Best Music Of 2018 The year's essential songs, albums, videos and performances.
Best Music Of 2018
Childish Gambino (left) performs onstage during the 2018 iHeartRadio Music Festival. Rosalía speaks onstage during the 19th annual Latin GRAMMY Awards. Janelle Monae performs in Los Angeles in June and Kacey Musgraves performs at the 2018 Stagecoach Festival in April. Kevin Winter/Getty Images for iHeartMedia; David Becker/Getty Images for LARAS; Kevin Winter/Getty Images; Christopher Polk/Getty Images for Stagecoach hide caption
Vocalist Rosalia earned the Alt.Latino critics' top spot in 2018. Courtesy of the Artist hide caption
Bruce Springsteen at the final performance of Springsteen on Broadway, among the 100-plus songs, albums and live shows picked by members of NPR Music's team as the best musical moments of 2018. Taylor Hill/Getty Images hide caption
Just a little of our year's worth of listening. Felix Contreras/NPR hide caption
Mac Miller performs a Tiny Desk Concert on Aug. 1, 2018. Eslah Attar/NPR hide caption
Jlin. Ebru Yildiz/Courtesy of the artist hide caption
The debut album by the Aizuri Quartet is called Blueprinting. David Stith/New Amsterdam Records hide caption
In 2018, Prince's estate released a recording from the artist's fabled vault called Piano & A Microphone 1983. Allen Beaulieu/The Prince Estate hide caption
J. Cole, onstage in Oakland this summer, refracted hip-hop through an absurdist lens on KOD. Tim Mosenfelder/Getty Images hide caption
The songs on Nao's Saturn, one of NPR Music's favorite R&B projects of 2018, matched the London-based singer's distinctive tone. Alex Colombino/Courtesy of the artist hide caption
