"This has proved a fantastic year for extreme music and metal, and the new wave is masterfully progressing" - PopMatters points out about the year 2022 in metal. They selected 20 albums with technical death metal band Aeviterne's 'The Ailing Facade' on top. Stereogum selects 10 albums - Blut Aus Nord's 'Lovecraftian Echoes' takes the top spot. Treblezine expanded its list from 25 to 30 albums, with grindcore band Cloud Rat taking the No. 1 spot with 'Threshold'. Loudwire is the most generous - they selected the 50 best rock and metal albums.

The United Nations cultural agency Unesco has recently added Raï music to its intangible cultural heritage list. Popular amongst Algerians, Raï is a style of folk music focused on themes of love, social justice, and freedom. The genre often addresses social taboos and is popular both within Algeria and amongst the North African diaspora. The genre originated in rural areas and developed from forms of spoken poetry that were performed at weddings and during special occasions. In the late 1990s, many Raï singers were murdered, including one of the most famous, Cheb Hasni, who was murdered in Oran in 1994 by Islamic fundamentalist extremists. After the killings, Raï slowed in popularity, but it has seen a resurgence in recent years. Middle East Eye looks back at the history of Raï.

Manuel Göttsching, the innovative German guitarist and electronic music pioneer who released influential works with Ash Ra Tempel and as a solo artist, has died at age 70. His early band Ash Ra Tempel released five albums from 1971-1973, helping to define the sound of the emergent krautrock scene. Later, Göttsching’s 1984 solo album 'E2-E4' played a key role in the evolution of house and techno music. Guardian remembers the musician.

virtual artists is that, while K-pop stars often struggle with physical limitations, or even mental distress because they are human beings, virtual artists can be free from these" - says Park Jieun, the woman behind K-pop girl band Eternity. There are 11 members in the band, all of them virtual characters. Since releasing their debut single I'm Real in 2021, K-pop girl group Eternity have racked up millions of views online, BBC reports. There's a girl band aespa with four human singers and dancers - Karina, Winter, Giselle and Ningning, and their four virtual counterparts known as ae-Karina, ae-Winter, ae-Giselle and ae-Ningning. During the Covid-19 pandemic, K-pop group Billlie had to cancel their live performances. In order to throw a party for fans in the virtual world, the band's management company created virtual copies of band members. At least four of K-pop's biggest entertainment companies are investing heavily in virtual elements for their stars, and five of the top-earning K-pop groups of 2022 are getting in on the trend.

"Electronic music may have its problems and peculiarities... but one thing the genre doesn’t suffer from is a lack of quality music" - First Floor introduces its list of best dance electronic music of 2022. Three albums "that resonated the most this year" are: Hudson Mohawke's 'Cry Sugar' - "a manic album in which elements of happy hardcore, stadium rap, emotive R&B, swaggering EDM and kaleidoscopic bass contortions all live side by side"; Moin's 'Paste', a "guitar-driven post-hardcore album... made like a techno record"; The Range's 'Mercury' which melds "elements of electronic music, hip-hop, soul and R&B into remarkably potent little pop packages".

Angelo Badalamenti, the composer most famous for his “dark beauty” work with filmmaker David Lynch in the synth-heavy music for 'Blue Velvet', 'Twin Peaks' and 'Mulholland Drive' died at 85. Badalamenti scored nearly 50 films and worked with directors including Paul Schrader and Danny Boyle, while also collaborating on records and music videos with David Bowie and Michael Jackson. The composer’s 'Twin Peaks' theme music won a 1990 Grammy Award, and the soundtrack album was an international smash. CNN looks back into life and career.

Top 100 Tours of 2022 have set a new record with $6.28 billion grossed this year, based on Pollstar’s Year End Top 200 Worldwide Tours chart.  It represents a whopping 13.2% increase over 2019 — the pre-pandemic year saw a  record-setting gross of $5.5 billion. Overall ticket sales reported around the globe in 2022 also set an all-time gross record with an astounding grand total of $11.7  billion — just over a 5% increase compared to 2019’s $11.1 billion. This number is just a part of the entire global live industry, which easily surpasses an estimated $30 billion annually. Pollstar reports on the successful touring year.

