I admit I exist in an alternate reality where what's happening in the world often doesn't happen in my home. We have protective barriers and we use them. My own tastes are pretty lame. I like stuff that bores most people. But I enjoy spending most of my time staring at a wall.

Let's get this over with.

25) Tom Waits -- Bad As Me: The patron weirdo saint of NPR still makes music that sounds pretty good when you crank it up. Plenty dirty if a bit predictable. I don't know. That's not a bad thing. Imagine if Coke tasted differently every time they made it. Waits is like McDonald's for the hipster set. I dig it. Man.

24) Robyn Hitchcock -- Tromso, Kaptein: Hitchy slipped this one out while no one was watching, which isn't much different from anything else he's been doing for the past decade. Hitch isn't likely to have a blockbuster hit anytime soon. Or maybe he will. Maybe the world is changing and the U.S. will suddenly get British artists once again.

23) Marianne Faithfull

Clarence Clemons: Ronald C. Modra/Sports Imagery/Getty Images

As the music gets older, we have to accept that the musicians who make it also grow older, with one of the side effects of advanced age being death. While there are a number of younger-than-they-should-ever-be folks on this list, there are also a few decent ages reached. Which, if you consider the life of a musician, is pretty damn surprising, too. The general wear and tear on those in the performing arts isn't just in the partying, though that helps: it's in the rollercoaster ride that is their career.

I've broken it down as best I can. Let us not mourn, but celebrate their lives.

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!