Subject: Rick James

• The Year in Music: 2008's Top Ten Pop Songs

  BY ANNIE ZALESKIPop music often gets a bad rap for being disposable or vapid, and in many cases that's true. (Katy Perry, Danity Kane and the Pussycat Dolls, step right up!) But every year, a few irresistible bits of innovative ear candy rocket up the charts and seep into our subconscious. The following ten singles saturated the Top 40 -- or what passes for hit-oriented radio in this topsy-turvy musical climate -- while proving that accessibility doesn't necessarily preclude creativity. CHRIS BR

  December 18, 2008

• Heavy Petting

  February 26, 2004

• Stairway to Heaven

  January 27, 2005

• Weird Wedding

  May 25, 2006

• Guerilla theater

  Imposing Zen Guerilla frontman Marcus Durant helps bring blues to a punk audience - or is it the other way around?

  March 9, 2000

• Mullets Aren't Funny in '06

  January 5, 2006

• Excess Hollywood

  In the season of sequels and Happy Meal toys, '05 may be a pleasant surprise.

  May 19, 2005

• Murphy's Law

  He's Charlie Murphy, bitch!

  December 2, 2004

• Ghouls Gone Wild

  Guys get all the treats when girls do Halloween tricks.

  November 4, 2004

• 213

  The Hard Way (TVT)

  August 26, 2004

• Dream On

  Oh, what a wonderful world this would be if rock stars had their own Olympics.

  August 12, 2004

• Rick James

  Thursday, July 22, at Municipal Auditorium.

  July 22, 2004

• Night & Day Events

  Week of July 15, 2004

  July 15, 2004

• Vision ?uest

  ?uestlove is the hair apparent among the visionary Roots crew.

  July 15, 2004

• Identity Crisis

  What Djnotadj is in the studio is not what it is onstage.

  November 21, 2002

• Rick James

  Friday, July 26, at City Market.

  July 25, 2002

• Rap It Up

  Vertigo gets high with a little help from The Rock's Mike Savage.

  June 6, 2002

• Torch Songs

  Local rappers represent at the Olympics, but leave the salt out.

  February 14, 2002

• Tuesday, August 29

  Stir Fried, The Allman Brothers, and Buzztopia 2000

  August 24, 2000

• Fishbone & the Familyhood Nextperience

  The Psychotic Friends Nuttwerx (Hollywood)

  June 15, 2000