jason hirschhorn's @MusicREDEF: 12/28/2018 - Special Edition: Artists of the Year

Your music is a reflection of who you are, so if you want your music to be a certain way, you have to be that way. Is this interest remix not displaying correctly? | View it in your browser. "My Queen Is Janelle Monáe" will perhaps be a song on Sons of Kemet's next album. San Francisco, Aug. 12, 2018. (Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic/Getty Images) Friday - December 28, 2018 Fri - 12/28/18 "Your music is a reflection of who you are, so if you want your music to be a certain way, you have to be that way." -  Kamasi Washington rantnrave:// Some left their mark with a single video or a single concert. For others, it was a singular musical vision, a personal reinvention or an unstoppable drive. Today we share stories of the women (and men, too) who stepped up with music and song in 2018. Most of them moved the pop-culture needle in one way or another. Others simply moved music fans like us. Which is to say, this is subjective, obviously... For one last 2018 look at the artists who moved everybody else, here are the nearly 300 entries we've collected so far in our MusicSET "Best Music of 2018: The Year in Lists." - Matty Karas, curator thank u Stereogum There's Never Been A Pop Song Quite Like Ariana Grande's "thank u, next" by Chris DeVille For a singer who for years has been her generation's closest thing to an old-school pop diva, the road to the top involved bringing pop stardom in step with the breakneck evolution of modern life. Noisey The Deeply American Appeal of Donald Glover by Myles E. Johnson Black art rarely gets space to be nihilistic. Childish Gambino's "This Is America" is divisive, explosive, and embodies reality. The New York Times How Janelle Monáe Found Her Voice by Jenna Wortham After hiding behind an alter ego for years, the pop star is ready to step into a more authentic self with "Dirty Computer." Texas Monthly Kacey Musgraves Has a Surprise for Nashville by Skip Hollandsworth The country music provocateur and East Texas native talks growing up, "getting weird" onstage, and taking risks with her new album. The Muse Bad Bunny Is a Master Class in Betting on Yourself by Frida Garza To call Bad Bunny up-and-coming would betray an Anglo-centric vantage point. Though he just released his first full-length album, "X100pre," on Christmas Eve, in the world of urbano music, Bad Bunny has been famous for nearly two years, since his days of uploading tracks to SoundCloud while he also worked bagging groceries NPR Music Mitski Is The 21st Century's Poet Laureate Of Young Adulthood by Judy Berman Confessional and funny, boastful and self-deprecating, poetic and profane all at once, Mitski's songwriting captures the experience of youth in the 21st century. The Ringer Reporting Live From the Center of the Pop Universe: a BTS Concert by Andrew Gruttadaro The K-pop boy band are a worldwide music phenomenon, and their concerts help explain why. BuzzFeed How Beyoncé Called Out Coachella's Whiteness by Tomi Obaro By celebrating and offering up a history lesson on black music, the pop star's Coachella performance was a brilliant rebuke of the whiteness of most music festivals. Noisey Makaya McCraven's Utopian Vision of Jazz Could Change the World by Colin Joyce The drummer's new album 'Universal Beings' was recorded in four cities with four bands, turning moments of improvised genius into ecstatic beatwork. It's a testament to the power of music without borders. NME The 1975: Notes on an exceptional year by Dan Stubbs For the second time, The 1975 have topped NME's albums of the year list. We caught up with Matty to find out how he's feeling about all the hype. next The New Yorker Tierra Whack Stretches the Limits of One-Minute Songs by Doreen St. Félix "Whack World," her début album, is an exciting and disorienting project of economy, a fierce and imaginative effort to expand the parameters of her medium by compressing them. Village Voice Cardi B Is the Red Hot Boss Bitch of the Pop Moment by Carol Cooper Even her detractors can't deny the palpable strength of will that makes "Invasion of Privacy" vibrate with personality. The Undefeated How Meek Mill opened Sixers owner Mike Rubin's — and so many others'— eyes to a broken criminal justice system by Justin Tinsley From counted out to counted on: The rapper's new freedom comes with reality's