List Ever since OK Go revitalized the music video with their dance of the treadmills, it's become a race to see who will become the next viral rock stars. Most of this year's most intriguing offerings (with a couple exceptions) achieved their greatness through visual innovation, whether via awesome computer-generated special effects or lo-tech trompe [...]

Filed under: The Hit List One of our favorite parts about creating this list of top albums was reflecting on how unpredictable the year was. Be it '90s alt-rockers returning to form, music legends unearthing lost classics, Swedish indie artists producing pop jewels, cartoon bands coming out behind the curtain or disgraced rappers getting to give a "toast for the douchebags," 2010 kept our eclectic and [...]

Filed under: The Hit List Strangely, the song that is most identified with AIDS had nothing to do with the disease. In 1985, Dionne Warwick & Friends covered the Rod Stewart tune as a fundraiser for AIDS research, forever changing its association. It also opened the floodgate for other songs -- written both on a personal and epidemic level -- about [...]

Filed under: The Hit List As a member of the Beatles, George Harrison was lucky to get a couple of songs on each album. Yet, despite being overshadowed by John Lennon and Paul McCartney, Harrison wrote some of the band's most endearing tunes. Once the Beatles split, Harrison's explosion of solo hits -- many written while with the Beatles -- suggested that the two-song limit [...]

Filed under: The Hit List The rock star film cameo is a time-honored tradition dating back to, well, the birth of rock 'n' roll, but sometimes those guest spots get so much hype they're not really "cameos" at all. (Remember Alanis Morissette as God in Kevin Smith's 'Dogma,' or Keith Richards as Johnny Depp's dad in the last 'Pirates of the Caribbean' movie?) Here are 20 [...]

Filed under: The Hit List A turkey isn't just a bird Americans eat on Thanksgiving. In the art world, a turkey is a flop. An embarrassment. Something that will never take flight. Musically, a turkey is more than just one the worst songs ever made in that it's often created by someone we once respected. Or perhaps it's a good song soiled by a bad version. [...]

Filed under: The Hit List By the time they achieve stardom, most artists have plenty of people to thank -- which becomes painfully obvious during those long award acceptance speeches. But relatively few actually express gratitude through their music. Their thankful songs usually praise loved ones, deities or the "little people" -- those loyal fans whom the artists hope will express their loyalty one more time [...]

Filed under: The Hit List Once upon a time, the radio disc jockey was king, a trusted voice floating across the airwaves to bring fresh sounds to eager ears. But the corporate takeover of radio reduced the once proud DJ to a meek voice introducing overplayed tracks between endless beer commercials. The emergence of online and satellite 'radio,' along with public and [...]

Filed under: The Hit List Holiday gift giving is so much easier when the recipient is a music fan. Otherwise, you just can't be sure if he or she is going to be into that Santa snow globe you picked up at the drug store with time running out. Of course, you can always buy actual music, but your significant other probably already has that Arcade [...]

Filed under: The Hit List Who would have thought AC/DC 's 'Highway to Hell' would one day be used to promote an animated film? Granted, ' Megamind ' -- the new DreamWorks flick about a conflicted alien supervillain -- will likely appeal as much to adults as to kids. Yet the use of a rock song in a trailer can't be gratuitous; it has to [...]