The year 2014 has had its fair share of ups and downs, and with the year's best albums, artists, performances, TV shows, films and websites all ranked up and behind us, it's time to turn to the stories that kept you clicking this year.
So, without further ado, these were the most popular news stories of the year, as determined by theMusic.com.au's readers…
1. rolling stones tour: press conference live blog
Readers were left with a mix of genuine sympathy and understandable concern following the untimely death of L'Wren Scott, the long-time girlfriend of Rolling Stones frontman Mick Jagger, which resulted in a hasty early-Aussie-tour departure for the veteran rockers before later rescheduling the remainder of their planned shows for later in the year.
2. car crashes into crowd at sxsw
Reports — some from eyewitnesses — began to filter in during this year's South By Southwest conference in Austin, Texas, of an unthinkable incident: a car fleeing police had crashed into a crowd of people, leaving four dead.
3. video of fatal sxsw crash aftermath [warning: distressing scenes]
As mentioned above, some scenes contained within are distressing to watch, but you clicked anyway — such is the uncomfortable duality of graphic, heart-rending events.
4. gwar's management to issue statement on frontman rumours
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Following then-unsubstantiated rumours surrounding the death of GWAR frontman Oderus Urungus/Dave Brockie, the band's management issued a statement confirming the unfortunate news.
5. eminem rapture concert stage times are here
A true feast for fans of the hip hop genre, punters in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane were eager to find out who was playing at which times as part of the more-than-six-hour-long, Eminem-led Rapture show series early this year.
6. scary kids scaring kids vocalist found dead at 29
Tyson Curtis Stevens, of Scary Kids Scaring Kids and Coma Prevail, passed away in his sleep less than a month after celebrating his 29th birthday.
7. what songs will eminem play at rapture?
For fans of Eminem who were headed to his Rapture shows in Melbourne, Brisbane and Sydney back in February, Auckland's inaugural set list proved too tantalising a document to discount when it came to an early peek at what Aussie punters could expect in kind.
8. exclusive: 360 sober after recent stint in rehab
The outspoken rapper revealed early this year that he had completed a three-week stint in rehab in late 2013, and credited the total detox with saving his life.
9. ac/dc may scrap tour plans and split up: reports
OK, so things didn't quite pan out the way it seemed it might, but the threat of a total Acca-Dacca meltdown and dissolution was all too real for a little while there.
10. duff beer to launch in oz with pop-up moe's tavern
Sure, the official Duff Beer line didn't last long, suffocated in a mess of red tape over advertising and influencing children, but there's no denying that, when the prospect was floated of being able to crack open a real-life, non-knock-off, frosty-cold Duff at a pop-up Moe's Tavern, we were tripping over ourselves to find out more about it.
