The Year In Music: July 2010

New songs hitting radio playlists this month were Mike Posner’s “Please Don’t Go”, Robert Plant & the Band of Joy’s “Angel Dance”, 30 Seconds to Mars’ “Closer to the Edge”, Hey Monday’s “I Don’t Wanna Dance”, Usher feat. Pitbull’s “DJ Got Us Falling in Love”, Reba McEntire’s “Turn on the Radio”, Gwyneth Paltrow’s “Country Strong”, Kenny Chesney’s “Hemmingway’s Whiskey”, Third Day’s “Lift Up Your Face”, the Plain White T’s “Rhythm of Love”, Drake feat. Nicki Minaj’s “Up All Night”, Katy Perry’s “Teenage Dream”, KT Tunstall’s “Fade Like a Shadow”, Bruno Mars’ “Just the Way You Are”, Kevin Rudolph, Flo Rida, and Pitbull’s “You Make the Rain Fall”, Luke Bryan’s “Someone Else Calling You Baby”, and Alejandro Fernandez’s “Cuando Digo Tu Nombre”.

Janet Jackson, LL Cool J, Mary J. Blige, Alicia Keys, Earth, Wind, and Fire, Keri Hilson, Gladys Knight, Jill Scott, Mary Mary, and many more R&B and gospel acts perform in New Orleans for the 2010 Essence Music Fest.

On his 70th birthday, Ringo Starr performs with his “All-Starr Band” at Radio City Music Hall. The show featured surprise appearances from Zak Starkey (his son), Steven Van Zandt, Billy Squier, Dr. John, Ray Davies, Yoko Ono, and more, but the biggest surprise came when former bandmate Paul McCartney arrived to perform “Birthday”.

Though he received the honor in June, PBS stations aired Paul McCartney: The Library of Congress Gershwin Prize for Popular Song, In Performance this month. Filmed at the White House, the ceremony also featured performances from Stevie Wonder, the Jonas Brothers, Faith Hill, Jack White, Herbie Hancock, Corinne Bailey Rae, Elvis Costello, Emmylou Harris, Lang Lang, and Dave Grohl.

Lady Gaga plays three concerts at Madison Square Garden. The entire tour had a New York City theme, and Gaga declared during the second night’s concert, “I’ve been waiting my whole life to throw this party.”

Reflecting a summer full of botched, canceled, and undersold tours, the American Idols LIVE! Tour 2010 cancels eight of its 38 scheduled shows.

Jimmy Buffet plays a free concert to over 30,000 people in an effort to draw crowds back to Alabama’s BP oil spill-afflicted beaches. The event was also televised as Jimmy Buffet & Friends: Live From The Gulf Coast.

New album releases this month included Sky Sailing (Owl City)’s An Airplane Carried Me to Bed, Crowded House’s Intriguer, Paul Wall’s Heart of a Champion, Gorillaz’s On Melancholy Hill, Korn’s Korn III: Remember Who You Are, Marc Cohn’s Listening Booth: 1970, Big Head Todd and the Monsters’ Rocksteady, Tom Jones’ Praise & Blame, Paramore’s Summer Tour EP, Rick Ross’ Telflon Don, M.I.A.’s Maya, Newsboys’ Born Again, Sheryl Crow’s 100 Miles From Memphis, the Spill Canvas’ Formalities, Avenged Sevenfold’s Nightmare, and Kimberly Caldwell’s Without Regret.

It was announced that Enchanted actress Amy Adams will be playing the role of Janis Joplin in an upcoming biopic entitled Get It While You Can.

Some of the famous musicians we lost this month included Sing Along With Mitch’s Mitch Miller, the Moonglows’ Harvey Fuqua, guitarist Ben Keith, gospel star Walter Hawkins, “Queen of Bolero” Olga Guillot, Big Star’s Andy Hummel, country star Hank Cochran, guitarist Fred Carter, Jr., The Fugs’ Tuli Kupferberg, reggae singer Sugar Minott, The Moments’ Al Goodman, jazz musician Gene Ludwig, Cannibal & The Headhunters’ Richard “Scar” Lopez, and Disney’s Cinderella singer, Ilene Woods.