If you want to know where music is heading, just listen to these 25 songs.
The New York Times Magazine compiled this list of songs and essays, reflecting on this moment in music history and noting the rising relevance of "the song" as a singular, digestible, private-yet-shared experience.
The playlist clocks in at just under 2 hours. You can listen to snippets on the New York Times Magazine website, or in its entirety on Spotify.
Several of the music critics joined us to discuss their choices:
- Nitsuh Abebe, story editor for The New York Times Magazine and a former writer for Pitchfork, takes us through the magazine's list.
- Doreen St. Felix, a writer whose work has appeared in The New Yorker and Pitchfork, discusses Rihanna's song "Consideration" off the album "ANTI," and where Rihanna fits into the larger conversation about music today.
- Wesley Morris, critic at large for The New York Times, discusses "Say No to This" and other songs from the "Hamilton" cast recording as they pertain to the larger conversation about the state of music now.