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The staff of Mother Jones is, once again, rounding up the heroes and monsters of the past year. This is a non-exhaustive and totally subjective list, giving our reporters a chance to write about something that brought joy, discontent, or curiosity. Happy holidays.

Whether it’s AI-generated music artists debuting on the Billboard charts, music labels courting TikTok virality, Grammy-nominated artists using AI to help write lyrics, or streaming services making it increasingly difficult to listen to full albums, watching the music industry slowly deteriorate has made me feel pessimistic about its future.  

So in November, when Rosalía dropped her new song “Berghain”—a lush, operatic pop single sung in German, English, and Spanish and accompanied by a full symphony orchestra and choir—my interest was piqued. I became really invested watching an interview between the Spanish pop star and Zane Lowe about her fourth studio album, Lux. Rosalía told Lowe that the album was an excuse to do what she was craving most at the time: reading and studying about “spirituality and........

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