Jason King

The pop star has always loved out-trolling her trolls. But Doja Cat's fourth album and dramatic rollout pushes that persona further, interpreting her antics through a playfully demonic lens.

O'Connor committed to a lifetime program of dissent, discontent and refusal against establishment evils. She carried all that swirling vehemence in her body and exorcised it through her howling music.

The era-defining star's seventh album sparks a conversation about the infinite possibilities of dance music, the difference between fun and pleasure and why disco is always political.

Boldly going where few gay men of color have been allowed to go before, Lil Nas X won the year by joyfully violating cultural taboos and exploiting media far more than it was able to exploit him.

The gifted songwriter and singer wasn't a born superstar — but became something of a sleeper hit on the strength of his singing, songwriting and history-making collaborations.

The audacious early-adopter weathered a storm of "Auto-Tune sucks" moral panic to emerge as a true artist, a mirror for our culture and a creative force.

Watch the producer extraordinaire sit down for a rare, in-depth interview with Jason King, host of NPR Music's R&B channel "I"ll Take You There."

His third album manages to capture an emotional precinct, an impression of a complex city going through changes and a man working to define real intimacy in the midst of so much tarnished beauty.

The song is the exuberant sound of a novice exploring the possibilities of alternative electronic dance music with no real rule book or manual at his disposal.