Music supervisor for hit TV shows including Gossip Girl, Grey's Anatomy, and Mad Men -- along with the Twilight movie series -- Alexandra Patsavas has quietly made herself one of the most influential figures in the industry, helping to break new bands and shape the aesthetics of popular drama.

Britney Spears isn't meant to be taken so literally. Like, when she coos "Hit Me Baby…One More Time," she doesn't really want you to reel off and clock her.

On paper, flame-haired 23-year-old Brit Florence Welch seems just one of a dozen would-be divas to wash up on our shores this year. Fortunately for her, and for all of us, Welch’s charms are not best experienced on paper. Rather, they are best experienced in the cozyish 550-capacity Bowery Ballroom on Manhattan’s Lower East Side on a grimly rainy Tuesday in October.

Just over a year ago, we predicted New York’s Lissy Trullie would be one of 2009’s breakout stars. It’s nice to be right sometimes.

Some sequels are openly clamored for by the public. New Moon, perhaps. Others are totally mystifying -- Wrong Turn 3, anyone? Falling somewhere in between is the upcoming Shock Value 2, Timbaland's star-studded follow-up to his equally star-studded 2007 solo album.