Adam Yauch

Looking back now, 2012 was a bittersweet year in headlines, as the pop world experienced some huge tragedies and blissful news as well. There was also tons of controversy this year, including counts of unexplained physical violence, spoken-word feuds and scandalous reconciliations. After reminiscing about the good, bad and ugly of 2012, which story do you think had the biggest headline this year?

While it's been a banner year for popular music in 2012, we can't forget about the musicians whose deaths had a huge impact on pop music this year. We had to say goodbye to some iconic music makers in 2012, and we're taking time to pay tribute to the pop stars who tragically died in our list of the Artists We've Lost in 2012.

When a death of a beloved music artist happens, it's not unusual for his or her music catalog to see a bump in sales. In the case of Adam Yauch, aka MCA, of the Beastie Boys, digital sales of the trio's albums skyrocketed on iTunes.