Bad Bunny has grossed $435.38 million in 2022 alone from touring, setting an all-time record amount made from touring in a calendar year, Pollstar reports. Puerto Rican artist surpassed the previous record set by Ed Sheeran for his Divide tour, which amassed $432.3 million in 2018. Bad Bunny also became Spotify’s most-streamed artist globally for the third year in a row after amassing more than 18.5 billion streams on the platform.

The Complex UK team (and extended family) chooses the best of what they have been reading and rating in 2022. There's a New York Times article about the exhibition on how grime transformed British music. LA Mag's piece about the killing of Drakeo the Ruler, Dazed & Confused's article on West London musician Dréya Mac, Miccheque's piece on best UK rap albums of all time, and plenty more. Check them all out here.

usic books released recently. Among them are 'Good Booty: Love and Sex, Black and White, Body and Soul in American Music' by Ann Powers - "an ambitious and brilliant examination of US pop that puts sex front and centre in the importance of music", as well as 'Dilla Time: The Life and Afterlife of J Dilla, the Hip-Hop Producer Who Reinvented Rhythm' by Dan Charnas, the "rare biography that explains the how and why of the music".

Hundreds of Bad Bunny fans with tickets purchased through Ticketmaster for his sold-out concert in Mexico City Friday night were denied entry to the venue, the 80,000+ capacity Estadio Azteca, when security claimed that numerous people had fake, duplicated tickets, or canceled tickets. Ticketmaster apologized to ticket-holders, claiming an “unprecedented” number of false tickets overwhelmed their systems, legitimate ticket-holders were denied entry, and that refunds would be provided to ticket-holders if their electronic records showed they were unable to enter the stadium.  Ticketmaster’s system reported tickets that were duplicated or falsified, and to “guarantee the safety” of attendees, all of those tickets were canceled. Images from the concert on social media depicted large swaths of empty seats at the sold-out show. Vulture reports on the issue. Recently, Ticketmaster had to cancel the public on-sale date for Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour due to “extraordinarily high demands on ticketing systems” and an insufficient number of remaining tickets.

"Vigorous, explorative and righteously angry, nothing struck quite so profound a chord with us in 2022 as this extraordinary record from Baltimore’s Infinity Knives and Brian Ennals" - Loud And Quiet argues in favor of their choice of the album of 2022. Their top 10 are:

10. They Hate Change: 'Finally, New'

9. Dry Cleaning: 'Stumpwork'

8. Katie Alice Greer: 'Barbarism'

7. Kendrick Lamar: 'Mr Morale and the Big Steppers'

6. Thank: 'Thoughtless Cruelty'

5. Caroline: 'Caroline'

4. Charlie XCX: 'Cream'

3. Kai Whiston: 'Quiet As Kept, F.O.G.'

2. Jockstrap: 'I Love You Jennifer B'

1. Infinity Knives and Brian Ennals: 'King Cobra'

26% of all concert-goers and festival-goers plunged themselves into debt this summer to buy tickets, 5mag reports. Only 12% of respondents in Lendingtree survey said they’d gone into debt to attend music festivals or concerts before this summer. Gen Z members are taking the deepest plunge - 21% of Gen Z respondents admitted going into debt before this year for festival costs; this summer it was 41%.

Ed Sheeran moved 3,047,696 tickets in 52 shows of his The Mathematics Tour this year, putting him at No. 1 on the Top Ticket Sales chart, according to figures reported to Billboard Boxscore. Coldplay sold the second-highest number of tickets this year - 2,260,651. However, the act with the highest-grossing tour is Bad Bunny, who made $373.5 million in the 12 months ending Oct. 31. Ed Sheeran grossed $246.3 million. For the first time ever, the top 10 touring acts, who also included Elton John, Harry Styles, the Weeknd, and the double bill of Def Leppard and Motley Crue, all grossed over $100 million.

Quietus' writers have assembled a wide list of best albums of 2022. It looks into the art, alternative, metal, classic, alt-pop and other scenes. Plenty to listen to there. The top 10 are:

• 1: Jockstrap – 'I Love You Jennifer B'
• 2: Diamanda Galás – 'Broken Gargoyles'
• 3: caroline – 'caroline'
• 4: Richard Dawson – 'The Ruby Cord'
• 5: Decius – 'Decius Vol. I'
• 6: Sea Power – 'Everything Was Forever'
• 7: Kendrick Lamar – 'Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers'
• 8: The Ephemeron Loop – 'Psychonautic Escapism'
• 9: Emeka Ogboh – '6°30'33.372"N 3°22'.66"E'
• 10: Oren Ambarchi – 'Shebang'

Hamish Kilgour was co-founder, with his brother David, of New Zealand guitar-rock band the Clean, who was very influential on several generations of indie rock. Hamish wrote, sang and played drums and guitar in the Clean, he also co-founded Bailter Space and the Mad Scene and released a handful of solo albums. Kilgour had been reported missing in Christchurch, New Zealand, on Nov. 27, and was found dead on Monday, the New Zealand Herald reports.

