Museums & Music

BEAT100 Reviews 2014's Top Music Moments

2014 has been a great year for music, both highs and lows. The last year has become both Iggy Azalea’s break out year and the year that the Frozen soundtrack took the world by storm. With 2015 looming, the BEAT100 staff look back at our Top 10 memorable music moments from the past year.…

Dolly Parton Performs at Glastonbury Festival

This summer Dolly Parton secured herself as the unprecedented Queen of Glastonbury after a rhinestone-covered, foot stomping set in June. With outstanding audience numbers, Dolly dispelled the non-believers who doubted that the crowd would approve of the Country star’s presence at the festival. It seemed that all of the event’s 200,000 attendees turned up to see Dolly perform on the Pyramid stage and the Queen of Country did not disappoint, churning out classic after classic to the excited crowd. In a white, rhinestone covered trouser suit the 68 year old strutted across the stage with confidence, inspiring a solid hour-long sing along with the thousands of screaming fans. Parton then surprised the audience with an appearance from Bon Jovi guitarist Richie Sambora with a rousing gospel-rock version of ‘Lay Your Hands On Me’ that garnered a great reception from the crowd. Dolly Parton’s Sunday afternoon slot wowed the crowds and the critics alike and is sure to go down in Glastonbury history.

U2 Causes Outrage After ‘forcing’ Album onto Millions

One of the greatest controversies of 2014 was caused by superband U2 in September this year. Apple announced at the launch of the iPhone 6 that the Irish band’s latest album ‘Songs of Innocence’ would be automatically added to every iTunes Store account for free. A move that was meant to appear as generous turned into a PR disaster as millions realised that the surprise addition could not be deleted from their accounts. With over 500 million iTunes subscribers across 119 countries, it is no surprise that not everyone would be a U2 fan, something that seemed to be overlooked by Apple and by U2 themselves. Fans took to Twitter and Facebook to voice their disapproval which lead to front man Bono issuing a public apology. Since the release, Apple has released a one-click tool allowing iTunes customers to remove the album if they wish.

Kate Bush Tours for the First Time in 35 Years

Kate Bush surprised her fans this year, announcing in May that she would be embarking on her first tour in 35 years. The release of tickets caused her website to crash and her name to trend worldwide on Twitter before selling out in mere minutes. The ‘Before the Dawn’ tour kicked off in August for the 22-date run at London’s Hammersmith Apollo. Touring for the first time since 1979, Bush opened the show with ‘Lily’ from the 1993 album ‘Red Shoes’ as fans screamed the house down. The 55 year old star, barefoot and dressed in black, opened with a simple set accompanied by seven backing singers. Bush wowed the crowd with her greatest hits, also pointing out her 16-year-old son, Bertie, who was accompanying her as a backing singer. Gaining rave reviews and great response from the crowd, Bush’s London performances went down as one of the greatest comebacks of the year.

Miley Gives her VMA Award to the Homeless of LA

Miley Cyrus gained worldwide attention once again for a VMA performance but this year it gained a far greater response than her famed booty-twerking appearance with Robin Thicke. In a surprise twist at September’s awards, a teary Miley let a homeless man accept her award for Video of the Year which she had won for ‘Wrecking Ball’. Twitter erupted with praise for Miley as 22 year old Jesse Helt took to the stage to accept the award on her behalf. Helt met Cyrus through the Hollywood homeless center My Friend’s Place and the singer was extremely moved by his story. In a touching move, Cyrus invited Helt to be her ‘date’ for the awards and use the platform to call attention to the issue of youth homelessness in America.

Outkast Launch their Comeback at Coachella

In one of the most highly anticipated comebacks of the year, Outkast reunited in April at 2014’s Coachella Festival. Performing together for the first time since 2002, Andre 3000 and Big Boi planned to launch their 20^th anniversary tour to screaming crowds but the reality turned out to be much different. Their debut set garnered almost universally negative reviews and resulted in hundreds of disappointed fans. The hip-hop duo appeared at the Coachella headlining slot and delivered a reportedly lack lustre and underwhelming performance that saw the majority of the audience leave before the show reached its climax of hit track ‘Hey Ya!’ It seemed that the duo noticed the disappointment of the crowd with Andre 3000 repeatedly asking ‘Are y’all alive?’ and ‘You still here?’ which only served to up the cringe-factor of the overall set. The pair seemed to take the audience response on board, reviewing their show and returning with a brand new set and an improved attitude for the second weekend of the festival. After a slight flop of a first show, the pair picked themselves up and really kicked off their 40-show tour in style.

Bob Geldof Oversees the 30-year Anniversary Release of Band Aid Hit.

