"Smells Like Teen Spirit" made Nirvana's Kurt Cobain a reluctant spokesman for Generation X, and the song became an anthem for a generation that didn't want one.
NPR Music celebrates the alt-rock heroes, Hollywood idols, Pulitzer-winning composers, jazz luminaries, cult legends, bold activists, old masters and rising stars the world lost this year.
Fiddler Jenee Fleenor is the first woman ever to win the Country Music Association's Musician of the Year Award. Her work is partly responsible for the instrument's resurgence.
"En Mi Viejo San Juan" is an unofficial anthem of Puerto Rico and the official anthem of San Juan. It evokes memories of the island for those who have left and a yearning on the island for those who are gone.
"It's fascinating how this guy could be this master draftsman and do hyper-realistic paintings, and then the next he puts the ear on the back of the guy's head."
After a decade of genre-blending, the definition of rock is very much up for debate. But for us — and for the purposes of this list — it means one thing: Guitars.
The past is always present — but with a practically endless selection of music to choose from via the web, it's nice when some of the world's best record labels help excavate it for us.