Singer Katy Perry, centre, became an instant star in 2008. (Chris Pizzello/Associated Press) 2008 Year in Review 2008 Year in Review

The sound of music in 2008 was more like a whimper than a bang. It’s not that we didn’t hear a lot of great tunes over the past 12 months. We had our share of major releases and high-profile tours – everyone from Kanye West to Coldplay. After a decade of idle threats and empty promises, Guns N’ Roses released Chinese Democracy, putting an end to Axl Rose’s reign as perpetual pop punchline and suggesting that the temperature in hell had dropped below zero.

A democratically elected U.K. pop idol (Leona Lewis) topped the U.S. Billboard charts, while a Canadian hipster kid (Crystal Castles singer Alice Glass) was named the coolest person of 2008 by British music magazine NME. And yet it seemed far more attention was paid to the stories behind the musicians than the music itself.

You’d be hard-pressed to find someone who could hum the refrain, “My sugar is raw / Sticky and sweet,” taken from Madonna’s album Hard Candy. But millions now know that having relations with the hard-bodied Material Girl is akin to cozying up to a “piece of gristle” – at least according to the testimony given by Guy Ritchie in their acrimonious divorce proceedings. Britney Spears, on the other hand, tried to parlay interest in her troubled personal life into big sales of her (second) comeback album, Circus. Though she appeared to strip herself bare for the documentary Britney: For the Record, the cynics couldn’t help but wonder whether the whole shebang was a calculated promotional strategy.

From left, Danny Wood, Joey McIntyre, Donnie Wahlberg, Jordan Knight and Jonathan Knight of New Kids on the Block. (Photo by Scott Gries/Getty Images)

Speaking of shrewd calculated manoeuvres: 12 months ago, Katy Perry was merely a prodigal preacher-man’s daughter whose career as a devotional pop diva was D.O.A. But when Perry set her bi-curious fantasies to snarly synths and a stuttering beat, she became an instant star. Love it or hate it, I Kissed a Girl was a No. 1 hit in more than 20 countries, a feat that likely owed more to the salacious content and Perry’s provocative video than any redeeming musical value. Her exploitation of queer sexuality was problematic at best, but in a year where LGBTQ issues (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and questioning) were frequently in the headlines, the subject matter was at least in keeping with the zeitgeist.

A number of singles broke through the fog of tabloid hype to resonate with listeners. A joyous explosion of sawing strings, the title track from Coldplay’s Viva La Vida, stayed in the Billboard Top 10 for 16 solid weeks – a fact that likely cheesed off the indie band Creaky Boards and guitar god Joe Satriani, both of whom accused Chris Martin and company of ripping off their original compositions. The bad press didn’t have much of an effect on Coldplay, who still had one of 2008’s top-selling albums.

Canada’s Kardinal Offishall finally got some love stateside for Dangerous, a hypnotic collaboration with U.S. neo-soul crooner Akon. And hey, we have Akon to blame for the emergence of Lady Gaga. After co-writing some tracks with the creepy singer, Akon was impressed enough to sign Gaga to his Kon Live label. Thanks to him, we spent our summer listening to Gaga’s irritatingly catchy Just Dance, and our autumn gritting our teeth through Poker Face.

But lo! There were other notable songs in 2008. While Miley (Hannah Montana) Cyrus’s blooming sexuality and saucy photos had Uncle Walt turning in his grave, those chaste Jonas Brothers provided a pleasant reminder that the Disney talent incubator isn’t all evil – especially with their pop-rock morsel Burnin’ Up. The prolific and nasally Lil’ Wayne didn’t quite deliver on his Greatest! Rapper! Ever! promise, but he did deliver two syrrrupy rap hits in Lollipop and A Milli. Rihanna proved to be a stealth hit machine, with two No. 1 singles (Take a Bow and Disturbia), one chart-topping collabo with T.I. (Live Your Life) and yet another track (Don’t Stop the Music) in Billboard’s Top 10.

Singer Beyonce performs at the World Music Awards in Monte Carlo, Monaco. (Dave Hogan/Getty Images)

Thanks to prime placement of her soaring track Paper Planes in the trailers for Pineapple Express, post-colonial dance floor queen M.I.A. experienced something of a mainstream breakout. She followed up with a fascinating Bollywood mashup score for Danny Boyle’s film Slumdog Millionaire and, uh, got engaged to a millionaire. Pink wrote a stompy arena-rock tune (So What) that flipped the bird to paparazzo jerks and hit No. 1. On another self-reflexive note, hipster act MGMT broke out from the underground by also singing about the burden of being extremely famous rock stars; their song, Time to Pretend, also benefited from fuzzed-out spaceman keyboards and a gleefully catchy chorus. And while hip-hop hotshot Kanye West cranked out heartache ballads in an attempt to reinvent himself as a crooner, the untouchable Beyonce created an alter ego and produced one of the year’s greatest songs and videos: the fluttery, hip-poppin’ Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It).

2008 was a year in which has-been bubblegum acts had one more kick at the pop can. The Spice Girls got back together for a much-ballyhooed worldwide tour, but didn’t make it past Canada; their live shows were called off amid in-fighting rumours. Friendship never ends, huh? Onetime tweenybopper pin-ups New Kids on the Block managed to make it through their entire reunion tour and released a new album of cheesy, decidedly mediocre “Baby, baby” pop ditties.

Sadly, we lost a number of musical legends in 2008. In August, the world bade farewell to soul heavyweight Isaac Hayes, the man behind the theme for Shaft and the voice of the beloved Chef on South Park. Folk storyteller and labour activist Utah Phillips died in May. Rhythm and blues pioneer Bo Diddley, whose much-imitated riff launched a hundred raunchy rock songs, passed away in June. In November, we lost both underrated R&B spitfire Nathaniel Mayer and South African singer and civil rights organizer Miriam Makeba. And at the beginning of December, magnificent folk singer-songwriter and longtime rights activist Odetta – one of Bob Dylan’s major inspirations – joined her own heavenly choir.

Recording artist Dan Snaith, a.k.a. Caribou. (Indoor Recess)

Overall, it seemed like the international obsession with Canadian indie rock died down in 2008. But that didn’t mean all was quiet on the home front. Laptop-twiddling pop savant Caribou won the third annual Polaris Music Prize. And while some critical darlings didn’t always live up to their hype (Wolf Parade’s At Mount Zoomer, for example, was met with a resounding yawn), we had many musical reasons to feel patriotic. Montreal-based Land of Talk released their long-awaited full-length debut, Some Are Lakes, an alternately tender and tough collection of guitar-based rock songs. The band’s Guelph, Ont.-bred frontwoman, Liz Powell, also became the newest female addition to the Broken Social Scene lineup. The West Coast introduced Canada’s latest blues-rock threat in the form of the Pack A.D., a female duo whose thunderous Funeral Mixtape could give the White Stripes a run for their money.

Sadly, Canada also said goodbye to one of its greatest roots talents, when folk singer Willie P. Bennett died in February at age 56. Hamilton’s Frankie Venom, of Canadian punk icons Teenage Head, succumbed to cancer in October. Fiddler Oliver Schroer passed away in July. Kenny MacLean, bassist for Canrock stalwarts Platinum Blonde, died in November. And Jeff Healey, one of the linchpins of this country’s blues scene, lost his long battle with cancer in March. All these artists were in their 50s – we only wish we’d had another half-century to appreciate their talents.

Sarah Liss writes about the arts for CBCNews.ca.