Kev Nemelka

2016 made for quite the bipolar year in pop culture, and my picks for the best songs of the year are expectedly as bipartisan as they come.

2015 made for an intriguing year in music and culture. From the drab mystery that is Trump to Oxford’s word of the year, the line between the joke and the genuine is no longer the dichotomous divide it once was (e.g. the new and improved Bieber condition).

Here’s a quick guide to catch you up on some noteworthy post-ironic pop acts that have “everyone” talking.

Stevens is on the verge of releasing Carrie and Lowell, an acoustic project that many are comparing to the artist’s early-career works.

I wouldn’t venture to say these are necessarily the best songs of the year, but here is a list of favorites compiled by an American twentysomething music editor who grew up on the kind of music today’s artists are already recycling.

Because in reality, 1989 is proof that other artists have been doing what Swift is just barely discovering, both for a long while and on a much more interesting caliber.