42 Musician & Rock Star Jokes: The 2010 “Teenage Dream, Dark Twisted Fantasy & The Biebs Fever” Edition

In 2010, pop music became larger than life. Katy Perry turned the world into a candy-coated dream, Kanye West retreated to Hawaii to build a masterpiece out of his own ego, and a Canadian kid named Justin Bieber made “Baby” the most viewed (and most disliked) video on the internet. It was the year we learned that “Tik Tok” wasn’t just a social media app yet—it was Ke$ha’s lifestyle—and that five boys from the UK “X Factor” were about to become the biggest thing since The Beatles.

The 2010 Soundboard Top 10: “Teenage Dreams, Power & The Meat Dress”

1. The Katy Perry “Teenage Dream” Domination: Why the whipped cream cannons? Because Katy released an album that tied Michael Jackson’s record for five #1 singles, proving that 2010 was officially colored in California Gurls neon.
2. The Kanye West “My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy” Redemption: Why the 30-minute movie? Because after the VMA incident, Kanye gave us the “greatest album of the decade,” proving that if you’re a genius, people will eventually forgive you for anything.
3. The Lady Gaga “Meat Dress” Moment: Why the flank steak? Because Gaga showed up to the VMAs dressed as a butcher’s shop window, proving that fashion wasn’t about looking good—it was about making everyone in the world confused.
4. The Justin Bieber “Baby” Explosion: Why the hair flip? Because Bieber-mania officially became a global health crisis, turning every 12-year-old into a “Belieber” and every adult into a hater.
5. The Eminem “Recovery” Era: Why the “Love the Way You Lie”? Because Marshall Mathers traded the accents for raw emotion and Rihanna features, proving that he was still the king of the charts even when he was sober.
6. The One Direction Formation: Why the third place? Because Simon Cowell put five random teenagers together on The X Factor, proving that losing a contest is sometimes the best way to win the world.
7. The Ke$ha “Animal” Arrival: Why the glitter bath? Because “Tik Tok” became the anthem for a generation that wanted to wake up feeling like P. Diddy, even if they were just late for class.
8. The CeeLo Green “F* You” Viral Hit:** Why the colorful video? Because he wrote the most polite-sounding angry song in history, making it impossible not to sing the radio-friendly version “Forget You” at church.
9. The Arcade Fire “The Suburbs” Shock: Why the Grammy win? Because a group of indie-rockers from Montreal beat Lady Gaga and Eminem, making everyone in the world ask: “Who is Arcade Fire?”
10. The Bruno Mars “Doo-Wops & Hooligans” Debut: Why the fedora? For the man who proved he could write a #1 hit for B.o.B (“Nothin’ on You”) and then do it for himself with “Just the Way You Are.”

