The albums that defined
the 2020s.

The 2020s are still in motion, but the shape is forming. The pandemic forced an acoustic-first turn (Folklore, Evermore, Punisher) that resolved within two years into something more maximalist. TikTok changed how songs find their audience and rewired what a chorus needed to do. The line between mainstream and underground keeps thinning; the line between music and content keeps blurring.

Hip-hop continues as the dominant gravitational force. Kendrick releases Mr. Morale and the year's best rap battle. Beyoncé pivots through dance music (Renaissance) and country (Cowboy Carter). The young guard — Olivia Rodrigo, Ethel Cain, MICHELLE Zauner's Japanese Breakfast — make records that sound nothing like each other but share a common confidence. Rock doesn't die; it just gets more interesting around the edges (Wet Leg, Big Thief, Black Country New Road).

Where to start: anything by the artists named above. The decade's still writing itself, and any "best of" written today will look incomplete in three years — but the records that have already broken through are worth a serious listen. Adjacent listening: the late 2010s catalog, especially the underground releases that the decade is still drawing from.