In curating The Vine's weekly Music Dump feature for most of 2010, I've read hundreds of pieces of music writing this year. If, as they say, writing about music is like dancing about architecture, the following 20 pieces are the closest we're going to get to Rudolf Nureyev inspired by Frank Lloyd Wright in 2010.

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What Ever Happened To Alternative Nation? Parts 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, & 6 by Stephen Hyden (The A.V. Club, October-December 2010): Stephen Hyden tells the story of the rise and fall of alternative rock music, musically and commercially, in the US in the 1990s, year by year (he's gotten as far as 1996, and will continue the story in the new year). By turns funny, informative and perceptive, this is essential reading if you ever once gave half a shit about Pearl Jam, the Smashing Pumpkins, Live, Nirvana, or Liz Phair.

Please Allow Me To Correct A Few Things by Bill Wyman (Slate, November 2010):
The central conceit of this article is that it is written by Mick Jagger in response to Keith Richards' autobiography, telling his side of the tale, and that Mick accidentally mailed it to Bill Wyman the music critic instead of Bill Wyman the former Rolling Stones bass player (in reality this was written by Wyman the music critic). However, if I were Mick, I'd claim that I actually wrote this, because Mick and Keith haven't spoken for 20 years, and this is an incredibly elegant evisceration of the myth of Keith Richards and the realities of life as a Rolling Stone from Mick's perspective. And do make sure you read Wyman's postscript to the article here, where he discusses what he was trying to do with the article.

Growing Up Gaga by Vanessa Grigoriadis (New York Magazine, March 2010): It was early in 2010 when people started realising that Lady Gaga wasn't just a regular pop star, but was something else: a cultural phenomenon whose music videos were events the way that Michael Jackson's used to be. Here Grigoriadis very ably tracks the birth of the phenomenon – the way she transformed from a slightly overweight art student making angsty singer-songwriter music into someone who would famously wear disco ball underpants and costumes made entirely of meat.

Inside The Lennon/McCartney Connection (Parts One, Two, And Three) by Joshua Wolf Shenk (Slate, September 2010): What with the hundreds of books written about the Beatles, you’d think everything interesting about the Beatles had been said long ago. But Joshua Wolf Shenk manages to create something new under the sun: he applies psychological research on the nature of creativity to how Lennon and McCartney went about creating things, and the results are insightful not just for Beatles fans but for people interested in creativity and getting the most out of partnerships.

Tragic Magic: Reflections On Power Pop by Michael Chabon (San Francisco Panorama/McSweeneys, December 2009): Chabon posted this article on his website when Alex Chilton passed away in March 2010. And no-one wrote a better tribute to the enduring appeal of Chilton's band, Big Star, and the genre of music they inspired:“power pop is a prayer offered by atheists to a God who exists but doesn’t hear.”

The World According To Gaz by Andrew Ramadge (Mess+Noise, October 2010): One of the more interesting examples of Australian music journalism that’s happened for a while; this is a novella-length treatment of a weekend Ramadge spent with Gareth Liddiard, Fiona Kitchin, and other assorted hangers on towards the end of the making of Strange Tourist, The Drone's frontman’s new album. It’s a) good writing; b) has a lot of interesting insights into where Liddiard is coming from; and c) long. But worth it.

Il Divo by Tim Murphy (New York Magazine, April 2010): An affecting profile of the singer Rufus Wainwright at a pivotal point in his life, after the recent death of his mother, Kate McGarrigle, who he was very close to. Wainwright's 2010 album Songs For Lulu was a sombre, piano-and-vocals affair, which divided critics; Wainwright is honest and open about the ways in which he copes with savage reviews, the dubious things he's done in his past, and his struggles in finding a new road for himself.

Shiny Shiny: A Future History Of The CD Revival by Tom Ewing (Pitchfork, March 2010): People have stopped buying CD singles already – it's all downloads these days. And so it is inevitable that there will be a revival of the compact disc. I mean, right now, there's even a cassette revival (which the Lucksmiths humorously anticipated in 2003's 'The Cassette Revival'). So, here, Ewing imagines a CD listening party in 2022, in which serious young music fans gather round an old CD player and are spellbound by the anachronistic nature of it all. Also, see Ewing’s fascinating detailed footnotes to the article.

Tour Diary Day Four: Rock And Roll Is Dead by Amy Klein (Amy Andronicus, August 2010): Klein, who plays guitar in the band Titus Andronicus, blogged from the road about reading through the latest Rolling Stone magazine. The latest US edition at the time had Anna Paquin naked on the cover, but the only picture of a girl playing a musical instrument in the entire magazine is one of Taylor Swift playing a sparkly guitar. And sure, Rolling Stone do it that way because sex sells. But to see pictures of women rocking out in a mainstream publication like that is to provide a gateway to another world to young girls who don’t identify with the way women are portrayed in the mass media – at least, says Klein, that’s what did it for her.

Keep Tickin And Tockin: Work It All Around The Clock by Jonathan Bogart (Exist Yesterday, March, 2010): It turned out that, in the US, the biggest selling single of 2010 has been 'Tik Tok' by Ke$ha (and I have to say, her follow-up single 'Your Love Is My Drug' is possibly my favourite chart pop song of 2010). Bogart's analysis of 'Tik Tok' and the rest of Ke$ha's album Animal is fascinating; it is possibly a fair bit more in-depth and thoughtful than her music deserves, but all the same he nails why Ke$ha is so fascinating/appalling.

Tim Byron