the fyrehaus

The biggest influence on rock and pop music in the noughties has been the 90s. It was Britpop’s desire for mass appeal that firmly introduced consensus culture to rock: the notion that it should not even nominally be the expression of authority-baiting, parent-scaring counterculture, but light entertainment that excludes no one, something the whole family can enjoy. So it has continued. The predominant sound of the decade so far has been what you might call consensus rock: the epic stadium balladry of Coldplay and their ilk.

Please disagree with Alexis Petridis. Because I don’t think I could stand it if Coldplay was the iconic sound of the decade.

50 Cent says filesharing doesn’t hurt artists.

The new indie spirit of Christmas. Apparently Coldplay covered a Pretenders Christmas single. I don’t care. “Don’t Shoot Me Santa” is already the best Christmas song, past, present and future.

The gong show, or the Guardian takes the piss with a year-end list. Best bit:

Best Musical Accessory: Mockney Accent

From Kate Nash to Jack Peñate, 2007 was the year that phrases such as Nash’s Foundations lyric “You said I must eat so many lemons, ‘cos I am so bittahh” entered the Guide’s dictionary of Mockney Slang, along with the definition “Shut up you stupid posh oiks and sod off back to drama school”. TJ

The Guardian’s REAL year-end list. No surprises; lots of Arctic Monkeys and Led Zeppelin had the best live show. Though they did award the “The No Judge Will Jail Him Award for Cat-like Number of Lives” award to Pete Doherty.

And the AV Club wants to share the worst band names of 2007. I like “Those Fucking Unicorns” and “MM/DD/YYYY”.