Best/Worst Musical Moments of 2011

[dwanollah]

Best/worst album? Song? Artist? Performance? Tour? Video? Anything else music-related?

[NappingAthena]

Best: Matt Nathanson's new album. Eisley's new album. Adele's existance.
Worst: Justin Beiber and his fans.

[Deleted]

Best: In general: the existence of Adele. Personally: seeing Jason Mraz live in a small-ish venue and sitting in the 11th row. SO HAPPY! Worst: that time Lady Gaga ate a handful of mashed potatoes while singing and dancing on her Thanksgiving night special.

[Deleted]

Best: I finally saw Weird Al in concert. Heaven.
Worst: Anything Justin Beiber and Lady Gaga did.

[WitchyPoo]

Best: Discovering a great teenage punk band from Denmark called Iceage that made my favorite album of 2011. Spirit, energy and noise. Love them!

Worst: Gosh. I could say Justin Bieber just because he seems to be everywhere according to the internet. I honestly don't know what he sounds like except for this 800% slowed down version of one of his songs.[/color]

[dwanollah]

Best: Duran Duran's rehearsal shows... tiny venues, all new/underplayed/b-side material, NO HITS!, and Mah Boyfriend feedin' magic offa my fingers during "Come Undone" because he loves me sooo much I know he does!

Worst: Yeah, Bieber's existence.

[americanchai]

Best: Wild Flag's self-titled debut album.
Worst: if I hear "Firework" one more time...

[carrier76]

Best: Foo Fighters! And, seeing Brian May at the VMAs.
Worst: I gotta say, the everywhere-ness of Bieber...and Katy Perry. Soooo very sick of her horsey voice.

[huntergrayson]

Actually, I'm gonna flip it.

Best: Excusing the Bieber Borg, Pop is FANTASTIC right now. NY Mag's music critic wrote a great essay about it. I wasn't a huge Katy Perry fan but then something about 'E.T.' clicked. But, yes, Firework annoys.

Also, best? Nicki Minaj's ability to transform any song from "meh" to instant ear crack with her ABSOLUTELY INSANE guest verses. Check out the (very) NSFW vid for Big Sean's "Dance (A$$)." (Oh, and my decisions to buy the superdeluxe version of 'Pink Friday' was a good one since the one superhit single was initially a bonus track.)

Worst: Sorry. Adele. I haven't been so disappointed by buying an album based on a voice and a fantastic lead single and then been bored to tears by the album as a whole. It puts me to sleep. Doubly worst? The loss of Amy, who I thought had much more interesting music to go with that voice.

Best and Worst: Love 'Born This Way' as an album as a whole, but can't believe some of the singles she chose when there are better cuts on the album.

Technically the album was back in November 2010 but it hasn't left my constant listening rotation since and falls into this year's Grammy eligibility and some singles were released in 2011. "My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy" by Kanye is, flat-out, the pop/hip-hop/rap/whatever masterpiece of the year. The album of the year snub is obscene. I still get chills no matter how many times I listen to All of the Lights (again, NSFW language) and Monster.

Also, the video for Monster is violent, disturbing, NSFW and absolutely brilliant.. And, again, check out Nicki.

Absolute Best Music Moment though? Spotify finally hitting the US and meaning that, for $10 a month for the Premium, I can listen to pretty much anything I want on-demand and save it for offline/my Iphone. It's the future of music.