Snoop Dogg quit smoking pot; Paul McCartney and Bono tried to save the world; Ozzy Osbourne… Snoop Dogg quit smoking pot; Paul McCartney and Bono tried to save the world; Ozzy Osbourne said a lot of ridiculous, incoherent things; Eddie Vedder rocked a mohawk; “an R. Kelly imposter” had himself some sexual relations with a minor on camera; Eminem released an album, starred in a movie and flipped the bird to pretty much everyone; “Britney” and “Emo” became words that epitomized uncool; Axl Rose came back from the dead; Andrew W.K. did multiple high-kicks and partied hard; garage rock hit the mainstream; Young “authentic” female singer-songwriters such as Avril Lavigne surprised the pop world by being “so real;” Phish ended their ever-so-agonizing hiatus; Michael Jackson became an official nut job by calling Tommy Mottola the devil and dangling his baby off a balcony; Beck got introspective on our asses; Christina Aguilera showed us as much of her naughty bits as her label probably allowed her; Pamela Anderson married Kid Rock; Lance from ‘N sync nearly became the first dumb-ass in space; Britney and Justin broke up; Pink was M!zzundastood; We couldn’t get Kylie Minogue out of our heads; Nelly patented the phrase “it’s getting hot in here,” making it impossible to say in regular conversation without following with “so take off all your clothes;” Wilco fooled Time Warner into buying their album twice; Audioslave made us think twice about liking Rage and Soundgarden in the first place; the White Stripes went from indie-rock darlings to red-clad rock icons; the guy from Nickelback styled his perm; and everyone lived happily ever after (except for Joe Strummer of The Clash, Jam Master Jay of Run-DMC, Lisa “Left Eye” Lopes of TLC, Dee Dee Ramone, John Entwhistle of The Who, Layne Staley of Alice in Chains, and Mary Hansen of Stereolab.)

That is, in a nutshell, 2002.

List No. 1: Wilco to Neko Case

by CLINTON DOGGETT

Five great albums that didn’t come out last year

by CLINTON DOGGETT

List No. 2: Norah Jones to Breaking Benjamin

by BRIAN PALMER

List No. 3: Buffy the Vampire Slayer to Counting Crows

by DAVID J. McCARTHY

Five great albums that didn’t come out last year

by DAVID J. McCARTHY

List No. 4: Beck to Liars

by TONI BARTONE

Five great albums that didn’t come out last year

by TONI BARTONE