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    Chappell Roan, Kai Cenat, Shannon Sharpe Are Among Our Breakout Stars of 2024

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    Audacious, original and wielding a clear vision, the stars who rose to the top in 2024 pushed boundaries and took bold, even risky, choices. Here are 10 artists who shook up their scenes and resonated with fans this year.Pop MusicChappell RoanIt’s almost incomprehensible to think that last year, Chappell Roan still had time to work as a camp counselor.It’s not that she hadn’t been pursuing pop. Her debut album, “The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess,” was released in 2023. One of its now-hit singles “Pink Pony Club” was released back in 2020.But it was this year that all the pieces coalesced: Her album hit No. 2 on the Billboard 200 album chart and No. 1 in album sales; her extravagant drag-inspired persona, 1980s-influenced pop sound, soaring vocals and edgy performances have become wildly viral; she outgrew her tour plans; and her dance-along anthem “Hot to Go!” was even featured in a Target ad and played at sporting events.All the while, her lyrics tackle queer issues frankly. Her track “Good Luck, Babe!” — about a relationship between two women that collapses because one is, as Roan has put it, “denying fate” — was one of the biggest hits of the summer.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      What Song Did You Discover, or Rediscover, in 2024?

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      We want to know why it resonated with you.In a recent edition of The Amplifier newsletter, Lindsay Zoladz shared the music that shaped her year. She rediscovered a classic from the Smiths thanks to a karaoke party, dug into Neil Young’s back catalog after seeing him in concert, and revisited a Frank Sinatra standard because it reminded her of a cherished trip to Vermont.As she pointed out, not all of the music that will remind us of this year actually came out in 2024. Maybe your favorite song this year was an old tune you fell back in love with, a new-to-you discovery or a piece of music linked with an important event in your life. With that in mind, we’re asking readers: What song explains your 2024? Why did it resonate with you this year?If you’d like to share your story with us, fill out the form below. We may publish your response in an upcoming newsletter. We won’t publish any part of your submission without reaching out and hearing back from you first. More

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      in Theater

      36 Things That Stuck With Us in 2024

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      The movie scenes, TV episodes, song lyrics and other moments that reporters, critics, editors and visual journalists in Culture couldn’t stop thinking about this year.The Last Scene in a Film‘Challengers’Mike Faist in “Challengers.”MGMReal tennis, like real dancing, happens when the body is rapt and alive, where visceral sensation takes over and the only thing left is the crystallization of every nerve and muscle, both aligned and on edge. That last match was a dance.— More

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      in Theater

      The Highs and Lows on London Stages in 2024

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      Our critics discuss which A-lister performances on the West End were worth the ticket price, and why so many new musicals struggled this year.This year saw London host buzzy productions like Jamie Lloyd’s “Romeo and Juliet,” starring Tom Holland and Francesca Amewudah-Rivers, and Robert Icke’s take on “Oedipus,” with Mark Strong and Lesley Manville. Other productions struggled, including more star vehicles — and some musicals, particularly.Matt Wolf and Houman Barekat, The New York Times’s London theater critics, discuss the triumphs and the disappointments of the last year in British theater, and also look ahead to 2025.Which productions impressed you most?HOUMAN BAREKAT James Macdonald’s “Waiting for Godot” at the Theater Royal Haymarket was superb. The Beckett estate is famously proscriptive about what can be done with his plays, so the performers have to make their mark in small, subtle ways. Ben Whishaw and Lucian Msamati delivered a master class in timing as the leads.I was hugely impressed by Rachel O’Riordan’s take on “Faith Healer” at the Lyric Hammersmith, featuring Declan Conlon as an insidiously charismatic Svengali. On a lighter note, I also loved the National Theater’s arch, camped-up version of Oscar Wilde’s “The Importance of Being Earnest,” with its gorgeous staging and costumes.The cast of “The Importance of Being Earnest,” including Hugh Skinner, center, as Jack Worthing.Marc BrennerMATT WOLF I second Houman’s choices, and would extend further kudos to the writer-director Robert Icke’s scorching take on “Oedipus,” whose sold-out run proved that there is still an appreciative audience in London for serious theater. Special shout-out to Icke’s Jocasta, Lesley Manville, who is well on the way to becoming a giant of British theater.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      in Movies

