Welcome to Strictly Reading and Leeds’ year in review, just to fill you in, we’ll be running through all the big stories in music in our month by month guide, as we chronologically reveal our writers’ albums of the year.

We’ll be singling out our top gigs too, but we’re saving that for latter in the month as we don’t want the site to get so hectic that you end up missing out.

So let’s get to it, and we start with January the worst month in every music new year.

Bon Jovi; The highest grossing act in all of music

Week One: Doom And Gloom

Janurary started on a rather depressing note for most rock fans as Matt Cardle’s “When We Collide”, a tepid Biffy Clyro cover, enjoyed a yet another week at number one.

The album charts were a little more promising as Rihanna’s Loud snatched top spot from Take That, setting up a year of unparralled success for the American pop star who would would go on to sell out over 20 nights at the O2 Arena and subheadline V Festival.

Terrifyingly Bon Jovi were officially named the highest grossing act in world beating out U2 and AC/DC in the process. The New Jersy rockers album had flopped, but that didn’t stop them making a staggering 11 million pounds from playing the O2 arena alone, reportedly charging to to £100 for seats.

Believe or not, that was the good news, as the rest of rock music didn’t far so well suffering a major plunge in ticket sales to the tune of 12%, as storm clouds continued to gather over the beleaguered music industry. To make matters worse news broke that Downloads were no longer holding up the music industry as album sales plummeted globally.

On a lighter not Matt Bellamy confirmed his intention to play a gig in space and Lady Gaga finally got round to giving the then untitled Born This Way a release date.

To round of the week, the then unknown but highly touted Jessie J beat James Blake to win the BBCs Sound of 2011 poll, well say what you will about her music (and trust me I have a lot to say), but the BBC sure nailed that one.

Rock is Dead: A statement that saw the music world turn on itself

Week Two: More Of The Same

Rihanna topped both the charts as her collaboration with Drake, “What’s My Name”, mercifully kicked Matt Cardle to the curb. While Mumford & Sons, Tinie Tempah and Plan B continued to creep up the album charts and dominate music television, while on the singles chart a girl by the name of Katy B was slowly proving she was more than just a one hit wonder.

More doom and gloom for came Rock Music’s way as the Guardian sparked a hugely irrational debate by asking if “Rock Music Is Dead?” as sales plummeted and only oldies appeared to make both money and the charts. NME, Kerrang, Rock Sound, and seemingly every journalist in town saw an opportunity if not a solid answer to the question at hand.

Meanwhile it was announced that Conrad Murray would face trail, in a story that would last, practically forever.

The Brit Awards finished the week by promising to take music more seriously in an attempt to help the failing industry and promptly nominated Arcade Fire and The xx for major awards, while making the album of year the focal point of the show.

Trrent Reznor & Atticus Ross: One Down, One To Go

Week Three: Trent Reznor Hollywood Lovie?

As Loud continued to dominate the album charts, Rihanna was booted from the single’s top spot by Bruno Mars’ debut single “Grenade” and Jessie J’s “Do It Like A Dude”. Rather ominously Adele’s 19 was catapulted into the charts at number 4 on the back of some serious hype for her forthcoming softmore LP.

Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross’ sensational score for the equally sensational The Social Network won at the Golden Globes, making Reznor a firm favour for the forthcoming Oscars.

Adele releases 21 to some considerable hype

Week Four: Adele arrives

Bruno Mars found himself atop both the album and singles charts, but that wouldn’t last long as Adele’s 21 was released during the last week of January and was set to single handedly raise the spirits of clinically depressed music industry.

Arcade Fire announced a headline show at London’s Hyde Park following up two Sold Out nights at the O2 Arena, and cementing the unlikely heroes as one of the biggest bands in the world.

Kanye West teased following up 2011’s consensus album of the year, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, with a collaboration with Jay-Z while Suede began preparing new music ahead of a widely hailed comeback tour and rumoured festival dates.

And finally some bad news, The Electric Proms were axed and Blue were set to represent the UK at Eurovision.

Notable Album Releases In January:

Deaths In January: