Ah M.I.A., it just wasn't your year, was it? Photo by Rebecca Smeyne.

​In 2010, Vampire Weekend and Arcade Fire both had #1 records. LCD Soundsystem, Spoon, MGMT, the National, M.I.A, and Sufjan Stevens all had albums debut in the top ten. Kanye West joined Twitter. Drake started a riot in New York. Converse opened a recording studio in Brooklyn. M.I.A. went to war with the New York Times. Pavement reunited. Juggalos went mainstream. From our vantage point, this year in music was one of the most lawlessly entertaining--purely ridiculous, even--in a long, long while. So in the spirit of the deluge of year-end lists even now beginning to rain down upon us (don't forget to vote in Pazz & Jop!), we figured we'd look back on our ten favorite storylines of 2010. They weren't necessary the biggest, but they were the ones that SOTC had the most fun with, and the ones we cared most about.

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M.I.A. at HARD Fest in July. Photo by Jens Joller.

​M.I.A.'s July HARD Fest imbroglio has now been well documented: the rain and poor sound that torpedoed her set; the ensuing argument over who had failed who; M.I.A.'s subsequent promise to make it up to all those who had been there with a free show in New York; a recent tour announcement that included no such free show; another assurance that it would happen; and, finally, a bewildering caveat -- the United States would have to let her mother back in the country before it did. Throughout the whole back and forth, her partners in the original endeavor -- the organizers of HARD Fest -- had been oddly quiet. That changed last week, as they began retweeting a steady stream of vitriol directed at M.I.A. What's going on between the two camps? We called up HARD Fest owner and organizer Gary Richards and asked.

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Skream and Benga (below) warm us up for the theoretical star attraction. Pics by Jens Joller.

​"I'm MIA's protégé: My name is Rye Rye!" yelled the young rapper from Baltimore at the onset of Saturday's Hard Festival. Unfortunately, it's been a long, long, terribly long year for her mentor. Between the great truffle-fry debacle, a painfully disappointing new album, and her getting the boot from MoMA onstage at her own album-release party, things just aren't going Maya's way in 2010. Watching the beloved singer's slow decline has been uncomfortably heart-wrenching, a mix of bad luck and bad decisions. This was a little of both: an eight-hour waiting game at Governors Island marking the pop star's "debut performance" since the release of /\/\/\Y/\, and inadvertently clearing up any lingering doubts: Not only is Maya overexposed, overworked, and overpaid, she's also in desperate need of a vacation.

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Eddie Brannan

​"I was at M.I.A.'s secret birthday party two days ago when Drew Barrymore walked in," says a smitten-sounding Theophilus London, the much-championed young M.C. who, contrary to his rap name, hails from Brooklyn's Flatbush neighborhood. "M.I.A.'s brother invited all her friends, people like Spike Jonze, but when Drew Barrymore walked in the door everyone was like, 'Oh my god!' I said, 'Hi.' I wanted to say more, but thought it wasn't appropriate. But I admire her and she's beautiful."'

A tryst with Barrymore might have passed him by, but London's ascent is underway, thanks to his ability to call on musical pals in hip places. Along with having his name on the guest-list at clandestine M.I.A. parties, he refers to Sleigh Bells as "mutual friends and fans," and is set to feature as the lead vocalist on the first single from TV On The Radio member Dave Sitek's upcoming solo project. This weekend, he performs at HARD NYC. In anticipation, we asked London--who, like his fashion-focused friends, has a foppish bent himself--for a list of fashion dos and don'ts, with an eye toward keeping everyone cool at the latest big show of New York's long summer season.

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​So the lineup for July 24's much-anticipated Hard Festival (not clashing with Siren!) has filled out somewhat, and... ????!!!!! Did anyone expect to see Die Antwoord's name in that giant a font that fast? Is this perhaps profoundly ill-advised? Have we even decided if these people are actually any good? Was their grand Coachella debut that well received? Will they bring this guy? Should redheads risk going to this? Should anyone?

​Governors Island July 24; tix on sale Friday here. Full lineup: M.I.A., Sleigh Bells, Theophilus London, Skream, Benga, Ninjasonik,12th Planet, Nguzunguzu, Borgore, Destruct, and the proverbial TBA. Here's an interview we did with Hard promoter Gary Richards back in October. You should totally go to this unless it's the same day as the Siren Festival, in which case, uh, forget I said anything.

​Hard, the California-based dance festival, has grown from a few thousand attendees at its first event in Los Angeles in 2007 to nearly 18,000 at its most recent party, in Inglewood, California. That event--which took place August 8--was closed down by authorities wary of unruliness and overcrowding. It was sold-out: dozens of people crashed a gate, rushed through the venue, and then climbed down a balcony to get the main-stage level. Several police agencies responded, and officers in riot gear eventually cleared out the venue.

But the Inglewood debacle was also evidence that the dance festival--which has featured acts like Justice, MSTRKRFT, A-Trak, Spank Rock, and Steve Aoki--has tapped a youth-quake of new audiences interested in electronic dance music that paints outside the lines of traditional, DJ-driven club genres. While most superstar DJs play linear, non-stop, beat-matched grooves that are typically confined to up-tempo genres such as trance, techno and house, a typical Hard act will perform live, mix hip-hop with electronic beats, or DJ different genres at different tempos.

As part of its expansion, promoter Gary Richards is bringing Hard to New York's Terminal 5 on Saturday. The inaugural lineup includes Crookers, Major Lazer, Rusko, Jack Beats, and DJ Destructo (Richards himself). While New York is no stranger to the Hard phenomenon--Girls & Boys, a party with a similar musical focus, happens Fridays at Webster Hall--Richards hopes to put it all under one tent for the first time. A veteran of countless dance-floor trends, the 38-year-old DJ is a forefather of early-'90s, West Coast raves--he once threw an event at Knott's Berry Farm amusement park-- and he went on to work for Rick Rubin's ill-fated 1990s techno venture. Richards eventually established his own nu electro record label, Nitrus Records, which has released music by New York's Kill The Noise and U.K. act Whitey. We recently caught up with the promoter to ask him a few questions.

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