Every year ’round this time @Slate’s #MusicClub is a special holiday treat & this week is the 2021 edition, hosted by the intrepid @carlzolius & joined by a cavalcade of music scribes. Below, a thread highlighting all the profound pop ponderings thus far. slate.com/tag/music-club… 
@Slate 1: Ringmaster @carlzoilus kicks off by defining the #GreatLanguishing & applies it to subdued returns from Kacey, Lorde, Billie &Adele. “The music that called on me in 2021 found a way to disperse some of these layers of existential fog.” @Slate #MusicClub slate.com/culture/2021/1…
2: @sashageffen on our hesitant return to live music & how Low’s new album, the #VelvetUnderground doc & a @100gecs show offered emotional breakthroughs. “A lot of the music I loved this year spoke to ways of untangling the ambivalence.” @Slate #MusicClub slate.com/culture/2021/1…
3: @lindsayzoladz considers acts who eschewed their “next big thing” status to sort thru the pandemic’s aftermath. “After a lockdown that made so many look at their relationships it’s unsurprising so many albums were products of divorce.” @Slate #MusicClub slate.com/culture/2021/1…
@lindsayzoladz @Slate 4: @TheQueenBRI reflects on a strong year for R&B & how the passing of #bellhooks is reflected by a new generation of soul queens. “Two of the year’s most acclaimed releases—by @jsullivanmusic & @IAMSUMMERWALKER—encapsulate that spirit.” @Slate #MusicClub slate.com/culture/2021/1…
5: @carlzoilus returns w/favorite 2021 albums from @julienrbaker to @drycleaningband to @tylerthecreator.“Let’s shake off the blues and get back to the year-end business of setting works of art up in arbitrary competition, why don’t we?” @Slate #MusicClub slate.com/culture/2021/1…
6: Steacy Easton takes on country music’s year of tension betw.the Wallen-Aldean wing &acts pushing back like Guyton/Isbell.“Country is hermetic enough…lately it feels like audiences push themselves into small and self-selecting groups.” @Slate #MusicClub slate.com/culture/2021/1…
7: @jack_hamilton weighs 2021’s spate of music docs—Beatles/Tina/BeeGees/#SummerofSoul—vs. music rights’ big-bucks blowup (Dylan/Bruce) & smells a rat.“We’re seeing an increase in commercial nostalgism aimed at juicing up catalog values.” @Slate #MusicClub slate.com/culture/2021/1…
8: @annkpowers considers how a post-genre music world is reflected online.“There’s a lot of talk about negative effects of fragmentation on our communities…but I see increased visibility redistributing attention across the pop-cult map.” @Slate #MusicClub slate.com/culture/2021/1…
9: @carlzoilus connects the dots on how our posts weigh “the hard facts of the industry, economics, wealth &power gaps that influence the ways music gets made, distributed, received &interpreted”—plus offers a list of 2021’s best singles. @Slate #MusicClub slate.com/culture/2021/1…
10: My turn—my 2021 was about not only languishing but emo-style oversharing, often over snarling guitars. “Postmillennial punk became the sound of soul-baring on the charts, at least for artists crossing into their twenties in the ’20s.” @Slate #MusicClub slate.com/culture/2021/1…
11: @RightByHerRoots admires new country voices pushing the biz to “deal w/contemporary definitions of identity…Grassroots coalitions of Black & queer artists are forming outside the industry, borrowing tools from political organizing.” @Slate #MusicClub slate.com/culture/2021/1…
12: @jennpelly on rediscovering the radio, reexperiencing live music &treasuring albums w/multiple collaborators.“That’s what I was after this year—the music that meant the most recreated the prismatic, many-layered feelings of community.”@Slate #MusicClub slate.com/culture/2021/1…
@jennpelly @Slate 13: @jawnita on Latinx music & the usefulness of genre—either defining or transcending it.“Eliminating genre can lead to erasure, specifically when the genre in question is self-designated &born of specific cultural/political influences.” @Slate #MusicClub slate.com/culture/2021/1…
@jennpelly @Slate @jawnita 14: Fearless leader @carlzoilus wraps it up w/a 12hr(!) playlist of tunes namechecked by the @Slate #MusicClub gang from Low to ABBA to Tinashe. “From pop hits to sidelined sounds…Music Club’s annual gift to everyone who engaged with our work this year.” slate.com/culture/2021/1…
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