nightmare — and a chance to change lives. The Outline Boots Riley Finally Staged His Coup by Eamon Whalen With the success of his movie "Sorry to Bother You," the musician and long-time radical is having an unexpected second act. NME Turnstile are the new shape of punk to come by Tom Connick Hardcore heroes Turnstile's latest record 'Time & Space' is a boundary-pushing reimagining of everything a punk band can be. Tom Connick catches them in the midst of a dizzying world tour to talk taking hardcore to dazzling new heights. PopMatters From Cowpunk to Sarah Shook by A. Loudermilk The early '80s subgenre cowpunk defied genre purism and redefined authenticity. That paved the way for today's hottest alt-country hero, Sarah Shook. The Ringer How Bebe Rexha Broke the Country Charts by Rob Harvilla "Meant to Be," the crossover hit featuring Florida Georgia Line, is about to make country music history--but no one in the industry can figure out why. Pitchfork Learning to Love Post Malone by Jayson Greene Whether he's singing about poignant heartache or "beautiful boobies," the pop star's party music is curiously affecting. The New York Times Pusha-T, a Lecturer Seeking a Target, Finds One by Jon Caramanica The rapper's new album, "Daytona," is filled with crisp rhymes over Kanye West beats. But his post-release war of words with Drake has had an even bigger impact. BuzzFeed News "A Star Is Born" Has Solved Lady Gaga's Musical Identity Crisis by Pier Dominguez Lady Gaga is the kind of multifaceted pop star A Star Is Born doesn't quite know how to portray, but her talent both brings Ally to life and proves that Gaga's star is still rising. The Muse Indie Rock Supergroup boygenius on Sad Girl Stereotypes and Not Treating Art Like a Product by Hazel Cills Phoebe Bridgers, Lucy Dacus, and Julien Baker are a welcome addition to the dusty supergroup canon. Jezebel talked to them about what they've learned from each other, how to deal with boygeniuses in real life, and why each of them is more than just a Sad Girl. Resident Advisor Knock Knock, It's DJ Koze by Matt Unicomb Sleepless nights, kick drums and cheap sunglasses. Matt Unicomb travels to Hamburg to meet one of dance music's most intriguing artists. Pitchfork How Destitute Times Inspired Julia Holter to Make an Album of Beautiful Excess by Philip Sherburne "Aviary," Holter's most audacious record yet, was the result of asking questions with no answers, and finding answers for questions she hadn't even begun to ask yet. The Muse Rosalía Is Redefining Flamenco by Ecleen Luzmila Caraballo Rosalía, hailing from Sant Esteve Sesroviras in Catalonia, Spain, has been a celebrated, rapidly rising flamenco artist in her home country for the past year—deemed "our Beyoncé" by the Madrid-based women's magazine Telva, "the latest great patron of contemporary flamenco" by Vogue Spain, and given the Woman of the Year award by the newspaper El Pais. The Ringer Billie Eilish Has a Billion Streams. Have You Heard of Her? by Lindsay Zoladz The steadily rising young singer-songwriter has reached a flashpoint of fame: Her generation knows all about her. Everyone else is next. Here's why. Noisey You Can't Deny Travis Scott Anymore by Lawrence Burney With "Astroworld," the Houston rapper and noted director of vibes displays a new polish to his best skills. Rolling Stone J Balvin's Latin Pop Crusade by Suzy Exposito He's on a mission to globalize reggaeton. Will the United States answer the call? The New York Times The Story of 'Mo Bamba': How a SoundCloud Rap Track Goes Viral by Joe Coscarelli Today, a rap recorded in 20 minutes can go from internet obscurity to a Drake-approved club smash. The artists Sheck Wes, 16yrold and Take A Daytrip show us how they did it. MUSIC OF THE DAY YouTube "Come Together" The Internet My favorite protest song of 2018, and I have no idea if that was the band's intent, it might be a love song, I just know that it lifted me and pushed me forward more than once when I really needed it. And I know that they, whoever they are, are indeed gonna get us to come together. "REDEF is dedicated to my mother, who nurtured and encouraged my interest in everything and slightly regrets the day she taught me to always ask 'why?'" — @JasonHirschhorn REDEF, Inc. 25 Broadway, 5th Floor New York, NY 10014 redef.com YOU DON'T GET IT? Subscribe Unsubscribe/Manage My Subscription FOLLOW REDEF ON © Copyright 2018, The REDEF Group