In November, Sir Bob Geldof once again bought back Band Aid hit ‘Do They Know It’s Christmas?’ to aid in the treatment of the Ebola epidemic. The music video for the charity hit was viewed by millions in a surprise debut on the X Factor, introduced byGeldof himself, with a warning that the video contained distressing images of Ebola victims. The recent outbreak of the life threatening virus first appeared in March and has killed more than 5000 people to date, mostly in West Africa. It was hoped that the fourth version of 'Do They Know Its Christmas' would be just as popular as the original track, which raised millions for famine relief in Ethiopia in 1984; it went on to bererecorded in 1989 and 2004. Released at 8am on 17 November ‘Do They Know It’s Christmas?’ had shifted more than 200,000 copies, according to the Official Charts Company, making it the fastest-selling single of 2014. Sales figures show that the track is set to surpass the success of the previous recordings, with the original single selling 3.7 million copies in the UK, making it the biggest-selling single ever at that time.

Thom Yorke Released Brand New Album Via BitTorrent

Thom Yorke caused waves in September after the controversial release of his newest album ‘Tomorrow’s Modern Boxes’ via file sharing site BitTorrent. The surprise album, priced at just $6, was released with no publicity beforehand but still garnered more than 100,000 downloads in the first 24 hours. With minimalist lyrics and scattered beats it is typical of Thom Yorke's unique style which proves to be more of a you-love-it-or-you-hate-it dilemma among music lovers. Yorke has been very vocal in the last years of online music distribution, publicly questioning the royalty rates of streaming platforms such as Spotify.The Radiohead frontman is known for his controversial album releases; in 2007 Radiohead released 'In Rainbows' through their website where the fans could choose how much, if at all, to pay for it. Through this deal BitTorrenttakes 10% of the profits while the artist receives the other 90% and is seen by Yorke as an effective way to hand power back to the musicians. He was quoted saying 'If it works well, it can be an effective way of handing some control of Internet commerce back to people who are creating the work.'

Lady Gaga and Tony Bennett Team up to Release a Jazz Album

She's 28, He's 88. There may be a 60 year age gap but that certainly didn't stop Lady Gaga and Tony Bennett giving it their all on their brand new jazz album. 'Cheek to Cheek' was born from a desire to introduce jazz to a younger generation and is Lady Gaga's first release since her 'ARTPOP' album in 2013. Many critics expressed concern that Lady Gaga recording songs from such classic jazz singers may have had a detrimental effect on the Jazz genre but in truth, it is quite the opposite. Coupled with the smooth vocals of Tony Bennett, Gaga's strong voice proves captivatingly charismatic in a jazz setting. In addition to duets, the unlikely duo also perform solo tracks such as Gaga’s take on ‘Lush Life’ or Tony’s rendition of ‘Sophisticated Lady’. The release in September saw the album debut at Number 1 on the Billboard 200 Chart, becoming the second Number 1 for Bennett and the third for Gaga. It also set up 88-year old Bennett to become the oldest living act to earn a Number 1 album, beating his own record that he set in 2011.

Austria’s Conchita Wurst Wows Eurovision

Austria stormed to Eurovision victory in May’s contest with her dramatic ballad ‘Rise Like a Pheonix’. The 25-year old bearded drag queen led her country to victory with an audience of around 170 million people across the globe. Wurst’s entry bought an unprecedented political and moral aspect to this year’s competition as organisations in Armenia, Belarus and Russia started petitions to remove her act from the performance. Russian legislator Vitaly Milonov announced that Wurst was a ‘pervert’ whose performance would ‘insult millions of Russians’ if it was allowed to go ahead. Conchita, real name Thomas Neuwirth, proceeded with her performance despite the backlash and went on to win over the enormous audience, gaining an amazing 290 points.Conchita celebrated her win with a memorable message ‘This night is dedicated to everyone who believes in a future of peace and freedom," she said, according to the Associated Press. "You know who you are – we are unity and we are unstoppable.’

Taylor Swift is Named Billboard Woman of the Year 2014

Taylor Swift seems to have taken over the music world in 2014, aptly being named Billboard Woman of the Year just a few short weeks ago. Swift, a seven- time Grammy award winner is the only artist to ever win the award twice and gave a moving speech at December’s awards ceremony. Swift saw the meteoric success with her fifth studio album ‘1989’ which was released earlier this year. After selling an astonishing 1.2 million copies in the first week alone, ‘1989’ became the best – selling album in over 10 years. Billboard representative Janice Min said of Swift’s success this year ‘As one of the most influential artists of her generation, Taylor Swift has seen incredible success on the Billboard charts…Over the course of her career, she’s charted 60 entries on the Billboard Hot 100 -- the most of any female artist since her debut in 2006. We are tremendously excited to be honouring her as the 2014 Billboard Woman of the Year for the second time’. 

Written For BEAT100.com