05 Gorillaz. After a rocky start that seemed almost too derivative of bands like Blur, Lovage and Cibo Matto, Gorillaz pulled a Jabberjaw last year with a more experimental, and ultimately more mature, sophomore album. But though lead singer 2D remains a consistent voice, the other members seem to change styles and influences so often that one wonders if they’re become soulless avatars, like the Power Rangers or Avril Lavigne. However, this year’s EP of b-sides is enough to keep Gorillaz in the Top Five, mostly on the weight of the superb “Hong Kong”, written while the cartoon band was actually vacationing in (presumably, a cartoon) Hong Kong.

04 Puffy (AmiYumi). Granted, if you aren’t under 12 or Japanese (or under 12 and Japanese) you haven’t heard much about Asia’s two-cartoon-girl-group Puffy, known as Puffy AmiYumi in the States to avoid confusion with Sean “Puffy” Combs. While the group is actually based on two real live girls (who could totally beat up Sean “Puffy” Combs), the Japanese are sufficiently cartoony enough that the half-hour Nickelodeon series based on them is in all ways identical, if not superior to, the originals. Though they’ve faded a bit in the Aderol-soaked brains of America’s youth, Puffy continues touring and airing in Japan, strongly enough to earn them a spot on this year’s Top Five.

03 sloshy. While (fictionally) being an underground college-band for (fictional) years, sloshy didn’t emerge from obscurity until this year’s excellent cover of “Because, It’s Midnight” by the (also fictional) hair-band Limozeen, one of last year’s top cartoon acts. sloshy then found a strong fan base with Strong Sad and (briefly) Strong Bad, two of the most powerful forces in the blogosphere. Um, blogoverse. Flash-cartoon-people-osphereoverse.

02 Alvin And The Chipmunks. Alvin and his boyz have been rolling strong for decades, despite many well-founded accusations of being “derivative,” “uncreative” and “just someone else’s songs played at 78rpm.” While a feature film is poised to destroy all their credibility, like the Spice Girls, Kid ‘n’ Play and the Beatles before them, it’s important now to remember the good times. Remember when he wanted a hula hoop? Remember the Chipettes? Remember when David Seville yelled “Alvin!!!”? Single tear.

01 Dethklok. If Dethklok wasn’t already the number one band in the world, ruling over music as well as commerce from a giant spiky fortress in Norway, one would be left wondering why the hell not. I mean, any band that calls its fans “brainless mutants” is just begging for quadruple-platinum-selling albums, mass suicides and their own island of wayward kitties. The fact that this cartoon band has also released an actual album, full of hard-hitting, deep-growling, ass-abusing deth metal, makes it a clear winner of the top spot among animated music acts.

–David deLeon

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