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        It wasn't a bad year. Sure, there were vapid teen acts and Madonna's maternal and matrimonial goings on, but there was plenty of great music, even if we had to dig to find it.

        Here's a look at some of the recordings, events and trends that made a difference — the good stuff, in no particular order, that kept 2000 from being just a bunch of zeroes.

        1. Battle of the boy bands — 'NSync and Backstreet Boys fought for dominance of the pop charts, setting various sales records. Meanwhile, Cincinnati's 98` quietly earned its share of the spotlight with regular cover appearances on the teen mags and the charts. While Revelation failed to beat the Big Two, the disc was No. 25 after 10 weeks.

        2. Shows in weird places — 98` performed in the parking lot of the Waterfront for Disney Channel cameras.

NSync | ZOOM |

        In August, John Mellencamp turned up on Fountain Square for a brief, lunch-hour acoustic set.

        In November, the Artist Formerly Known as Prince took back his old name and celebrated with a Hit 'N Run tour that sold out intimate Music Hall and featured such classics as “Little Red Corvette,” “I Could Never Take the Place of Your Man” and “Purple Rain.”

        3. No global warming for WorldJam — In its second year, the free, multigenre music fest moved to Bicentennial Commons and dodged the monsoons that washed out its '99 debut. But the weather gods remained angry. Temperatures plunged, and even a great lineup of exotic locals like Mohenjo Daro, great, between-set drum circles and national headliners Koko Taylor, Angelique Kidjo, the Funky Meters, Chris Duarte and Ricky Skaggs' Kentucky Thunder bluegrass band couldn't lure more than a few thousand down to the riverfront.

        4. Locals make good — The year's biggest out-of-nowhere success story belonged to former Cincinnatian Itaal Shur, co-writer of Santana's mega-smash, “Smooth,” the biggest song on the 10-times-platinum Supernatural. Mr. Shur, who once played on the local scene with the Movies and bassist Chris Sherman, earned song-of-the-year Grammy honors for the tune.

Backstreet Boys | ZOOM |

        “Smooth” was the year's biggest hit for Arista Records. Even so, Santana's executive producer and label head Clive Davis was on his way out. His replacement? Cincinnati native L.A. Reid, whose LaFace Records was celebrating its 10th anniversary. One of his first moves was to sign his LaFace partner and old band mate from Cincinnati's Deele, Babyface.

        Katie Reider went nationwide when two of the songs from her Wonder debut were featured on the WB's hit series Dawson's Creek.

        The Ass Ponys came back big time with the year's best CD from a local band, Some Stupid With a Flare Gun. The band's Checkered Past debut featured Chuck Cleaver's unique brand of storytelling set to a bigger, more muscular band sound.

        Other great CDs came in this year from the Graveblankets (Where It Hurts), the Simpletons (The Simpletons), Bam Powell (Bam Powell & the Troublemakers), Greg Mahan (I Row My Boat Gotta Get It Afloat I'm the Man With the Plan . . .), Mary Ellen Tanner (Live at the Celestial) and Dallas Moore (Untold Stories).

        Over The Rhine released its debut for Virgin/Back Porch, a reissue of OTR's Good Dog Bad Dog. More recently, the OTR song, “Give Me Strength,” was featured on NBC's Third Watch. The song is from the band's new CD, Films for Radio, due out Feb. 27.

        The Afghan Whigs were quiet in 2000, as Greg Dulli released his side project, the quieter Twilight as Played by the Twilight Singers. With a hot band that included RC Mob/Howlin' Maggie leader Harold Chichester, Mr. Dulli brought the brief Twilight Singers tour to Top Cat's and proved he's still got it.

        5. Swing is dead. Long live western swing — The lindy-hopping, fedora-topping swing revival died, leaving local and national acts with closets full of useless vintage threads. But the alt-country movement gathered steam, as audiences of pierced and tattooed hipsters changed their '40s gear for Stetsons and cowboy boots. Steve Earle was acclaimed for another good album, Transcendental Blues, while BR5-49 twanged its way into local hearts at Jammin' on Main.

        6. Bluegrass breakthrough — In a related revival, bluegrass came back big, but more as a jam band offshoot. The BarrelHouse Brewing Co. became the local showcase for the new generation of cosmic, Colorado-based bands, including Yonder Mountain String Band, Runaway Truck Ramp and the Tony Furtado Band, as well as such non-Colorado bands as the Larry Keel Experience and Blueground Undergrass. Meanwhile crowds packed the Comet for its Sunday bluegrass jams. Together with shows at the Lockland and Ripley high schools, Hayes Brothers in Covington and Magus Productions at Southgate House, it's the biggest area bluegrass revival since the '70s.

        7. New faces — RAM-Z, a Cincinnati-based R&B trio, earned national airplay with “Let Me Be the One,” its debut single for TVT. The album arrives this winter.

        Cincinnati native Jonathan Lippman, who showed very bad timing when he quit 98` shortly before the group signed with Motown, is back on the national scene with True Vibe, a Nashville-based contemporary Christian vocal quartet now working on its debut CD.

        Cincinnatian Dan Miller, who came to national attention as just another wannabe in the ABC-TV show Making the Band, finally made the band and is now a member of O-Town, the Lou Pearlman-organized group that is on the charts with “Liquid Dreams.”

        8. Breakups — It was curtains for Smashing Pumpkins, Phish and the Zack de la Rocha-led Rage Against the Machine and the future of the Spice Girls is in doubt.

        On the local scene, we lost such prominent groups as Roundhead, Slant, the Brand, Circus of the Sun and Grace in Gravity. Other groups were in flux, as Ma Crow left the Flock to form her Crow Medicine Show, while David Rhodes Brown broke up his large band, Big Bill Pickle & the Legendary Jerkin' Gherkins, reverting to the stripped-down sound and no-frills name of his old Warsaw Falcons.

        9. Comebacks — Bruce Springsteen was back in the arenas with his E Street Band. Bon Jovi reunited. U2 finally made another great record. Classic R&B — with modern twists — continued its revival with fine new records by Erykah Badu and D'Angelo as well as newcomer Jill Scott.

        Locally, the big reunion was the Raisins, the area's all-time best original pop-rock band. The quartet of guitarist Rob Fetters, bassist Bob Nyswonger, keyboardist Ricky Nye, drummer Bam Powell and original drummer Chris Arduser reunited for Pepsi Jammin' on Main in May and two June shows at Top Cat's.

        10. Forever fab — Yes, it was the year of the boy bands, rock 'n' rap, Britney, Christina, Eminem and the latest bogeyman to strike terror into the hearts of record executives, Napster. When all was said and done, Napster downloads didn't cripple CD sales. In fact, the album topping the sales charts at close of 2000 business is filled with decades-old songs long available for downloading.

        The Beatles' No. 1 hits package is living up to its title. Looks like we'll still be needing and feeding George, Paul, Ringo and Yoko long after they're 64.

The Year In Review: TV & Radio
The Year In Review: Theater
The Year In Review: Popular Music
The Year In Review: Film
The Year In Review: Dance
The Year In Review: Classical Music
The Year In Review: Visual Art
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