Playlouder - Music is the Network

And so we reach the point of the year where all the PlayLouder writers stub out their post-coital cigarettes, roll over and ask one another, "how was it for you?" Yep, it's end of year poll time folks, which means we've spent the last week or so furiously adding up numbers, fiddling in Excel and writing about the top 50 albums and singles of 2006, according to us. And as we are always Right, we might as well carve 'em in stone and site 'em on top of a big hill to wait for Moses to come along and smite the buggers.

2006 was the year when the internet became an ever more powerful tool in the hands of musicians (and record labels, of course) with "mySpace" the word on everyone's lips as it became bigger even than online granddad Yahoo. Plus there was the power of the blogs giving credence to the notion that the Geek Shall Inherit The Earth, bedroom scribes hammering away their opinions as record executive slavered over their every word with chequebooks in hand - but whether the internet chatter translated into actual sales might be another matter entirely.

Anyone with half an eye on the charts can't have helped but notice that they've been dominated by legions of skinny white boys with distressed hair and leather jackets as the likes of Razorlight, Kooks, Kasabian and The Fratellis shifted units as fast as the underground shifted spittle in their direction. Indeed, 2006 could be said to be the year when guitar-based music split between the retrogressive chart fodder and a sparkling collection of smaller acts who still would have the potential for mainstream success. Away from the guitars the pop world's been more exciting than for a while too, with hardly a reality telly pillock in sight, Amy Winehouse and Lily Allen bringing some welcome feistiness to the at times rather blokey fray.

But that's enough of that, for it's time to unveil, with mighty fanfare of brass and exultant JOY!!!! The two buttons below, for you to click and gasp...