2013: A Year In Music

When you think of the musical fads from this year, one particular incident may stick out in your mind: twerking. After Miley Cyrus’ awful performance at the MTV Video Music Awards, the word has now even been put in the online Oxford Dictionary. If that isn’t enough to make you want to weep for humanity, it gets even worse…

‘Blurred Lines’ by Robin Thicke has been one of the most popular songs this year, managing to achieve number one in the charts in fourteen countries. Despite the controversy surrounding the song, Thicke has stated in an interview that it’s a feminist movement (because “I'll give you something big enough to tear your ass in two,” really empowers women…) ‘Blurred Lines’ has been banned by over twenty student unions across the UK due to fears that it promotes rape.

Original Iron Maiden drummer Clive Burr died of Multiple Sclerosis complications, founding member of Slayer Jeff Hanneman died of liver failure and Deftones bassist Chi Cheng died of a cardiac arrest after being in a coma for four years. The only good thing to come from the deaths of these legendary artists was that it brought the metal community even closer together.

However, it’s not all doom and gloom. Canadian progressive metal band Protest The Hero were able to hit back at money-stealing record companies by creating a crowd-funded album. Using website ‘IndieGoGo’, Protest The Hero were able to allow fans to donate money to create their album ‘Volition’ without needing to involve a record company. Needless to say, they reached their $125,000 goal in thirty hours and the total amount raised was almost triple this. By giving their fans exclusive perks too they were able to make them feel involved in the bands’ creative process.

Festival attendance also boomed this year: fans realised that rather than paying £50 to see a couple of bands, they could pay under £200 and see hundreds of bands across a few days. Reading Festival even managed to sell out of tickets months before the actual event. If that isn't enough to make you keep a glimmer of hope for the music industry, then internet trolls actually getting extreme metal band Dying Fetus announced for Download Festival 2014 might. Organiser Andy Copping managed to add the band to next years’ line up after a flurry of ‘why not Dying Fetus’ comments stormed social networking websites.

Who knows what state the music industry will be in next year, but one thing is for sure: the internet has the ability to both ruin and help music around the world.