Photograph by Nadav Kander

• We unveiled our Top 50 Albums and 100 Best Singles of 2008, then asked our readers to tell us their favorites. Plus, with Benjamin Button himself gracing the cover of our year-end issue, we posted an excerpt from Brad Pitt’s RS interview.

• Coldplay and Joe Satriani continued arguing about who wrote “Viva La Vida.” Satriani said the band “figured this little guitar player will leave them alone” while Chris Martin insisted that “Viva” was the band’s own creation and any similarities were coincidence and not plagiarism. We know how to settle this: Take it to court!
• We started a war of epic proportions when we set lovers of Twilight actor Robert Pattinson and the worldwide collective of Jonas Brothers fan clubs against each other in an effort to discover which fanbase was crazier. Names were called and fangs were revealed.
• We talked to Death Cab’s Ben Gibbard about a Postal Service reunion, Of Montreal’s Kevin Barnes about his MGMT collaboration, Snow Patrol’s Gary Lightbody about his influences and Panic at the Disco’s Ryan Ross about being mistaken for Mick Jagger. Plus, we went backstage at the Brian Wilson concert, hung with Slash at the Les Paul benefit and reminisced with Fall Out Boy’s Patrick Stump about his first bong hit.