Right now who cares whether guitar music’s being ‘inventive’ or ‘innovative’ enough? Cram all that doodaddery, guitar music needs to rediscover the art of songwriting again, wipe the slate clean, earn its right to piss about again ‘cos we’re drowning in the lukewarm yellow stuff down here.

1999 was the year music exploded, the year when nothing made any damn sense, the year fans had to throw out any old-school rules for how pop worked

this year saw the world come out of the closet en masse and embrace perfect three minute melodic slabs in all their naked, bubblegum-skinned glory.

2004 saw MP3 blogs and other internet outlets paving new, industry-free avenues for should-be worldwide hits