The year’s biggest moments in music

No one else thinks it’s the end of the year, but we’re going to summarise the best, worst and most important moments in music of this year. So while you spent the year locked in labs, cramming or pretending to do your FYP, you might have missed the following.

The Feminist Moment

While the movie industry offered Patricia Arquette’s speech at the Oscars to put the subject of equal pay in the spotlight, Björk’s interview with Pitchfork did something similar within music. The Icelandic singer-songwriter drew attention to the subject of rightful crediting and the way she’s seen this handled differently between male and female artists. Whilst discussing her album, Vulnicura, she remarked that multiple sources had incorrectly reported that her co-producer, Alejandro Ghersi, had been completely behind the beats on the record. “If whatever I’m saying to you now helps women,” she told Pitchfork, “then I’m up for doing it,” before pointing out that no one would ever accuse Kanye West of not being the master of his own sound, despite undoubtably bringing in outside help. Perhaps applicable in a wide range of industries were Björk’s views on the way society treats opinions dependent on the gender of the source. “Everything a guys says once, you have to say five times”.

The Moment that broke a million hearts

Despite not having mentioned One Direction in this section all year, we at Felix Music appreciate that they are the biggest band on the planet, and loss of quiet dreamboat Zayn has to be included in a round up of the year’s events. Regardless of your personal opinions on the band’s output, or love lives, this was the Geri leaving Spice Girls, or Robbie leaving Take That, of a generation. And in terms of fan fallout, it was phenomenal. Since there was no Twitter when Ginger Spice hung up her Union Jack dress, this was the first time a quick hashtag search (Zaynwillalwaysbeapartof1D) could reveal the reaction of a whole army of young fans. Will the institution survive? Will Harry go next? Will the entertaining Twitter spats continue? Only time will tell.

Momentary Dickhead

What an end of year list be without a Kanye West-ism? Especially coming from Kanye himself. Almost in homage to his 2009 stage invasion of Taylor Swift’s acceptance speech for best female video at the Video Music Awards in 2009, Kanye leapt onstage when Beck accepted his Grammy for album of the year.

Afterwards, Kanye told Ryan Seacrest it was a joke and that “the voices in my head told me to go”, but confusingly, later said that Beck’s win over Beyoncé was “disrespectful to inspiration”. As a third and final turnaround, Kanye tweeted an apology to the singer, having admitted he hadn’t listened to the winning album when he made the original comments. Apparently taking the chance to get stuff off his chest, Kanye subsequently tweeted an apology to Bruno Mars who he’d previously “hated on” but now “respects what he does as an artist”. Kanye, are you okay, hun?

The Trailblazer Moment

We’re cheekily including SIA, because although she’s been around for ages, and ‘Chandelier’ was released in June of last year, her profile, or lack therof, has really risen in prominence within the last 12 months. In massive contrast to her contemporaries, who don’t shy away from incorperating their sexuality into music, performances and videos, SIA shuns this idea to the extreme, choosing to hide her face. Red carpet appearances have seen her don huge wigs, during performances she will have her back to the audience and her videos consistently star the young dance protégé, Maddie Ziegler. The Australian singer isn’t new to the business. She penned Rihanna’s ‘We Found Love’, Beyoncé’s ‘Pretty Hurts’ and a load of others, as well performing in her own right since the 90s.

After decades in the industry, pictures of her face do exist, and are easily Googleable. The withdrawal of such a key part of the artist’s identity seems less about conserving privacy and more about making a statement on the source of the art. Go SIA!

Video of the Moment

Taylor Swift’s video for ‘Bad Blood’ broke the Vevo records, getting 20 million hits in its first 24 hours. This was understandable given the massive social media preamble Swift gave her 34 million Instagram followers, where promotional shots of each star appeared at such a rate that Twtitter wondered whether the whole thing was an elaborate prank. The video starred 15 of her famous friends as well as collaborator Kendrick Lamar and was directed by Joseph Khan, who also did Britney Spear’s ‘Toxic’ vid. Given the combined number of followers each of these models, actresses and model/actresses have, this huge number of views is unsurprising. But the combination of an iconic director, the most successful models of the moment and a huge pop artist promoting the album of her life make for a video, that beyond the number of hits, is successful in its very obvious intention of becoming iconic.

Beef of the moment

Although by no means a new drama, Azealia Banks and Iggy Azalea’s swipes reached a new level in the financial year ending 2015. After several comments from Banks about cultural appropriation, similarities between their names and the unsavoury Iggy lyric where she calls herself a “runaway slave master”, tensions were high. During an interview with a New York radio station, Banks became visibly emotional when questioned about her issues with Iggy, going straight into her problems with appropriation, which she calls “cultural smudging”. Iggy then went beyond subtweeting, putting out a “special mesg [sic] for banks” where she blamed her rival’s “piss poor attitude” for her issues with the industry before deriding her for “crying on the radio”. Ouch.

Moment of wonder

We didn’t want to end on a sad note and Kate Bush’s theatrical return to the stage last summer does deserve a mention. Playing 22 nights is a feat in itself, but the ‘Hounds of Love’ singer seemed to please every attendee, which for such a highly anticipated return is a feat in itself.