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If 2011 was the year Adele Atkins dominated sales charts and best-of lists, 2012 was decidedly more democratic. Perhaps the closest we got to that was the British-Irish quintet One Direction. The band was recently named MTV’s 2012 Artist of the Year. One Direction made their US debut in March with the No. 1 album Up All Night. Their sophomore album, Take Me Home, was the year’s third-highest debut. Eleven years after a concert in response to the September 11 terrorist attacks, the benefit concert 12-12-12 brought many of the same top musicians together to raise money for those suffering from Superstorm Sandy, including Paul McCartney, The Rolling Stones, Billy Joel, The Who, Eric Clapton and Bon Jovi. Just because Adele didn’t release a new album in 2012 doesn’t mean she was not a massive part of the pop year. Her Skyfall single for the Bond movie of the same name was a big hit and she stole the show at the Grammys in February. Her triumphant performance helped continue the momentum that has led to her second album, 21, moving past the 10 million sales mark in the US. No other artist has done that in the past decade. Like Los Del Rios’ Macarena and Lou Bega’s Mambo No. 5, this year produced a genuine worldwide novelty hit. Korean popstar Psy’s mischievously catchy Gangnam Style was an amusing diversion from the more earnest side of pop. The video went viral on YouTube, where it is now the most-viewed pop music video of all time. The American band Fun appeared to be heading down the path of one-hit wonderdom when they broke through with We Are Young. Yet they promptly confounded expectations by releasing a second single, Some Nights, which was just as brilliant.
Adam Levine parlayed his new found celebrity status as a coach on the US version of The Voice to revive the fortunes of his band Maroon 5. The single One More Night was their biggest US hit yet. Collaborations were huge this year, and David Guetta and Pitbull proved to be the front runners. David Guetta worked with everyone from Ne-Yo to Akon to Usher and Ludacris, while Pitbull scored hits for Jennifer Lopez, Shakira, Taio Cruz and Jay Sean. Katy Perry’s latest hit The One That Got Away reached No.1 on the Hot Dance Club Songs chart, making her album, Teenage Dream, the first album in history to have seven songs from the same album reach No.1 on the Billboard Hot Dance Club Songs chart. It is also only the third album in history to have six singles from the same album reach the top five. A Canadian Idol runners-up Carly Rae Jepsen churned out one of the biggest hits with the infectious pop smash Call Me Maybe while Madonna released her 12th studio album MDNA, which becomes her eighth No.1 album on the Billboard 200, debuting with 359,000 copies sold in the second week. It was also a year of re-unions. Kevin Richardson rejoined the Backstreet Boys permanently, after nearly six years of departure. Other eminent bands include Black Sabbath, Steps, Aqua, Fleetwood Mac, The Darkness, The Beach Boys and the Stone Roses. Another re-reunion came in the form of Spice Girls, who performed a medley of Wannabe and Spice up Your Life at the 2012 Summer Olympics closing ceremony, although reuniting solely for the event. Interestingly, Snoop Dogg officially changed his name to Snoop Lion and New American Idol judge Nicki Minaj continued to capture everyone’s attention with bizarre wigs, catchy tunes like Starships and Pound The Alarm. She re-released her album Pink Friday twice in the same year, seemingly with a new video clip each week. In a series of first’s, Indian artist Mika Singh becomes the first Indian artist to perform at the prestigious Melbourne Cricket Grounds and the first Indian singer to endorse an international electronics brand Miikey. The year marked the long-awaited return to the stage of R & B luminary D’Angelo. D’Angelo is among the most influential and elusive figures of the genre. His 2000 full-length Voodoo is among the most celebrated albums of the new millennium, and fans have been eagerly waiting for new music ever since. Another artist who had a big year was Frank Ocean, whose studio debut Channel Orange attracted many new fans to the genre. Pyramids captures Ocean at his best, with twirling synths and impassioned vocals giving way to an epic unravelling lying somewhere between Drake and mid-1980s Prince. On a sad note a list of wonderful musicians passed away, headlined by the legendary sitar maestro Pt Ravi Shankar, Bee Gees’ Robin Gibbs and the Beastie Boys’ Adam Yauch. Donna Summer, the Grammy-winning singer, who helped define the disco era with such hits as Hot Stuff and Bad Girls, died after reportedly battling cancer, and the multi Grammy-winning artist Whitney Houston ironically died on the eve of the musical award show that had meant so much to her over the years.
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Although his
career-defining hit Somebody That I Used To Know was released
more than 18 months ago, Gotye continued his ascent in 2012. He had
the biggest-selling single of the year in the UK, a two-month
chart-topping run in the US, where he also completed a hugely
lucrative sold-out arena tour, and was nominated for a handful of
Grammys.