"2022 was the year of the comeback. As the music industry stumbled out of its pandemic fog, many artists finally delivered long delayed, highly anticipated, and sonically experimental albums that met some of the expectations built up for them" - Pitchfork introduces its Top 50 albums of 2022 list. The top 10 are:

10. Alex G: 'God Save the Animals'

9. Yaya Bey: 'Remember Your North Star'

8. Lucrecia Dalt: '¡Ay!'

7. Big Thief: 'Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe in You'

6. Rosalía: 'Motomami'

5. Bad Bunny: 'Un Verano Sin Ti'

4. Special Interest: 'Endure'

3. Alvvays: 'Blue Rev'

2. Sudan Archives: 'Natural Brown Prom Queen'

1. Beyoncé: 'Renaissance'

James Howard Jackson has been sentenced to 21 years in prison for shooting and wounding Ryan Fischer, Lady Gaga's dog walker, during a dog theft, Bloomberg reports. Ryan Fischer was walking the singer's three French bulldogs in Hollywood in February 2021 when Jackson shot him in the chest. Jackson and one of four other accomplices took two of the dogs, Koji and Gustav, following the shooting. A third bulldog, Miss Asia, ran away and was later found by police. The two stolen dogs were returned unharmed two days later after Gaga offered a $500,000 reward. The person who returned the dogs, Jennifer McBride, was later charged with being an accessory to attempted murder and her case remains pending. The motive was the value of the French bulldogs, a breed that can run into the thousands of dollars, and detectives do not believe the thieves knew the dogs belonged to the musician.

"Alvvays' 'Belinda Says' (is) a heartbreaking sketch of an unexpected pregnancy that’s also a modern power-pop classic" - Pitchfork argues in favor of their No. 1 song of 2022. Their list of Top 100 songs of 2022 is out now. Consequence's song of 2022 is Paramore's 'This Is Why' because it "carries the weight and emotions of the last several years of simply surviving".

The Forty-Five collective of female-led journalists has selected 45 best albums of the year, which "attempt to make sense of the troubled times we live in, that capture the zeitgeist or just provide an hour of much-needed escapism". The top 10 albums are:

10. Sampa the Great: 'As Above, so Below'

9. Weyes Blood: 'And in the Darkness, Hearts Aglow'

8. Taylor Swift: 'Midnights'

7. Rosalia: 'Motomami'

6. Beyonce: 'Renaissance'

5. Sudan Archives: 'Natural Brown Porm Queen'

4. Mitski: 'Laurel Hell'

3. Shygirl: 'Nymph'

2. Wet Leg: 'Wet Leg'

1. Jockstrap: 'I Love You Jennifer B'

A great, well spirited reaction today by the Music REDEF to a ludicrous quote earlier this week about the invention of microphones. "The man generally credited with the breakthrough that put mics into widespread use was Emile Berliner, a German Jew who fled his homeland for America in 1870. Berliner’s placement of a layer of carbon particles between two contacts greatly improved the sound of recorded voices and was essential for—among other applications—making telephones work. He sold his patent, in fact, to Alexander Graham Bell. Berliner was a giant figure in the early days of the sound and music industries: He also invented the gramophone—the predecessor of modern vinyl records—and founded Deutsche Grammophon, which eventually became Polygram, which became a key part of Universal Music Group, and which survives as the world’s leading classical music brand".

Puerto Rican Bad Bunny has become Spotify’s biggest global artist for the third year in a row, after his music was streamed over 18.5 billion times on the platform, Consequence reports. Last year, Bad Bunny received over 9.1 billion streams, achieving that tally without even having released an album in 2021, which also means he managed to double his stream count on the service this year vs. 2021. Taylor Swift comes in second place on the list of Spotify's top streamed artists in 2022 and is the only female artist in the top five, while the group is rounded out by Drake, The Weekend, and BTS.