      The Best Genre Movies of 2024

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      We look at the finest in science fiction, horror, action and international films, all available to stream.Science Fiction‘Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga’It’s been an odd year for science fiction. One of the best such narratives was the Broadway musical “Maybe Happy Ending,” set in 2064 Seoul and in which two obsolete robots fall in love. Streaming series gave us an astounding range of stories and aesthetics, from “Sugar” to “Fallout” to “Dune: Prophecy.”Feature films, on the other end, tended to be split between insipid or downright inept mega-budget productions and indies that often recycled similar premises.Thank God, then, for George Miller, whose “Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga” reminded us what cinema can do. This prequel to “Mad Max: Fury Road” recounts how Furiosa (Alyla Browne as a kid, Anya Taylor-Joy as a young woman) ended up in the Citadel run by Immortan Joe (Lachy Hulme), and how she lost an arm.The movie is in a constant escalation of one-upmanship, though Miller is only competing with himself at this point. Why settle for one madman, for instance, when you can stick your heroine in a power struggle between two of them? So the director introduces the warlord Dementus, played by a Chris Hemsworth unabashedly flirting with camp. While it is operatically berserk, “Furiosa” also has a stylish, virtuosic classicism. Miller did not wreck his legacy.— ELISABETH VINCENTELLIStream “Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga” on Max.Horror‘In a Violent Nature’Ry Barrett in the film “In a Violent Nature.”Pierce Derks/IFC Films/ShudderIn a year of humdrum haunted houses and soulless spirits, Chris Nash’s slasher film “In a Violent Nature” was a brutal knockout — a surprise too, considering that it’s as placid as it is gruesome.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Hear the Best Albums and Songs of 2024

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      A playlist of 103 songs from our three critics’ lists to experience however you wish.Mk.gee, a new type of guitar hero, made some of our critics’ favorite music of the year.Sinna Nasseri for The New York TimesDear listeners,Here at The Amplifier, we like to keep our playlists relatively brief, like bite-sized musical snacks you can nosh on when you have some downtime. But each December, when the critics are publishing our best-of lists, we like to offer up a much heartier feast. Well, I hope your ears are hungry (is that how it works?) because today is the day. It’s time for our annual playlist of the year’s best music — more than six hours and slightly over 100 tracks of it.These songs are culled from our critics’ year-end lists, featuring what Jon Pareles, Jon Caramanica and I have chosen as the year’s best albums and songs. There are obvious areas where we all overlap: All three of us, for example, appreciated the bawdy humor of Sabrina Carpenter’s 2024 hits and the towering ambition of Beyoncé’s “Cowboy Carter.” But what makes this playlist such a fun listening experience is the fact that there are many, many places where our tastes, opinions and preferences diverge.Some cases in point: I just cannot buy Addison Rae as a convincing pop star, while Caramanica put her breathy single “Diet Pepsi” as his No. 4 song of the year. The flip side, though, is that I seem to be the only one on staff who appreciates the former Little Mix star Jade’s frenzied debut solo single “Angel of My Dreams,” or Father John Misty’s epic “Mahashmashana,” both of which made my Top 10. Caramanica’s list reminds me that I need to spend some more time with Mk.gee’s “Two Star & the Dream Police” and Claire Rousay’s “Sentiment,” two albums I enjoyed on first listen but have not returned to much since. Pareles’s list, as always, has some unfamiliar names I’m looking forward to checking out, like the ambient jazz artist Nala Sinephro and British producer Djrum. And both of the Jons’ lists remind me that I have been meaning to check out the debut album from the throwback girl group Flo — whose recently released “Access All Areas” they both recommend.If you’d like to read more about each track, you can follow along with our lists of the year’s best albums and songs, in order. But I personally think the best way to experience this massive playlist is to put it on shuffle and experience the chaotic swirl of all of our different recommendations. May it lead you toward discovering (or rediscovering) some of your own favorite music of this wild, waning year.Listen to the playlist on Spotify.Listen to the playlist on Apple Music.The ceiling fan is so nice,Lindsay More

