1. Finger Eleven: "Paralyzer" (Wind-Up)
2. Radiohead: "Reckoner" (W.A.S.T.E.)
3. Sixx AM "Life is Beautiful" (Eleven Seven)
4. Consequence: "Don't Forget 'Em (G.O.O.D.)
5. Rhymefest: "Blue Collar" (J)
6. Kanye West: "Stronger" (Roc-a-Fella)
6. Justice: "D.A.N.C.E. (Ed Banger/Vice)
7. LCD Soundsystem: "All My Friends" (Capitol)
8. Kamelot: "Ghost Opera" (SPV)
9. M.I.A.: "Paper Planes" (Interscope)

The century's biggest bout to date started in '07, with a rabbity one-two that left the deliverer more dazed than the target. First, NBC yanked most of its content from YouTube. Then the doddering behemoth announced that, in partnership with Vivendi property Universal and Rupert Murdoch's News Corp, it was launching an on-demand, online service—Hulu—that also offers video sharing. Yippee! You can hear the execs now: "Focus-group results indicate that that YouTube's allure lies largely in its double-vowel. Let's just replace those nasty consonants with something more suggestive of our master, Cthulhu."

Even given the consortium's partnership with outlet-mall dot-coms AOL, MSN, and Yahoo!, it doesn't stand a chance of dominating the market. After all, we've been letting YouTube owner Google data-mine us for years. Why switch now, especially given YouTube's swelling legion of remixers, whistle-blowers, and cranks, not to mention the tireless researchers who brought us the likes of the dancer from Minsk and the Filipino prison-inmate interpretation of "Thriller"? YouTube's inclusiveness swings both ways, too—especially in music. While most of this mix's videos skew big-budget, its subjects make for exceedingly down to-earth-bedfellows.

The only Top 10 track by a Canadian band last year, Finger Eleven's dance-rock hit "Paralyze" subverts the ubiquitous club-as-locus-of-fun trope more effectively than any song since, uh, ever, with Franz Ferdinand's "Take Me Out" riff as a point of departure and lyrics both quantum and tantric. Director Barnaby Roper wisely shot the video outdoors in daylight, adding yet another twist and revealing that singer Scott Jackson could easily pass for Idolator mixtape contributor Peter S. Scholtes's younger, taller brother.

Speaking of looks and tricks, coming back from the dead (for real) has worked wonders for Nikki Sixx's songwriting powers. "Life Is Beautiful" hints at what Radiohead might have become had they seen "Paranoid Android" as a career map rather than just another in an endless succession of dalliances. Consequence and Rhymefest reveal that Joe Lunchbox rap is alive and struggling furiously, even as friend and colleague Kanye finds himself awash in futuristic glamor and Daft Punk's front-loaded, kidney-punch beats. Justice's face-concealing "D.A.N.C.E." takes the opposite tack, driving our attention to the constantly morphing designs on the duo's T-shirts.

Less glamorous still—even with an elaborately painted face—LCD Soundsystem's James Murphy sits motionless for the entirety of "All My Friends," letting sidepeople, lighting, and abstract squiggles (huge in '07: Sixx and Justice have 'em, too) take care of kinetics while he does his best to look like an insurance adjuster in the midst of asking his wife for a divorce. Kamelot's mildly disturbing "Ghost Opera" soars entirely over the top, enhancing the Florida-based power metal quintet's classically influenced bombast with a robed and masked orchestra and choir, a spectacular dancer, and a perfectly circular plot. "Paper Planes" makes good on its title while suggesting that Maya's finger-markswomanship harbors nearly as much room for improvement as Hulu in its current "Americans-only" beta state. Dude from Minsk would never be so stupid.

Rod Smith is a writer and teacher in Minneapolis.