The Best Music Of 2016
NPR Music ranked the 50 best albums and top 100 songs of the year. You'll find Beyoncé and Bowie, but there's so much to explore as we recount the ones we kept close in 2016.
Music & Culture
Vote For Your Favorite Albums Of 2016
Tell us what your top five new albums were in 2016. We'll compile a list of the 25 most popular picks and share them in the All Songs Considered podcast Dec. 13.
Heavy Rotation: The Songs Public Radio Couldn't Stop Playing In 2016
Every month, we ask public radio's music curators to share the songs they're loving right now. Here's everything they loved in 2016.
The Best 50 Albums Of 2016
These are the records NPR Music couldn't stop playing this year — ones that speak to a moment and a lifetime, ones that party, ones that exist in their own worlds.
The Top 100 Songs Of 2016
These are the pop anthems, rallying cries, party jams, riff rockers, perfumed piano pieces and emotional exorcisms that we loved to share this year.
Amanda Shires On World Cafe
The natural-born fiddler performs songs from a new album born just a few days before her daughter.
'Jackie' Shows A First Lady Behind Closed Doors — But The Music Is Front And Center
The score for the new film, which stars Natalie Portman as Jacqueline Kennedy grappling with the death of her husband, was written by 29-year old English composer Mica Levi (a.k.a. Micachu).
What's A Song That Could Ruin Your Whole Day? Our Listeners Respond
A Canadian police department jokingly said they'd punish drunk drivers by making them listen to Nickelback. That got us thinking: What song would you pick as punishment? We asked, you answered.
Marching Flute And Fantasy Fiction: The Education Of Lizzo
The Minneapolis singer and rapper spent her early life deep in the Pentecostal church — and shut away from secular music. When she moved to Houston, Texas, everything changed.
Heavy Rotation: 10 Songs Public Radio Can't Stop Playing
A panel of public-radio DJs recommends music for the end of your 2016 — including songs from Third Root, Regina Spektor and Sylvan Esso.