Music

received an unexpected present from the Oregon Liquor Control Commission in March when the state agency killed its flawed minor-entertainer rule. Initiated in early 2003, the rule prevented entertainers under the age of 21 from performing in clubs where alcohol is served.

After taking a few big hits in 2003--including multiple club closings and artist deaths--Portland's music community came together and created PDX Pop Now!, a (hopefully) annual festival with a democratically elected lineup of all-local acts. Staged in July at the Meow Meow, the event was all-ages, free, exhaustive and packed with eager--and mostly sober--local music fans. Now that's weird.

As if wired into the minds of the average music consumer, Apple continued its iPod-led dominance of the digital music realm this year. According to the market consultant NPD Group, the iPod was responsible for 80 percent of sales of digital players this year. If 2003 was the year that the public invited Apple's genius music-gizmo into its homes, then 2004 was the year the cute little device set out to kill all the other pets.

It's not all Janet's fault that the Federal Communications Commission decided in 2004 that the First Amendment was ringing with a little too much freedom. The Jackson sister's Super Bowl wardrobe malfunction might have ignited a censorship campaign, but the conservative bent of the broadcast industry was mostly masterminded by the American Family Association, a disproportionately powerful lobby. The FCC ended up slapping fines all over radio and TV stations and closing its eyes to media outlets' self-censoring of "subversive" speech, including the Howard Stern show, the network airing of the war-is-too-graphic flick Saving Private Ryan and an ad featuring--eek!--gay parishioners.

Dastardly music downloaders felt the leather-gloved thwack of the Recording Industry Association of America, which sued hundreds of alleged illegal file sharers this year. The association even reached overseas to scare the bejesus out of digi-heads, suing the Australian creators of the Kazaa file-sharing service. If the RIAA wins, it'll mean disaster for hordes of file-swappers who have downloaded the entire Kinks catalog for free.

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WWeek 2015