Ryan Van Etten Looks Back At 2010: Witnessing Change Like That In Eminem Gave Me Hope.

As we end the year, Hypebot asked some our favorite thinkers, writers, and friends to answer two questions – one looking forward and the other back. Here Ryan Van Etten, Editor / Producer of VirtualMusic.tv, makes up his own response.

Hope: There's something completely refreshing about pure honesty. Honesty is why I was drawn in by Eminem this year.

On Recovery, Eminem lets his vulnerabilities shine at the surface and he uses them to his advantage. The album is about personal change. It's the same world, but Eminem sees it differently now. Witnessing change like that gives me hope.

Skiba: Any Alkaline Trio fans out there? I didn't expect them to pull out something like they did this year: This Addiction. They've taken themselves back to the raw, playful, original sound that I fell in love with a decade ago. The best way I can describe it is that they've become one with their sound—and it's pure killer.

Bounce: Easily the best money I ever spent on software was on FL Studio a few years back. The best part about buying straight from the source is the free version upgrades for life. I hadn't worked on many drums in 2010 until FL Studio 9 came out. But always excited to try its new features, I installed it and was ripping it up in no time. I was inspired by software. But instead of making mainly rock drums like I've done for 5 years, I'm ready to bring out the big beat—I want to roll with The Chemical Brothers and make people bounce like turbulence!

I laid the groundwork for an electronic album in less than 2 days.

Flow: For me 2010 will be remembered as the year of The Ninja: Die Antwoord – Enter The Ninja hits me from every angle and it's the most moving thing I've ever seen on YouTube. It teaches us about art and people. To make great art one needs artistic flow. Die Antwoord lives it. The video now has 8.7 million views, 30 thousand comments, 25k likes, and 6k dislikes. 1 out of 5 is high dislike ratio, which brings me to the lesson about people: not everyone understands art.