Scenes 'n' Soundwaves: December 2022

It's the end of another year, and of course it's time to look back on anything and everything that had transpired over the past twelve months. And that of course includes the music I listened to.

While 2022 started off like any other year, with indie and alternative artists taking their usual spots on the Scenes 'n' Soundwaves 100---from the onset, I knew it would be different. Two of the local, aspiring artists that made an impact in 2021--ScreenAge and Oneiric, essentially split up, the former having the top song each of the last two years. And while the two members of that band still performed in various capacities, there were no new releases from them in 2022.

Last year, there were only two songs that you could qualify as "Carolina Beach Music": Deb Browning's "Stop Messin' With My Man" and The James Hunter Six's "I Can Change Your Mind". That all changed by springtime when Ms. Browning's new song with a band called The Six Piece Suits, "Take Me By the Hand" hit the blog chart, prompting three of Deb's older songs to debut or return to the SNS 100. "Take Me By the Hand" was the first beach music song from the region to hit #1 here.

Deb Browning has the Scenes 'n' Soundwaves #1 Song of 2022 with "3 More Minutes". She placed four songs on the Top 100.

It opened up the floodgates for beach music--Deb was followed in short order by Lesa Hudson, Rick Strickland, The Carolina Coast Band, The Main Event Band, just to name a few. And then came "3 More Minutes".

The song, written and sung by Deb had a high debut and hit the Top Ten in its second week. Following two weeks at #1 the song stayed in the Top 20 for 17 more weeks, garnering the "Song of the Summer" award, and is still in the 20's on the most recent SNS chart, buoyed by current #1 status on Mitch Harb's and Ray Scott's latest charts.

"3 More Minutes" is the Scenes 'n' Soundwaves number one song for 2022.

As it did much of the year beach music claimed half the Top 10, and a quarter of the Top 100---even more if you include reverse crossover songs from Zac Brown Band, Lizzo, Harry Styles, and Elton John & Britney Spears. Deb Browning herself had four entries, including two with the Six Piece Suits. "Take Me By the Hand" came in at #3, giving Ms. Browning two of the top three songs, duplicating ScreenAge's feat from a year ago. The Rick Strickland Band's members placed five--Two from Lesa Hudson and three from Rick himself. The Main Event Band, featuring Sharon Woodruff, had two songs as well. And Starbuck's "You're the Reason" put the band--essentially original front man Bruce Blackman these days, on the Top 100 for the first time since 1976.

Pop artists scored well this year. Three Billboard Number One songs--by Harry Styles, Lizzo, and Steve Lacy, made the list, and another...Kate Bush's 37-year-old "Running Up That Hill", which reached #3 on Billboard, helped by its inclusion in the Netflix show Stranger Things, also placed high on the list. One other Billboard Top Ten, OneRepublic's "I Ain't Worried" (#6 Billboard) placed on the blog list. Others who have had pop success in the past, including Sia, Ellie Goulding, and Halsey, also placed a song here.

For a while it looked like Styles would have the first dual year-end #1 since Ed Sheeran's "Shape of You" in 2017, but, just as Glass Animals' "Heat Waves" and its record run on the Hot 100 beat out "As It Was", (despite that song's 15-week reign at the top, the longest by a solo artist with not featured vocalists, the song fell victim to "3 More Minutes". However, it's the first time since 1973 and Billboard and I agreed with the number two song of the year. That year had "Bad Bad Leroy Brown" by Jim Croce in the runner up spot.

The British indie movement which began last year continued with last year's breakout successes Anna Lavigne and Tim Izzard combining for ten songs on the list. Ms. Lavigne placed four songs, including three from her most recent album Roses for the Ride. And Izzard landed six songs in three different configurations: Three solo, two as part of the online band Orbis Max, and one as half of The Aziz Project duo.

But rock...of the indie, and alternative variety was still alive and well. The Black Keys, for the second time in four years, placed two songs in the Top Ten, both from their first mainstream alternative album since 2019, Dropout Boogie. Florence + the Machine, and Red Hot Chili Peppers logged their first entries in several years with new albums (in the Peppers' case, two).

Local and aspiring artists still contributed to the list. While Steve Shouse hails from Kansas, he hit the list both with his solo "Back to 69" as well as his Internet outfit Einsteins Dad, which featured three of the New Jersey-based Hounds of Winter. Staten Island twin-sister duo Hegazy had three songs, Queens artist David F. Porfirio, and Long Island trio Øff Guard had one apiece. New Jersey's Isn't It Always, Philadelphia's Joy Again (with two entries) and Massachusetts' Eavesdrop, also placed on the list, while the likes of other Jerseyans like Donna Missal and Sharon Van Etten were also included. The Garden State did take a backseat to other regions in 2022. Aside from Ms. Van Etten, Ms. Missal,Isn't It Always and members of Einsteins Dad, Ryan Chatelain made the list. Both Chatelain and Jennifer Cintron, also on here, performed at Roselle Park's Arts Festival this year, along with ColorJoy which was the spin-off duo of ScreenAge which had performed the prior two years.

It was a rather quiet year for country music, with Sam Hunt and Zac Brown Band, helped by beach music airplay scoring here. Two songs that made the 2021 list carried over into 2022: Anna Lavigne's 'Dance the Last Goodbye", whose four-week run of that song straddled both years; and Fleet Foxes "Featherweight".

Wednesday, December 28, 2022

Top 100 of 2022: Browning, Styles, Beach Music, Pop and Indie Artists Dominate