The sounds of 2014

It may only have peaked at number six on Germany's singles chart, but the official World Cup song for 2014 - "We are One (Ole Ola)," penned by Australian songstress Sia and ramped up for the occasion by Pitbull and Jenifer Lopez - set the tone for a rambunctious year in German popular music. And where there is frivolity you can rest assured Schlager isn't too far behind. Equally loved and loathed (but secretly mostly loved), that unique brand of folksy pop so ubiquitous in the German-speaking world is to this country what schlock-country is in the US. In 2014 Siberian-born Schlager songstress Helene Fischer remained queen of the après-ski, with a triumphant domestic tour and perpetual success of her 2013 multi-platinum album, "Farbenspiel" - which remained in the top 10 for much of the year.

US megastar Taylor Swift continued to top both charts and headlines in Germany with her record-busting album "1989." In November, Swift removed all of her music from the Swedish streaming service Spotify, reigniting the heated debate over artist streaming royalties. Spotify's response was gold, if obsequious: "Taylor, we were both young when we first saw you, but now there's more than 40 million of us who want you to stay, stay, stay. It's a love story, baby, just say, Yes."Wall of sound

1989 - the year, not just the album - was also in the hearts and minds of Germans as Berlin celebrated 25 years since the Berlin Wall was breached. At the Brandenburg Gate people partied as though it was 1989, with artists such as Udo Lindenberg (famed for his classic "Sonderzug nach Pankow"), Leipzig's techno titan Paul Kalkbrenner, German hip hop giants Fanta4, multi-talented Clueso and British surrealist pop maestro Peter Gabriel performing for the jubilant masses. Gabriel offered a stunning rendition of David Bowie's Wall-inspired anthem "Heroes," written and recorded in Berlin and inherently associated with the city.

2014 was in fact the year the Thin White Duke made his return to Berlin - albeit not in the pallid flesh. The triumphant Bowie retrospective at the Martin Gropius Bau drew locals and tourists wanting to experience the intimate archives of Berlin's favorite adopted son.

The year inevitably saw its share of tragedy, with the death of Phil Everly of the Everly Brothers, proto folk singer and activist Pete Seeger, hit-factory Bobby Womack, punk pioneer Tommy Ramone and Cream's legendary frontman Jack Bruce.

But where there is death there is rebirth, and it was the year hip hop rose from the ashes to reinstate itself - with Felix Blume (better know as Kollegah), Cro and Haftbefehl breaking out of the hip hop ghetto to penetrate the mainstream market in Germany, and beyond. Bursting out of a different ghetto was bearded Austrian drag queen Conchita Wurst, who in May took the crown at the Eurovision Song Contest in Copenhagen with "Rise like a Phoenix." Many saw her win as indicative of tolerance in the European populace, but few disputed that Conchita can actually sing.

Bits and Bonos and Bobs

Where there is music there is celebrity, and where there are celebrities there is Bono. The bespectacled stadium rocker was back with U2 and "Songs of Innocence," the most downloaded album in the history of, well, ever…thanks to a deal with Apple's iTunes. As it turned out however, neither Apple or U2 predicted the fury that would be unleashed amongst some of the 500 million iTunes users who were less than pleased at this unexpected arrival in their album playlist. One critic described it as "rock and roll as dystopian junk mail." Apple was quickly forced to release instructions on how to un-install the album.

But Bono is never knocked down for long and, before we had time to raise a cynical eyebrow, he was back with his old Irish comrade Bob Geldof and Band Aid 30, with a recycled version of that modestly-endearing ditty "Do they Know It's Christmas?" to raise funds for the Ebola crisis. The song would go to number two in the German charts, trumped by the German-language version starring, amongst others, Adel Tawil, Andreas Bourani, Clueso, Jan Delay, Udo Lindenberg, Wolfgang Niedecken and the legendary Toten Hosen frontman Campino. The glühwein reference clearly got it across the line.

Battle of the titans

The German album charts weren't immune to foreign meddling though, with big hitters One Direction, Coldplay, Ed Sheeran, Sam Smith, Foo Fighters, David Guetta and Pink Floyd carving up their share of the world's fourth largest music market.

Music brings people together - and the superlative manifestation of that saying is the music festival. The biggest names in global and German music were out in force this year as well at aural pilgrimages such as Wacken Open Air, Rock am Ring, Hurricane, Southside and Rock im Park, performing for hundreds of thousands of eager punters.

In September, Berlin's former Tempelhof airport became global music industry HQ as the Berlin Music Week featured keynotes, conferences and showcases galore. By November, it was back to the future in Berlin when in a matter of minutes, electro pioneers Kraftwerk sold out all eight album retrospective concerts to be performed in January at the city's New National Gallery. And recorded between film shoots, certified legend Herbert Grönemeyer crowned the year with the chartbusting "Dauernd jetzt" - shoring up his status as the most successful German artist…ever!