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      in Television

      Best Comedy of 2024: Nikki Glaser, Ronny Chieng,’ ‘English Teacher’ and More

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      Jon Stewart made “The Daily Show” must-see TV again, Theo Von had a memorable moment with Donald Trump, and Nikki Glaser broke through.Joe Rogan jumped to the front of the conservative media establishment. Netflix went in deeper on live comedy, while Disney entered the stand-up market. Katt Williams beefed even more than Kendrick Lamar and Drake. John Mulaney and Taylor Tomlinson became talk show hosts. It was an eventful year in comedy. Here are some highlights.Comedian of the YearNikki GlaserIn 2024, the stalwart comic Nikki Glaser finally broke big. The flashiest examples were her scene-stealing Tom Brady roast set and getting tapped to host the Golden Globes. But her new HBO hour provided more substance. Wearing a glittering dress and a strategic smile, she performs showbiz cheer, but underneath that shimmering facade is not just an ace club comic, but a restless artist exploring darker terrain. Glaser gets underestimated because she’s filthy. But she can go high as well as low, cover universal subjects and meta comedy analysis, do hilarious character work (look out Instagram moms) and brainy jokes. This relentlessly funny hour is bleaker than it looks, digging into suicide, rape and the apocalypse, and in a year when it seemed like everyone had a comic take on why you shouldn’t have kids, hers was the funniest.BEST SPECIAL‘Ronny Chieng: Love to Hate It’Ronny Chieng has always been an inspired hater. His intricately funny bits have long applied a spiky intelligence and distinctive jackhammer delivery to the zeitgeist. His very funny new hour represents a departure and a maturation. It has his characteristic social commentary, which feels timely even though it was shot before the election, but what makes this his best is that it also hits more personal notes, getting introspective without losing its fiery comic momentum.BEST STAND-UP ACTING‘English Teacher’Brian Jordan Alvarez in “English Teacher.”Steve Swisher/FXSo many shows are hurt by casting stiff stand-ups instead of funny actors, but not this one. Its comedians (Carmen Christopher, Langston Kerman) all shine, but the real standout is Sean Patton, a terminally underrated comic whose turn as a crude, if unexpectedly sensitive, gym teacher provides the beating heart of the show.BEST POLITICAL SPECIAL‘Ramy Youssef: More Feelings’The first time I thought the Democrats might lose the White House this year was after seeing Ramy Youssef talk about feeling abandoned by the party at a Brooklyn show early this year. His moody and thought-provoking hour arrived during the heat of the protests over the war in Gaza and engages with its raging politics without having his wry, minor-key sensibility pushed aside. It was a righteous and assured hour that expressed itself not through blunt polemic but elusiveness, metaphor and argument.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      in Music

