Tuned up in 2008 Good music was everywhere, and yet sales continued to lag.

Axl Rose came back to life, and Lil Wayne gave the music business reason to hope that it's not dead yet.

In 2008, it seemed as though everybody on R&B radio wanted to sound like a robot, from rappers like Kanye West to singers such as T. Pain. Even some rockers, like My Morning Jacket, got in on the act.

In Year One A.A. - After Amy (Winehouse) - music fans were hit up with a steady stream of soul-pop acts, from the one-named troika of Adele, Duffy and Estelle to American Motown revivalist Raphael Saadiq.

Hard-rock dinosaurs roared again, with Metallica's Death Magnetic, AC/DC's Black Ice, and Guns N' Roses' 17-years-awaited Chinese Democracy leading the charge.

It was an excellent year for music from Philadelphia. Indie bands such as Dr. Dog and Man Man raised their national profiles. R&B newcomer Jazmine Sullivan secured five Grammy nominations. And hip-hop greats the Roots delivered the hard-hitting Rising Down, hosted the only-in-Philadelphia Roots Picnic, and landed on late-night TV as the house band on Jimmy Fallon's talk show.

Music was more omnipresent than ever. You could hear M.I.A.'s "Paper Planes" on your iPod, or cell phone, or computer, or satellite radio, or in the Pineapple Express commercials on TV.

The music business wasn't doing quite so well, though there were glimmers of hope. Lil Wayne's Tha Carter III sold more than a million copies its first week, and Coldplay's Viva La Vida, or Death and All His Friends nearly matched it the very next week.

Music sales continued to plummet, however. Just as a new economic model was being tested - making up for lagging sales by selling more concert tickets - the industry was hit by skyrocketing gas prices, and then the recession. At one label, digital sales exceeded CD sales, though business overall continued to slide.

But enough with the bad news. On to the best-of list: