June 25, 2020
jmunney
Best of the 2010s, Best of the Decade, Music
Adele, Ariana Grande, Beck, Best of the 2010s, Best of the Decade, Beyoncé, Carly Rae Jepsen, Charli XCX, Childish Gambino, Daft Punk, David Bowie, Hans Zimmer, Janelle Monáe, Kanye West, Katy Perry, Kendrick Lamar, Kesha, Lady GaGa, Lana del Rey, Lizzo, Lorde, Major Lazer, Miguel, Miley Cyrus, Pharrell Williams, Rihanna, Sia, St. Vincent, Tame Impala, Taylor Swift, Tegan and Sara, The Black Keys, The Weeknd, Tove Lo, Vampire Weekend, Weird Al Yankovic
CREDIT: YouTube Screenshots
One more list! One more list!
My Best of the 2010s list-making journey has finally come to a close! (Or has it? … For now, it has at least. The future will come as it may, and it may just surprise you, and me.) All this week, I’ve been posting my rankings of a few categories that I was inspired to put together after submitting them to a Best of the 2010s polls that I’m participating in with some of my fellow cultural aficionados. To wrap it all up, I guide you along to the realm of music and lyrics, as I present the Best Musical Artists of the 2010s.
My criteria was similar to that of my choices for Best Film Directors. I considered a combination of how much I enjoyed their musical output as well as how much – and how well – they influenced the industry at large.
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April 16, 2020
jmunney
Best of the 2010s, Best of the Decade, Music
Adele, Ariana Grande, AWOLNATION, Best of the 2010s, Best of the Decade, Beyoncé, Carly Rae Jepsen, Childish Gambino, Daft Punk, Disclosure, DJ Snake, Justin Timberlake, Katy Perry, Kendrick Lamara, Kesha, Lana del Rey, Lil Jon, Lorde, Miguel, Miley Cyrus, Nile Rodgers, Pharrell Williams, Rihanna, Sia, Tame Impala, Taylor Swift, The Black Keys, The Chemical Brothers, Tove Lo
CREDIT: YouTube Screenshots
Of all the pieces of art and entertainment that I’m ranking for the decade, songs are probably the most personal. Yet somehow I feel compelled to consider how they affected the world at large moreso than all the other categories. The tunes that I value the most aren’t just the ones that make my own heart sing but also the ones that draw all of us closer together. So as I assembled this list, I asked myself both, “What has made me dance these past 10 years?” and “How would I like to dance with everyone else?” Here’s what that playlist looks like.
(I aimed to stick only to songs that were released as singles, as opening this to deep album cuts would’ve made things so overheated.)
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April 2, 2020
jmunney
Best of the 2010s, Best of the Decade, Music
A Seat at the Table, Audio Video Disco, Avicii, Awaken My Love!, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, Best of the Decade, Beyoncé, Black Messiah, Blackstar, Brothers, Childish Gambino, Circuital, D'Angelo, D'Angelo & the Vanguard, Daft Punk, David Bowie, Disclosure, Duck Sauce, Justice, Kanye West, Lana del Rey, Lemonade, Lonerism, Lorde, Miguel, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, My Morning Jacket, No Geography, Norman Fucking Rockwell, Pure Heroine, Quack, Random Access Memories, Settle, Solange, St. Vincent, Strange Mercy, Tame Impala, The Black Keys, The Chemical Brothers, True, Wildheart
One of the big themes about entertainment in the past decade is the incomprehensible explosion of available content in every medium. While this may be a recent development in cinema and television, it’s been the case for music for centuries, or even millennia. Since humans have been banging on rocks and clapping their hands, really. Of course, it was a little more recent than that when recorded music became readily available.
This is all to say, I of course haven’t listened to every album of the past ten years that made its way onto SoundCloud or Spotify, or even all the Billboard chart-toppers. But I did listen to enough of them to be able to assemble a vibrant and varied soundtrack of my life in the 2010s. Here are the musical collections of the era that I just haven’t been able to stop pushing play on.
[4/2/20 2:00 PM UPDATE: This post originally mistakenly included Justice’s †, which came out in 2007.]
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