The Year of the Woman

Know who thinks 'The Year of the Woman' is every year? My mom! And I'm inclined to agree with her. But the music business isn't always so caring. It's been promoting dudes since before I can remember. Then when rock 'n' roll got big, they had the dudes wear long hair just so the women wouldn't take charge. Paranoid thinking or dead accurate? You decide!

Anyhow, I took a gander at the fine, fine acts that were making music and money this year and I wrote them down on a piece of paper and put them in an order that I liked. I even threw in an old person so I wouldn't lose my extremely valuable and loyal Medicare demographic. Up With AARP!

One thing you must admit about this list, it sure is pretty!

Could there possibly be 25 more albums worth making slightly informative comments about from 1996? Yes, yes there are. Just look at this list. Some were even bought! How quaint! But then, weren't most of us on dial-up? You think I wanted to download an album that would take 14 hours to complete, provided the connection wasn't lost?

The 'bad ol' days' of computers were the 'almost tolerable days' of music. If one follows this logic, it can be proven that music got worse because of the Internet! Maybe because of this very blog! It also got worse because of CDs. So, it was vinyl that made music great and paper magazines. Neil Young knows this. Now you know it. But let's grab mp3s of the following and be really disappointed!

Fiona AppleBefore this year escapes us, I have one final year to celebrate. 1996 was a mixed year, the last one before Hanson's "MMMBop," Jewel's "You Were Meant For Me" and Third Eye Blind's "Semi-Charmed Life" would change music as we know it for all eternity.

The following is a brief sample of what you missed if you weren't paying attention at this particular moment in time. One truth you wouldn't know is Alanis Morissette, who with just one 'r' and two 's' and 't's, set the music world on fire with three hits not named "You Oughta Know": "Ironic," which ironically wasn't ironic, "You Learn," which may or may be as educational as it sounds, and "Head Over Feet," which is, I am told, a Yoga pose. No one's calling her a one-hit wonder!