Pop made a major resurgence in the latter half of the previous decade, and brought us bright new stars like Rihanna, Katy Perry, Lady Gaga, Miley Cyrus, Ke$ha and One Direction. But when all the dust on the past 12 months finally settles, 2013 may very well prove to be the year that Big Pop first began to go bust. Don’t stress too much about it, though — there’s a cyclical ebb and flow with this tide we call music, and today’s Syron may very well wind up being tomorrow’s Britney.
And so here we are in early December, bringing you our annual roundup of the year’s 10 best albums, as chosen by the Idolator crew made up of Robbie Daw, Sam Lansky, Carl Williott, Mike Wass and Bradley Stern. Aside from one iconic dance-pop act, a pair of hip hop luminaries and a sibling indie pop pair who surprised us all with the turn they took with their seventh album, a bulk of our picks are symbolic of the new breed of artists making an impression on the musical landscape. We probably wouldn’t have predicted their inclusion here a year ago — or even known who one or two of them were — but if Baauer taught us anything in 2013 (don’t worry — he’s not on this list), it was to expect the unexpected.
Head below to see the fresh new faces and the seasoned acts who bent our ears in their direction, and gave us our favorite 10 albums of the year. More »