The Full 2010 Musician & Rock Star Archive

11. The Rihanna “Loud” Era: Why the red hair? For the moment Rihanna decided that every song she touched had to be a club anthem, from “Only Girl (In the World)” to “S&M.”
12. The Robyn “Body Talk” Trilogy: Why the “Dancing on My Own”? For the Swedish queen of sad-pop who made crying on the dancefloor the coolest thing you could do in 2010.
13. The Vampire Weekend “Contra”: Why the girl on the cover? For the band proving that “upper-class indie” could reach #1 on the Billboard charts.
14. The Nicki Minaj “Pink Friday” Breakthrough: Why the many voices? For the queen of the Barbz proving she could out-rap everyone on Kanye’s “Monster” before even dropping her debut.
15. The LCD Soundsystem “This Is Happening”: Why the “I’m Losing My Edge”? For James Murphy’s “final” album (at the time) that made everyone feel like an aging hipster in a disco.
16. The Mumford & Sons (U.S. Takeover): Why the vests? For the year America officially surrendered to the banjo and the “stomp and holler” movement.
17. The Drake “Thank Me Later” Debut: Why the “Best I Ever Had” remix? For the moment Drizzy officially moved from “mixtape king” to “stadium superstar.”
18. The Beach House “Teen Dream”: Why the hazy synths? For the ultimate dream-pop album that made every rainy afternoon feel like a scene from an indie movie.
19. The Kings of Leon “Come Around Sundown”: Why the pressure? For the band trying to follow up “Sex on Fire” while slowly realizing they were getting tired of each other.
20. The Tame Impala “Innerspeaker” Debut: Why the psych-rock? For the moment Kevin Parker showed up to tell us that the 60s were back, but with better drum compression.
21. The Black Keys “Brothers”: Why the “Tighten Up”? For the duo that proved you only need a garage and a soul rhythm to win a Grammy.
22. The Janelle Monáe “The ArchAndroid”: Why the tuxedo? For the sci-fi soul masterpiece that proved the future of music was being built in Atlanta.
23. The Slash Solo Debut: Why every singer? For the hat-wearing legend proving he could get everyone from Fergie to Ozzy on one record.
24. The Gorillaz “Plastic Beach”: Why the island? For Damon Albarn bringing Snoop Dogg, Lou Reed, and Mos Def to a cartoon beach for the coolest party of the year.
25. The Shakira “Waka Waka”: Why the World Cup? For the song that was stuck in everyone’s head during the entire summer of 2010, thanks to the vuvuzelas.
26. The Deftones “Diamond Eyes”: Why the owl? For the band returning from tragedy with their most powerful and atmospheric album in a decade.
27. The Enrique Iglesias “I Like It”: Why Jersey Shore? For the song that proved Pitbull was officially the guest feature on 90% of all songs in 2010.
28. The Crystal Castles (II): Why the grave cover? For the band that made electronic noise sound like a beautiful nightmare.
29. The Linkin Park “A Thousand Suns”: Why the electronics? For the band ditching the riffs for a concept album about nuclear war that confused the “In the End” fans.
30. The Taylor Swift “Speak Now”: Why the solo writing? For Taylor writing every single word of the album herself to prove she didn’t need any help to conquer the world.
31. The My Chemical Romance “Danger Days”: Why the colorful blasters? For the band ditching the black parade for a high-octane post-apocalyptic road trip.
32. The Kanye, Jay-Z, Rick Ross & Nicki “Monster”: Why the verse? For the five minutes where Nicki Minaj became the best rapper on the planet.
33. The Sleigh Bells “Treats”: Why the noise? For the duo that made it cool to have your speakers sound like they were literally exploding.
34. The Big Boi “Sir Lucious Left Foot”: Why the Outkast solo? For proving that he was still the funkiest man in hip-hop, even without Andre 3000.
35. The Iron Maiden “The Final Frontier”: Why the #1 in 28 countries? For the legends proving that classic metal could still beat pop stars in the digital age.
36. The Florence + The Machine (The Nobel Peace Prize Performance): Why the harp? For Florence becoming the official voice of “Grand” indie music.
37. The Scorpions (Farewell?): Why the “Sting in the Tail”? For the band announcing their retirement in 2010… and then deciding to keep going for another 15 years.
38. The Death of Ronnie James Dio: Why the “Devil Horns”? For the loss of the greatest voice in heavy metal, the man who gave the genre its spirit.
39. The Death of Captain Beefheart: Why the “Trout Mask Replica”? For the loss of a true avant-garde visionary who made music as weird as humanly possible.
40. The MGMT “Congratulations”: Why no “Kids 2”? For the band deliberately making a weird psych-prog album just to see if their fans were still paying attention.
41. The Instagram Launch: Why the Polaroid icon? For the app that would eventually change how every band and singer looked, felt, and promoted themselves.
42. The 2010 Final Music Vibe: Why did the year feel so colorful? Because we were caught between Katy Perry’s candy world, Kanye’s dark dreams, and the Instagram filters that made our lives look like a lo-fi indie video, all while we waited for One Direction to tell us we were beautiful.