Mullets: Still funny in certain corners of the Internet.

​The Song: Tyler, The Creator, "Bitch Suck Dick"
The Crimes: Ugh.

There really is no winning when one discusses the output of Tyler, The Creator, the leader of the West Coast hip-hop collective Odd Future, a skateboard-riding LA dude who this year showed the world that he loved the Neptunes and his mom as much as he adored getting attention for being "provocative" in ways that were codified by Malcolm McLaren way back before he was born (and that were subsequently furthered along by the likes of Fred Durst and the Insane Clown Posse). His role in 2011 was that of the foul-mouthed class clown who was seen by quite a few people as a cool bro, thanks to impeccable style coupled with an ability to rile up the squares—women, gay people, anyone who sympathized with either of those groups, etc. Cue the parade of fans, from critics to Justin Bieber to dudes on the Internet, lining up to try and get some shine from him, knowing full well that there was a good chance that telling him that they adored his work would get them spit and/or shit on. (Especially if they weren't famous.)

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​Sound of the City's year-end roundtable, with contributions from Tom Ewing, Eric Harvey, Maura Johnston, Nick Murray, and Katherine St. Asaph, continues. Follow along here.

Hi again everyone,

Sure, there was lots of great music put out by women this year—my Pazz and Jop top tens will be stuffed with them. But does that make 2011 a Year of the Woman by any stretch? I'd argue no, and I suspect the guy who I overheard on the subway the other day, who was complaining that while he liked Lady Gaga going to a concert of hers would make him feel like less of a man, would agree with me; those people horrified by "Super Bass"'s showing on the Pitchfork singles list might as well. If anything what bothered me about the Year of the Bro (yes, I'm calling it this now) was the way that gender roles became more circumscribed, the way that people who called bullshit on misogyny and homophobia (OK, I'm mostly talking about Tyler here) were mocked in ways that Nick rightly pointed out were absolutely conservative, and the end result was little more than a lot of empty laughter and "objective" music-blog reports that implied an overtightened sphincter on one side.

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Nicola Roberts, having herself a lucky day with the Village Voice.

​Sound of the City's year-end roundtable, with contributions from Tom Ewing, Eric Harvey, Maura Johnston, Nick Murray, and Katherine St. Asaph, continues. Follow along here.

Hey all. Again, thanks to Maura for putting this together, and thanks to Katherine for not only writing another outstanding recap of 2011 but also handing off to me no less topics than Bon Iver, PBR&B, K-Pop, all hip-hop, the cloud, and trollgaze. Where should I start?

Not with trollgaze, but we'll get there, for better or for worse. How about Nicola Roberts? I completely agree with you on that record, Tom, and I know from conversation that Maura and Katherine do too. (Eric?) I'd imagine that my experience with it was pretty common: Blown away by the singles, and by the fact that Cinderella's Eyes was almost a Girls Aloud album, it took me a while to allow it to develop into much more than that. I still enjoyed it plenty—amid the worst year for music ever, how could you not?—but not as much as I did once I started paying closer attention to its latter half.

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​Last night, Lance Bass—former 'N Sync member, aspiring astronaut, and now apparently boy-band guru—offered a tutorial on how to get your probably-jokey, possibly-somewhat-serious musical project noticed by those folks on the Internet who are looking for things to giggle at as they while away at work.

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Nicki Minaj: The VMAs' Bravest.

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It's been about 15 hours since the Video Music Awards blew by in a cloud of bleeped-out curses and plastic chains, which is just enough time to let the night's bigger-picture themes sink in. After the jump, a few thoughts on What It All Means For Us.

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MTV

Sort of the way I remember it.

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Welcome to Sound of the City's liveblog of the 2011 MTV Video Music Awards, the cable channel's annual paean to musically borne decadence and its own self-storied past. Tonight's roster of performers includes Lady Gaga, Beyoncé, Bruno Mars, Chris Brown, Pitbull, and Young the Giant, as well as a "surprise" performance by Jay-Z and Kanye West, a tribute to Britney Spears (not dead and celebrating the 10th anniversary of her dancing uncomfortably with a snake), an homage to Amy Winehouse (R.I.P.), and the looming possibility that Tyler, The Creator will crap himself onstage. The blogging starts below.