      Best Songs of 2024

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      Listen to 68 tracks that made major statements, boosted big beefs, propelled up-and-comers and soundtracked the party this year.Jon Pareles | Jon Caramanica | Lindsay ZoladzJon ParelesA Little Strife, a Lot of RhythmHere’s a dipperful of worthwhile tracks from the ocean of music released this year. The top of my list is big-statement songs, ones that had repercussions beyond how they sound. Below those, it’s not a ranking but a playlist, a more-or-less guided cruise through what 2024 sounded like for one avid listener. I didn’t include any songs from my list of top albums, which are worth hearing from start to finish. But in the multiverse of streaming music, there are plenty of other possibilities.1. Kendrick Lamar, ‘Not Like Us’Belligerent, accusatory and as tribalistic as its title, “Not Like Us” wasn’t an attack ad from the 2024 election. It was the coup de gras of Kendrick Lamar’s beef with Drake, a rapid-fire, sneering assault on multiple fronts. Its spirit dovetailed with a bitterly contentious 2024.2. Beyoncé, ‘Texas Hold ’Em’“Texas Hold ’Em” isn’t just an invocation of Beyoncé’s home state. It’s a toe-tapping taunt at the racial and musical assumptions behind country music as defined by record labels and radio stations. Rhiannon Giddens picks an oh-so-traditional claw-hammer banjo intro and Beyoncé — raised in Texas — promises “a real-life boogie and a real-life hoedown,” singing about drinking and dancing and daring gatekeepers to hold her back.3. Sabrina Carpenter, ‘Please Please Please’Sabrina Carpenter delivers a sharp message on the slick “Please Please Please.”Nina Westervelt for The New York TimesComedy is tricky in a straight-faced song, but Sabrina Carpenter’s eye-roll comes clearly through the shiny pop of “Please Please Please.” The singer tries to placate and possibly tame a boyfriend who sounds more obnoxious in every verse. “I beg you, don’t embarrass me,” she coos; eventually she reaches a breaking point.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

    • 138 Shares189 Views

      in Music

      Best Albums of 2024: Charli XCX, Mk.gee, MJ Lenderman and More

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      Charli XCX, Mk.gee and MJ Lenderman top our pop music critics’ lists this year.Jon Pareles | Jon Caramanica | Lindsay ZoladzJon ParelesConcepts, Craftsmanship, Sensuality and Tidings of ApocalypseThe agendas for 21st-century musicians keep getting more complicated. They can try to out-game streaming and social media algorithms, stoking the celebrity-industrial complex or steadfastly ignoring it. They can lean into idiosyncratic artistic instincts and intuitions. They can channel the zeitgeist or defy it. Of course, listeners have choices as well. For me, there was no definitive musical statement for 2024, no obvious pathbreaker. But there were plenty of purposeful, heartfelt, exacting and inspired individual statements. I gave the top slot to a project that strove mightily to unite a glossy sonic (and online) presence with surprising confessions. But song for song, the rest of the list can easily stand alongside it. And if there’s more than a little apocalyptic gloom in these choices, well, that’s 2024.1. Charli XCX, ‘Brat’ and ‘Brat and It’s Completely Different but Also Still Brat’The year’s conceptual coup belonged to Charli XCX. “Brat,” the album she released in June, used dance-floor beats, blippy synthetic hooks and meme-ready graphics as she assessed just where she stood as a pop striver in her 30s, more than a decade into her career: pushing, partying, wondering whether to set it all aside to have a baby. Somehow, “Brat” landed as a full-fledged hit — and by September, Charli XCX had rewritten all the tracks and added star collaborators, dispensing hooks while trying to keep a level head about success. Amid all the hyperpop gloss and online chatter, she still sounded honest.2. Brittany Howard, ‘What Now’Brittany Howard’s second solo album tackles the contours of a relationship that is fizzling out.Ariel Fisher for The New York TimesBrittany Howard lays out the ragged emotions of a crumbling relationship on “What Now”: numbness, mourning, second-guessing, guilt and furtive glimmers of relief. While the tracks are rooted in soul, rock, R&B, funk and disco, they turn familiar styles inside-out with targeted distortion and surreal, displaced mixes. The songs capture all the disorientation that comes with a life-changing decision.3. Vampire Weekend, ‘Only God Was Above Us’Vampire Weekend’s once-meticulous musical universe gets punctured by noise on “Only God Was Above Us.” Its fifth album grapples with how what used to be called indie-rock can face a new pop landscape, and how determined innovators can keep pushing themselves. The answers include history lessons, quasi-sequitur lyrics and constantly morphing studio arrangements — a running, enlightening battle between strict song structure and an unruly world.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More