Explosive growth for concerts

Maybe it's because the record business is in free fall. Possibly it's because ticket prices are through the roof. It certainly helped that the Rolling Stones rolled out "A Bigger Bang," the top-grossing tour in the history of live music.

Whatever the reasons -- they're often a mystery in this industry, especially so during this time of unprecedented flux -- concert sales exploded in 2006.

Industry sources estimate that North American box office grosses were up from 12 percent to 35 percent over last year -- boosted by big names like Madonna, the Stones, U2, and Barbra Streisand, all of whom commanded record-setting prices. With prime seats going for $450, Mick and the gang pulled in $437 million in 2006. Not bad for a year's work.

But it wasn't just the box-office take that skyrocketed: Following years of decline, attendance was up in 2006, by some estimates as much as 14 percent over 2005. Boston's TD Banknorth Garden sold out 31 of the 78 concerts there this year, making it the fourth-highest-grossing venue in the nation in 2006 with more than $52 million in sales. Streisand, whose ticket prices topped out at a bank-breaking $750, set a house record this year at the Garden.

Of course, concertgoers didn't have to take out a second mortgage to experience a great live show. Boston music lovers were treated to riveting performances this year by indie-pop maestros the Mountain Goats at the Middle East, elegant rockers the Twilight Singers at the Paradise, and the inimitable Randy Newman at Berklee Performance Center. The British band Keane made a rare and transcendent club appearance at Axis -- happily, as singer Tom Chaplin checked into rehab soon after. And woe to the Who fan who didn't arrive at the Garden in time to see opening act the Pretenders, whose frontwoman, Chrissie Hynde, lassoed rock's visceral joy with thrilling conviction.

While the remarkable rebound in the concert industry in 2006 came as a surprise to many, the rapid growth in downloading was expected -- part and parcel of music's swift-moving transition from physical product to digital delivery. Tower Records, the flagship name in record superstores, went bankrupt and shut its doors for good, while digital downloading of songs increased more than 67 percent from 2005, according to Nielsen SoundScan. In the first 49 weeks of the year, fans downloaded 525 million individual tracks -- 173 million more than in 2005.

Our computers -- home to blogs, social networking sites, and file-sharing opportunities -- were also the foundation of a burgeoning grass-roots movement in music. This virtual community flexed its formidable muscle this year by anointing its own music heroes: Arctic Monkeys and Lily Allen became sensations with the simple act of posting a few demos for global consumption on a MySpace page -- cultivating huge fan bases online before the industry sat up and noticed.

Elsewhere in the technology revolution, cellphones were at the cutting edge as the hot new platform for selling and distributing music. All the major wireless companies launched either a la carte music services or subscription services that let users download full tracks right to their phones. The steep price -- $2 to $2.50 per track -- hasn't stopped Sprint customers from downloading more than 9 million songs so far.

While music delivery shifted into fast-forward, rock 'n' roll went into rewind to welcome a fistful of warhorses who made high-profile comebacks this year. Classic rockers the Who, glam-punk pioneers the New York Dolls, and singer-songwriter Yusuf Islam (the artist formerly known as Cat Stevens) released their first albums of new music in decades, and in October Iggy Pop and the Stooges went into the studio to begin work on "The Weirdness," the follow-up to 1973's "Raw Power," which will be released in March.

And while those former pillars of rebellious youth were mapping out a blueprint for rocking the twilight years, the youth of America was engaged in an entirely different, but no less startling, sort of trailblazing. Disney's "High School Musical" was the first soundtrack to a kids TV movie ever to land in the No. 1 spot on the Billboard album charts. Moreover, in a year of depressed record sales (down 5 percent in 2006, the fifth drop in six years) , with no breakout stars or blockbuster albums, the squeaky-clean "HSM" kids sailed past the superstars to become the top-selling album of the year. With its little-soundtrack-that-could poised to reach 4 million in domestic sales, Disney will premiere "Jump In," reportedly a hip-hop version of "HSM," in January.

(Justin Timberlake and Beyonce, by contrast, are still struggling to reach the 2 million mark with their albums; lucky for them the income stream is widening to include the burgeoning market of ringtones, mobile games, and video games.)

Ironically, in addition to wholesome tween fare, 2006 was also the year of the tart, boys included. (In a maverick move, Christina Aguilera cleaned up and went retro.) In some of the biggest songs of the year: Nelly Furtado reinvented herself as a "Promiscuous" girl, Timberlake brought "SexyBack," and Akon paid triple - X tribute to a pole dancer in "I Wanna Love You." Britney Spears didn't even need to release an album, just a few commando shots, to further cheapen her image. Here's hoping those darling "High School Musical" kids weren't watching.

So, to recap, the diagnosis for the music business in 2006 is: chaos. The prognosis for 2007? More chaos, as the recording industry continues to play catch-up with explosive growth of technology, music fans assume their rightful status as tastemakers, and the naughty and the nice duke it out, as ever, for cultural clout.

And finally, R.I.P.: James Brown, Ahmet Ertegun, Syd Barrett, Lou Rawls, Billy Preston, Arif Mardin, June Pointer, Wilson Pickett, Freddy Fender, Gerald Levert, Sandy West, Anita O'Day, and CBGB.

Joan Anderman can be reached at anderman@globe.com. For more on music, visit boston.com/ae/music/blog.