The music world refused to stand still in 2025. This wasn’t a year for playing it safe. Across the globe and all over the stylistic map, music kept mutating in the weirdest, wildest ways. The artists ...

Rosalía made an album invoking the saints, Lily Allen took us on a tragicomic trip through her domestic hell, Lady Gaga found the sweet spot between artpop and arena-ready funk, and Bad Bunny was just ...

We’re at the end of yet another year where commentators and fans speculated on the health of the rap world. In October, it was reported that, for the first time in 35 years, there were no rap songs in ...

Eric Benét laughs as he realizes the moment: “Wait a minute… 30 years? That means I’m officially old now.” Next year marks three decades since the release of “True to Myself.” In 1996, Benét’s debut ...

The most compelling releases of the year reimagined hip-hop tracks, deep-rooted collaborations and longstanding inspirations. By Hank Shteamer In a year that saw the deaths of two leading drummers, ...

Stream this list on Apple Music and Spotify. See The FADER's 50 best songs of 2025. In a chronically online, AI-slop-embedded hellscape, Don’t Tap the Glass is Tyler, the Creator’s surprise social ...

Gary Lewis & The Playboys boasted a son of Hollywood royalty. And Al Kooper, rock royalty, helped write their big hit "This Diamond Ring".

The Korean pop outsider Effie and the Brooklyn indie-rock band Geese top our critics’ lists this year. By Jon Caramanica and Lindsay Zoladz Jon Caramanica Musicians know how to make music, and they ...

Ray Stevens has returned to work after a July heart attack and has announced a new album. “I’m trying to get strong enough to continue performing,” the Country Music Hall of Fame member said in a ...

Taylor Swift released an album so bad we won’t even talk about it. FKA twigs fucked around with EUSEXUA and found out… it got even better? Rosalía let her hair down from the Tower of Babel. Addison ...

So this is the future? Judging by mainstream music in 2025, humankind is not in a particularly creative place. The year’s main storylines included the rise of AI slop and cartoon K-pop. A number of ...

In 2025, the best rock music radiated self-assurance. That sometimes meant staking a claim to micro-genre legacies, but just as often meant leaning hard into idiosyncrasies. This year’s best and ...