There's something quite tragic in the fact that the Irish act who made the most impact on popular culture in 2009 were a couple of schoolboys who could neither sing nor dance. The absurdity of the phenomenon of Lucan's Grimes twins aka 'Jedward' reached such heights that not only did they get to share a stage with Paul McCartney on The X Factor final but also signed autographs for the Beatle's daughter. That's right: Macca asked Jedward for their autographs!

Sir Paul had a pretty amazing year all told -- seeing a seventh wave of Beatlemania take hold, with the complete remastered Beatles back catalogue and sumptuous new box set cleaning up, while the launch of the Beatles Rock Band video game introduced the music of the Fab Four to a whole new generation of tech-savvy kids -- that is, when they could wrestle the instruments off their dads (and granddads). Macca topped it all off with a heart-stirring trip down Memory (and Penny) Lane at Dublin's O2 venue last week.

The music news event of the year was undoubtedly the death of Michael Jackson, which led first to a media feeding frenzy over the exact manner of his premature demise, followed by a collective reassessment of the deposed King Of Pop's legacy. Though Jacko hadn't released anything worthwhile in 20 years, the glory of his music when he was at his peak dominated the airwaves and music TV stations, and the cinematic release of the footage of the rehearsals for his This Is It 'comeback' concerts was a cultural event.

Closer to home we also mourned the untimely death of Boyzone star Stephen Gately, whose tragic death in Majorca shocked the whole country.

The final year of the Noughties will be remembered as the moment when Lady Gaga assumed the crown of queen of the outré pop divas. Lady G was in yer face and on your TV and radio all year -- but she was only the most visible and outrageously dressed of a whole gang of female pop stars who injected fresh life into the mainstream music scene. Florence + The Machine, La Roux, Little Boots and Pixie Lott all burned brightly in '09 -- and all seemed readymade for stardom, with soundbites and stylists at the ready. Muscally, they represented a move away from Adele and Duffy's white soul revival of 2008 - instead re-animating early '80s electro-pop.

Florence Welch channelled Kate Bush's theatrics on her debut album Lungs, which took up residence in many critics' End-of-Year list; Little Boots suddenly made Yazoo and Kim Wilde hip again; while La Roux's androgynous, flame-haired frontwoman, Elly Jackson, looked a dead ringer for comic book hero Tintin. Jackson would go on to claim that her extravagant coif was ripped off by the terrible twins John and Edward.

From an Irish point of view, a lot of artists got in touch with their inner Moog and embraced expertly Kraft-ed electronica with gusto: Channel One, Tiny Magnetic Pets, Dark Room Notes, Patrick Kelleher, David Kitt and David Turpin all made fine albums that sounded bang up to date and of the moment.

But guitar music was hardly dead and buried: And So I Watch You From Afar emerged as one of the most exciting live bands in the country and Delorentos delivered a knockout sophomore album. Four of our most popular acts also returned to the fray: The Coronas soared high in the charts with their second album Tony Was An Ex-Con; Bell X1 touched down with Blue Lights On The Runway; Glen Hansard's Swell Season reconvened for Strict Joy; and U2 took over the BBC to launch No Line On The Horizon.

The latter was, by their standards, a critical and commercial flop, although their three-night stand at Croke Park was one of the events of the summer, even if the logistics of dismantling the stage equipment in the dead of night provoked the ire of disgruntled locals. It was a case of 'I fought the Claw, and The Claw won'.

Jape was the unanimous and popular winner of this year's Choice Prize, with his third album Ritual.

In the kooky corner, Lisa Hannigan re-released her Sea Sew album and definitively moved out of Damien Rice's shadow with headline shows in Vicar St. Julie Feeney returned wearing a dress made out of the score for her new album, Pages.

Her video for Impossibly Beautiful was also irresistible, featuring a mind-boggling number of costume and hairstyle changes.

And Hilary Bow announced herself as one to watch with her musically sophisticated second album, entitled Oneness. But of all the gals, Dublin-born Imelda May was the big success story. The undisputed poster girl for rockabilly wowed the summer festivals and headlinedDublin's O2.

Perhaps the most pleasant surprise of the year, though, came from Mundy. It had looked like he'd painted himself into a corner with The Galway Girl, but I Miss The Country from his album Strawberry Blood saw him come across as Offaly's answer to Grant McLennan.

And 2009 was also the year when theaformentioned O2 came of age as a venue. Memories of the unloved Point receded as we finally got a proper, grown-up concert space in which to see the world's biggest acts -- something which the fans of everyone from Neil Young, Leonard Cohen, Depeche Mode and Miley Cyrus all cheered as one.

Here's to 2010.

nkelly@independent.ie

- NICK KELLY

Irish Independent