40 Musician & Rock Star Jokes: The 2007 “Umbrella, In Rainbows & The Nu-Rave Glow” Edition

In 2007, the music industry felt like a sci-fi movie. Rihanna became a global weather event with a single song, Kanye West fought 50 Cent for the soul of hip-hop, and Radiohead decided that record labels were optional. It was the year we all learned to “shuffle” to electro-house and realized that a girl from Barbados and a guy in a robot suit were the new architects of pop.

The 2007 Soundboard Top 10: “Umbrella, Graduation & The Pay-What-You-Want Revolution”

1. The Rihanna “Umbrella” Reign: Why was it raining everywhere? Because Rihanna and Jay-Z created a hit so massive it stayed at #1 in the UK for 10 weeks, coinciding with one of the wettest summers on record. Coincidence? The fans didn’t think so.
2. The Kanye vs. 50 Cent Showdown: Why the sales war? Because Graduation vs. Curtis was the ultimate battle: Kanye’s futuristic “Stronger” synths vs. 50’s street grit. Kanye won, and hip-hop moved into the space age.
3. The Radiohead “In Rainbows” Experiment: Why the “Pay What You Want” price tag? Because Thom Yorke decided the internet was the new record store, proving that people would actually pay for music even if they didn’t have to.
4. The Amy Winehouse “Rehab” Explosion: Why the “No, No, No”? Because while the song was a global smash, the tragedy behind the lyrics started to feel all too real as Amy became the most stalked person by the paparazzi.
5. The Justice “†” (Cross) Arrival: Why the glowing cross? Because two French guys made distorted house music sound like a heavy metal concert, launching the “Nu-Rave” era of glowsticks and neon.
6. The Britney Spears “Blackout” Grit: Why the “It’s Britney, Bitch”? Because despite the personal chaos and the umbrella incident, Britney released a dark, avant-garde pop masterpiece that influenced the industry for the next decade.
7. The Soulja Boy “Crank That” Dance: Why the “Youuuuuu”? For the first song to truly go viral via YouTube choreography, proving that a 17-year-old with a webcam could change the charts from his bedroom.
8. The Foo Fighters “The Pretender”: Why the red background? For the riff that proved Dave Grohl could still write the biggest rock anthem of the year without breaking a sweat.
9. The Timbaland “Shock Value” Takeover: Why was he on every track? Because between Nelly Furtado, JT, and OneRepublic, Timbaland was the official architect of the 2007 radio sound.
10. The Arctic Monkeys “Favourite Worst Nightmare”: Why the speed? Because they proved the second album could be faster, louder, and even more clever than the debut.

The Full 2007 Musician & Rock Star Archive

11. The Daft Punk “Alive 2007” Tour: Why the pyramid? For the legendary live show that convinced an entire generation of American kids that Electronic Dance Music was the future.
12. The M.I.A. “Paper Planes”: Why the cash register sounds? For the indie-sleaze anthem that turned a Clash sample into a global hit about visas and street culture.
13. The Klaxons “Myths of the Near Future”: Why the glowsticks? For the Mercury Prize winners who convinced us all that “Nu-Rave” was a real genre and not just a lot of neon face paint.
14. The Bon Iver “For Emma, Forever Ago”: Why the cabin in the woods? For the ultimate indie-folk origin story: one man, a broken heart, and a falsetto that could melt snow.
15. The Mika “Grace Kelly” Bubblegum: Why the high notes? For the pop star who sounded like Freddie Mercury had been reincarnated as a colorful cartoon.
16. The LCD Soundsystem “Sound of Silver”: Why the disco ball? For James Murphy proving that “All My Friends” was the saddest and best song you could ever dance to.
17. The Avril Lavigne “The Best Damn Thing”: Why the “Hey! Hey! You! You!”? For Avril ditching the tie for a pink skull-and-crossbones and the biggest pop-punk hit of her career.
18. The MGMT “Oracular Spectacular”: Why the headbands? For the band that wrote “Kids” and “Electric Feel” and then spent the rest of their career trying to make sure nobody ever called them “pop” again.
19. The Linkin Park “Minutes to Midnight”: Why the change? For the band ditching the nu-metal scratches for stadium rock and “What I’ve Done.”
20. The Fergie “Big Girls Don’t Cry” (Peak): Why the tears? For the song that was played in every pharmacy and grocery store in the world for 365 days straight.
21. The Kings of Leon “Because of the Times”: Why the long hair? For the moment the Followill brothers started trading garage-rock for the “Sex on Fire” stadium sound.
22. The Gossip “Standing in the Way of Control”: Why Beth Ditto? For the anthem that became the soundtrack to every indie club night from London to New York.
23. The Maroon 5 “It Won’t Be Soon Before Long”: Why the 80s funk? For Adam Levine proving that “Makes Me Wonder” was the only way to kick off a summer.
24. The Arcade Fire “Neon Bible”: Why the pipe organ? For the indie giants proving they could be even more dramatic and grand than their debut.
25. The T-Pain “Epiphany”: Why the “Buy U a Drank”? For the man who officially made Auto-Tune the legal requirement for every R&B song in 2007.
26. The Alicia Keys “As I Am”: Why “No One”? For the soul ballad that proved Alicia could still dominate the charts with just her voice and a piano.
27. The Fall Out Boy “Infinity on High”: Why Jay-Z on the intro? For the pop-punk kings proving they were now big enough to collaborate with the King of Brooklyn.
28. The Feist “The Reminder”: Why the 1-2-3-4? For the song that became famous through an iPod Nano commercial and stayed in our heads forever.
29. The Paramore “Riot!”: Why the orange hair? For Hayley Williams becoming the new icon of a generation that just wanted to sing “Misery Business” at the top of their lungs.
30. The Plain White T’s “Hey There Delilah”: Why the acoustic guitar? For the song that proved you could write a hit about a girl in New York and have it become a worldwide obsession.
31. The Queens of the Stone Age “Era Vulgaris”: Why the lightbulbs? For the “dirty” rock album that sounded like it was recorded in a robot’s garage.
32. The Spice Girls Reunion: Why the “Return of the Spice Girls” tour? For the moment the world realized that “Girl Power” never actually went away.
33. The Led Zeppelin O2 Reunion: Why the “Celebration Day”? For the one night in London where rock royalty returned, and 20 million people applied for 18,000 tickets.
34. The Muse “HAARP”: Why the Wembley Stadium satellites? For Matt Bellamy proving that his band was now officially too big for this planet.
35. The Mark Ronson “Version”: Why the covers? For the producer who proved that any indie song could sound better with a 60s horn section.
36. The Babyshambles “Shotter’s Nation”: Why the headlines? For Pete Doherty continuing to make great music while the tabloids focused on everything else.
37. The Death of Lucky Dube: Why the silence in reggae? For the loss of a South African legend who used music to fight for peace and justice.
38. The Kate Nash “Made of Bricks”: Why the “Foundations”? For the “Lily Allen-esque” storyteller who made singing in a thick London accent the coolest thing of 2007.
39. The White Stripes (Final Tour): Why the Canadian tour? For the last time Jack and Meg toured the world together, ending an era of red, white, and black rock and roll.
40. The 2007 Final Music Vibe: Why did the year feel so electric? Because of the iPhone launch that changed how we listened to music, the neon colors of the Nu-Rave scene, and the realization that whether it was Radiohead’s free album or Rihanna’s Umbrella, the digital future had finally arrived.