Jason King

The pop star has always loved out-trolling her trolls. But Doja Cat's fourth album and dramatic rollout pushes that persona further, interpreting her antics through a playfully demonic lens.

O'Connor committed to a lifetime program of dissent, discontent and refusal against establishment evils. She carried all that swirling vehemence in her body and exorcised it through her howling music.

The era-defining star's seventh album sparks a conversation about the infinite possibilities of dance music, the difference between fun and pleasure and why disco is always political.

Boldly going where few gay men of color have been allowed to go before, Lil Nas X won the year by joyfully violating cultural taboos and exploiting media far more than it was able to exploit him.

The gifted songwriter and singer wasn't a born superstar — but became something of a sleeper hit on the strength of his singing, songwriting and history-making collaborations.

We got two writers, Ann Powers and Jason King, going back and forth on what they've found in the reclusive singer's third album.

The YouTube star's virtuosic debut album, actually recorded in his room in the house where he was raised, reveals a young artist unafraid of gleefully trying it all.

No black artist who came before him aggregated so many diverse people in the service of anti-normativity and perverse polymorphism; the world is a better and richer place for it.

His clever idea in forming Earth, Wind & Fire was to power forward with an ethical black music that could force us to keep our heads up to the sky when it matters most.

She who ended Aretha Franklin's eight-year Grammy-winning streak deserves more credit than she's usually afforded: she was influential and flexible and a phenomenal singer.