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Justin Bieber and Ludacris: Congratulations. A lot of people watched your video.

​On August 28, MTV will throw the 2011 installment of its Video Music Awards, honoring achievements in the art form that used to make up the majority of its programming. While it's all too tempting to note the irony that the channel has been marginilizing videos in favor of longer-form programming for nearly two decades now, the fact is that the music video as a pop culture force is in good health these days, with or (more often) without MTV's support.

The internet, broadly, has helped revive excitement around the music video, but credit can be specifically given to YouTube. The music video probably reached its nadir of interest and influence around 2005, just before the site exploded into popular consciousness and made streaming video more accessible both to watch and to upload. Not only do major-label stars finally have a place for their big-budget videos to be disseminated in a mass way resembling that of MTV's heyday; new artists have an unprecedented universal portal for their own low-budget clips, a development that's launched a constellation of stars from Justin Bieber to Kreayshawn and Pomplamoose.

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​Last night MTV announced the nominees for this year's installment of their annual pseudo-event extravaganza, the 2011 Video Music Awards, and once again, the nominees for Video Of The Year have three pop picks ("Rolling In The Deep," "Firework," "Grenade"), one sop to the olds in the crowd who still like to trot out the hoary, "LOL MTV, they should just call it 'TV'" argument (the Beastie Boys' "Make Some Noise"), and one pick designed to tickle the fancy of those people who like to chatter on the internet about pop music and its trappings—Tyler, The Creator's "Yonkers," which also got a Best New Artist nod but which didn't get nominated in any other categories. (You'd think the oft-put-upon MC would be peevish about not being up for Best Director, but I guess his butt got sufficiently kissed by his being up for the Big Moonman. He really wants it, you guys!) Anyway this is all pretty much a rerun of 2007, when the narrative suggested by the nominations was setting up an all-Kanye extravaganza in Las Vegas (he sampled Best New Artist nominee Peter Bjorn & John and got pissed at fellow Video Of The Year nominee Justice for beating him at MTV's European award-show arm) but then Britney And Her Bad Weave happened and that was out the door.

Anyway, consider yourself warned for the 9,356 thinkpieces and threats of MTV boycott and Twitter-arguments that will ensue between now and the VMA telecast on Aug. 28. Full slate of nominees below.

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Our panel of music experts has proven themselves less-than-expert on any number of legendary subjects--Metallica, The Clash, Boyz II Men, pretty much anything that doesn't have a Lindsey Buckingham guitar solo in it. So we thought we'd test their knowledge about current events. You can't click on any piece of rock criticism this month without seeing the words "Odd Future Wolf Gang Kill Them All." (Seriously, even the NPR review of the Paul Simon record might have stuck in the phrase "totally fucking swag.") There's a lot of chatter about these skateboarding, shouting, swearing, slur-tossing, syllable-flipping, stage-diving sociopaths--but do we really know who they're talking about? We asked 15 music critics:

How many of the 11 members of Odd Future can you name?

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​For an album so undeniably 2011, Tyler, the Creator's Goblin sure starts off sounding a lot like 1993. The first words we hear him spit on Goblin are "I'm not a fuckin' role model"--a slightly altered version of Charles Barkley's notorious Nike commercial from Clinton's first year in office, as well as the driving discourse of Tupac Shakur's fiery second album Strictly 4 My N.I.G.G.A.Z.

It's a strangely out of time way for Tyler to introduce himself, and it's not a look the fashion-conscious 20-year-old wears particularly well. In part, that's because the censorship battles accompanying rap's extended entrance into American pop culture seem quaint in 2011. But it's also because Tyler's fighting a handful of well-intentioned people who chatter about music (including yours truly) who are uneasy about gleefully granting Next Big Thing status to a kid with a Tumblr and fantasies about punching pregnant women.

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