New Zealand artist and scientist Jesse Austin-Stewart has created music that only be felt through the vibrations of a PlayStation Dualsense controller, not heard. To feel them, a “listener” has to plug in their controller into a computer and press play on the audio. The controller will then automatically vibrate, with the rhythm of each song forming the track. ‘Music For PlayStation’ contains five separate tracks, each with different rhythms and tempos running through the controllers. The tracks, which were written and developed with a number of deaf artists, are available on all streaming sites, and can also be downloaded on Austin-Stewart’s Bandcamp.

"It was a very big year for very big albums... a year in music we have a feeling we’ll be thinking about (and dancing to) for a long time to come" - Rolling Stone writes introducing its list of best 100 albums of 2022. Their top 10 are:

10. Wet Leg, ‘Wet Leg’

9. J-Hope, ‘Jack in the Box’

8. FKA Twigs, ‘Caprisongs’

7. King Princess, ‘Hold on Baby’

6. Pusha T, ‘It’s Almost Dry’

5. Harry Styles, ‘Harry’s House’

4. Rosalía, ‘Motomami’

3. Taylor Swift, ‘Midnights’

2. Bad Bunny, ‘Un Verano Sin Ti’

1. Beyonce, ‘Renaissance’

"Self-effacing but ambitious" - a friend describes Trevor Beales, the folk singer from England, who played in a band, and afterward solo, but never really managed to get a break. It's about to change, perhaps - this week an album of his songs recorded between the ages of 18 and 21 in the attic bedroom he lived in as a child is coming out. 'Fireside Stories (Hebden Bridge Circa 1971-1974)' is "an album of fluid, finger-picked folk blues that recalls Bert Jansch and Michael Chapman. On the album, Beales counters clear technical rigour on the guitar with an unassuming deftness; his voice is as light and melodic as it is rich and warm. The whole thing is delivered with a palpable, Nick Drake-like intimacy". Read the sad and lovely story at the Guardian.

Little Simz and Knucks were crowned joint winners for the album of the year prize at the Mobo Awards, for their albums 'Sometimes I Might Be Introvert' and 'Alpha Place', respectively. PinkPantheress won best female act, while Central Cee won the award for best male act, as well as video of the year for his song 'Doja', Music News reports. Nigerian afrobeats superstar Burna Boy took home trophies for best international act and best African music act. Mobos seek to honour achievements in music of black origin.

Portuguese space-rockers Solar Corona released their latest new album 'Pace' last month, including the standout song 'Alpendurada'. Guardian hears "elements of metal, Krautrock and post-rock... blended into more focused, more succinct songs. For all the tight, intermeshing musicianship there’s a wildness and unpredictability there too".

“On behalf of Christine McVie’s family, it is with a heavy heart we are informing you of Christine’s death" - the statement on Facebook said, announcing the sad news of Fleetwood Mac’s singer passing. Christine McVie has died this morning in a hospital, following a short illness, NY Times reports. She was 79. The British American rock band, founded in London in 1967, sold more than 100m records worldwide, making them one of the most successful groups ever. Their best-known songs include 'Dreams', 'Go Your Own Way' and 'Everywhere'.

It all started promising. In July last year, a UK cross-Parliamentary committee called for a “complete reset” of music streaming following an inquiry into the economics of streaming. Some lobbyists in the UK music business suggested that artists and songwriters weren’t pocketing enough money from streaming services, and accused certain music companies of holding on to outsized profits from royalties. The final 165-page report came as a cold shower, saying that it has not “found evidence of substantial and sustained excess profits by the majors that could be competed away to benefit consumers, for example through more investment in music”. MBW reports on the outc

Music REDEF chief Jason Hirschhorn pays tribute to Charles Koppelman,  one of the music industry’s most powerful executives, who worked with Dolly Parton, Barbra Streisand, Vanilla Ice and many more. Hirschhorn remembers the summer when he and other interns worked under Koppelman: "Thanks for giving us all your time. You can see we took some of what we watched you do and remixed it into our lives and careers. All these names, all these lives... The branches made you quite a tree. Salute." A quote from Variety's Koppelman interview: “When I first went into the music business, I’d look around at the record-label guys: They all had this white pallor, chain-smoked cigarettes, were nervous and jerky and always running to catch a plane somewhere. All the music publishers had great suntans, were smoking big, fat Cuban cigars and looked very relaxed. So I asked myself, which one did I want to be when I was 40?”.