What were the 80 most important musical recordings, artists, trends, events, and performances of 2008? What were the eight things this year that broke our hearts—or, at least, our ears? We’re happy to announce 80 ’08 (and Heartbreak), Idolator’s year-end overview. The list is below the jump.
As you may have gathered, I’m raring to close the book on 2008, but I’d be remiss if I didn’t run down some of the site’s highlights during what was a pretty dreary year overall. After the jump, behold a pretty subjective top 12 of the year (thanks to our technological limbo I can’t run any sort of numbers, but I think this list accurately captures the best moments we’ve had during a long slog of a year). And of course I’d be remiss if I didn’t thank all of you for coming back, reading, commenting, and pointing out when I get shit wrong (which is too often). If you think I got this list wrong, feel free to abuse me with compliments in the comments section!
This year wasn’t a particularly spectacular one for Christian music—solid releases from Anberlin, the Myriad, Jon Foreman of Switchfoot, and the Classic Crime, but otherwise the key adjectives were “slow” and “mediocre.” Somehow, the genre’s biggest news items came from the ’70s and early ’80s, a time period that was swept under the rug by the advent of Christian Contemporary Music and the late-’80s rise of Michael W. Smith, Amy Grant, and Petra. Back then, there were some artists who just made music informed by their beliefs, similar to George Harrison writing a pop song about Hare Krishna.
Last week, Dan Gibson looked into the strange case of Sonseed, a Christian ska outfit whose song “Jesus Is My Friend” was exhumed by a blogger for the sake of lulz and other expressions of Internet happiness. Who were these happy people? Were public-access production values really that good lo those many years ago? The proprietor of Dougsploitation, the site that debuted the tape, chimed in to say that he really had been holding on to the Sonseed-containing VHS tape all these years, but over the weekend we got further evidence of the video’s veracity via a very heated e-mail from one Salvatore Polichetti. The subject line? “How full of shit are you? Lots!” The full power of Christ’s love, after the jump.
If you haven’t seen it already, it won’t be long until a video of the band Sonseed performing their track “Jesus Is My Friend” hits your instant messaging client or friend’s Tumblr. There’s certainly an easy appeal… ’70s apparel, incredible sincerity, a ridiculous ska track about the merits of Jesus. But is is the clip for real? The video, and an explanation, after the jump.
