Flashback: The Hits & Hilarity of Music in 2006

Picture this: The year is 2006, you wake up in the morning to check if you have any myspace friend requests. You spend a solid half an hour deciding which friend to give your love for the day on Bebo, and spend even longer straightening out your bangs. Your ringtone on your Motorola Razr was a choice between Crazy Frog or a recording of your favourite song off the radio.

It was a year where all genres of music could live harmoniously together, the top of the charts could be a combination of anything from Black Fingernails, Red Wine,  to Welcome To The Black Parade, to Chasing Cars.

It was a year for longer song titles such as hits I Wish I Was A Punk Rocker (With Flowers In My Hair), I Don’t Feel Like Dancin’, and I Write Sins Not Tragedies.  Augie March took out Triple J’s Hottest 100 while Sandi Thom topped the ARIA Charts.

Internationally, Nelly Futardo was feeling Promiscuous, Shakira’s hips weren’t lying and Sean Paul had the right Temperature to shelter us from the storm. James Blunt became the first British artist since Elton John to top the Billboard charts with his annoyingly catchy hit You’re Beautiful.  The Red Hot Chili Peppers brought us album ‘Stadium Arcadium’ with hits Dani California, Snow (Hey Oh), and Hump De Bump, while The Killers were bringing us album number two with ‘Sam Town’ featuring rock anthem When You Were Young. 

Debuting artists included Arctic Monkeys with ‘Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not,’ Taylor Swift with ‘Taylor Swift,’ and Bring Me The Horizon with ‘Count Your Blessings.’

It was a great year for Australian music as well with Bernard Fanning taking out album of the year with ‘Tea and Sympathy’ while Wolfmother took out Best Breakthrough artist.  The charts were full of other Aussie artists including Eskimo Joe, Gotye, Hilltop Hoods, The Grates, John Butler Trio, and Something for Kate. Meanwhile, Neighbours star Stephanie McIntosh swapped acting for singing and brought us classic banger Mistake. 

Damien Leith was crowned winner of Australian Idol over Jessica Mauboy while the top 12 brought us the likes of Dean Geyer and Lisa Mitchell. Lily Allen was starting out her career after being picked up on myspace, topping the charts with Smile and LDN.

If you wanted to watch awesome video clips, such as OK Go’s viral treadmill music video for  Here It Goes Again,  you could now do so on your brightly coloured iPod nano all while syncing it up to your nikes to count your steps. Daniel Powter brought us the one hit wonder that was Bad Day, while Paris Hilton started and ended her music career with Stars Are Blind.

And finally, 2006 was the year that Justin Timberlake brought SexyBack.