Gallery: From Yeezus to Ylvis: The Most Defining Moments of Music in 2013
01Arcade Fire Bent Minds with Interactive Video
As 2013 draws to an end, plenty of websites are posting their annual best music features, fiercely debated compilations of the ten, 25, or even 50 most important tracks of the year. But this time we're trying something different: a list of the defining musical *moments* from 2013, the ones that demanded our attention, harnessed the zeitgeist, and sometimes even changed the game. From Kendrick Lamar's competition-crushing verse on Big Sean's track "Control" to Electric Lady Janelle Monáe finally getting her due, these are the moments of musical discovery and viral potency worth remembering. So please, dear readers, lend us your ears. Above: Arcade Fire Bent Minds with Their Interactive "Reflektor" Video ---------------------------------------------------------------------- A lot of digital ink has been spilled about *Reflektor*, Arcade Fire's follow-up to their Grammy-winning 2010 album *The Suburbs*, so we'll keep this mercifully brief: regardless of whether the Montreal band's album is a ["triumph"](http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/18667-arcade-fire-reflektor/) or a ["fraud"](http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/arcade-fires-reflektor-still-devoid-of-wit-subtlety-and-danger-now-with-bongos/2013/10/28/6471097a-4004-11e3-9c8b-e8deeb3c755b_story.html), let's not forget that their video for "Reflektor" was [one of the most mind-bendingly interactive and innovative of the year.](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/design/2013/09/a-new-music-vid-from-arcade-fire-that-lets-you-control-visuals-with-your-smartphone/) With the help of interactive video director Vincent Morisset and Google Creative Lab once again (that team also helmed [that crazy HTML5 video for "The Wilderness Downtown"](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SYdJAi-BBrs) two years ago), the band released a video that chronicles the whimsical adventures of a Haitian girl, but with a twist: using the interactivity between a smartphone's gyroscope and accelerometer and a computer's webcam and Chrome browser, the viewer can control what appears on screen. In other words, no two views of "Reflektor" – at least [this version of it](https://www.justareflektor.com/), since they released an alternative, more embed-friendly video for the song (shown above) the next day – are the same. Only Bob Dylan could hope to compete with this for Coolest Video of the Year, but even [his "Like a Rolling Stone" experience is a mere two dimensions.](stag-komodo.wired.com/underwire/2013/11/bob-dylan-rolling-stone-video/) —*Devon Maloney*
02Ylvis Taught Us What The Fox Says
Ylvis Taught Us What The Fox Says --------------------------------- This should require little explanation, but in case you've been without an internet or television connection for the past three months, you should know: when Norwegian comedian brothers Vegard and Bård Ylvisåker (together known as Ylvis), without so much as a radio play or a record label, asked the internet a question about animal noises this year, more than 260 million of us answered, making their song "The Fox (What Does the Fox Say?)" the unquestionable viral song of 2013. The EDM-infused video, which features the brothers Ylvis and an entire dance crew dressed as foxes in the woods, ruminating on the exact sound the furry red creatures make, was only supposed to be a promotion for the return of their television show. The pair have explained in interviews that they were offered the opportunity to work with Stargate, a world-famous Norwegian studio that [cranks out video hits for artists like Rihanna and Selena Gomez](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stargate_(production_team)#Discography), and record at Jay Z's Roc the Mic studio in New York City — so of course, they wanted to make the most ridiculous video possible with that kind of high-quality production. Instead, it ended up rocketing to No. 6 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, giving Ylvis the highest-ranked song by a Norwegian artist since A-ha released "Take On Me" in 1985. It took the pair on a whirlwind press tour in America, where they appeared on multiple television shows, in the [morning](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LuJSJauDLYo), [afternoon](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hjVT5lCIBiI) and [late night](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=puHK73fMXmQ); it spawned roughly a zillion Halloween costumes and even [got them a children's book deal.](http://www.latimes.com/books/jacketcopy/la-et-jc-what-does-the-fox-say-childrens-book-of-the-fox-20131112,0,1505333.story) Of course, jokes about absurd "animal noises" aside, [the pair actually weren't entirely wrong](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/underwire/2013/09/what-does-the-fox-say-ylvis/) about the fox — which is all to say that, thanks to Ylvis, we can come away from 2013 having learned at least one new thing. –*Devon Maloney*
03Kendrick Lamar Raises the Bar for Rap with His Verse on 'Control'
Kendrick Lamar Raises the Bar for Rap with His Verse on "Control" ------------------------------------------------------------------ Nothing in 2013 rattled the hip-hop internet as much as Big Sean's "Control" – and not because of Big Sean. Instead, it was the guest verse he got from Kendrick Lamar, a tightly-crafted tirade that contained more rap-game references and wordplay than some MCs muster in whole albums and challenged nearly every so-called "hot" rapper in the game to try to best K Dot's flow. It was passionate. It was angry. It was genius. Not just because it had the best wordsmithery this side of Nas, but because it accomplished exactly what it set out to do: push big-name rappers to be better. Lots of MCs, both those that he claimed he wanted to lyrically "murder" in the verse and some he didn't, responded with [verses of their own](http://www.bet.com/music/photos/2013/08/songs-responding-to-kendrick-lamar-s-control.html). While few matched Lamar's shine, nearly everyone was talking about competition in hip-hop again -- and acting like it. Lamar was later named *GQ*'s Rapper of the Year, even as [responses](http://www.bet.com/news/music/2013/12/02/j-cole-disses-kendrick-lamar-s-control-verse.html) continued to circulate online months later. His album *good kid, m.A.A.d city* came out in late 2012, and he spent much of 2013 touring – he opened for Kanye West on his *Yeezus* tour. Lamar should have a new album in the works soon and when he hits the booth now he'll have to rise to his own challenge and once again "raise the bar high." –*Angela Watercutter*
04Kanye West's Yeezus Tour Was High Art. Or Something.
Kanye West's Yeezus Tour Was Either Horrible or High Art -------------------------------------------------------- After seeing Kanye West's Yeezus tour in Oakland I found myself taking an informal poll of friends who had also been at the show. One said it was "awful" – I made them repeat it because it was uttered at the same time I was saying "awesome." Another called it the greatest piece of art they had ever experienced. That's Kanye West for you: polarizing people since 1977. And, really, it's hard to explain exactly what happens during the two-ish hours that West performs during his sets on his tour to support 2013's similarly polarizing *Yeezus*. The late Lou Reed observed just before he passed that West's latest album "keeps unbalancing you," and in many ways his tour (when it wasn't [derailed](http://pitchfork.com/news/52858-kanye-west-cancels-tonights-vancouver-show/)) did the same. One minute he's rapping on top of a mountain top that looks like it's built for a messianic arrival at Paris Fashion Week, the next he's having a confessional (or rant, depending on the night) while pacing his sparse triangular stage. Wait, there's more. First of all, West performed nearly the entire set while wearing jeweled masks designed by fashion house Maison Martin Margiela, which look really cool in the lights but also take some getting used to. There were also interstitial messages projected above the mountain that explained things like "Fighting," "Falling," and "Rising" and were read in a Siri-like digital voice. Add a small mob of faceless women in full body suits that take turns gyrating around like possessed cadavers here and an actual actor dressed as Jesus there and it was a lot to take in. But it was totally visually stunning; at one point the mountaintop actually erupted into a CGI volcano. The show even managed to give *Yeezus* the album a bit more context. It wasn't always easy to know what that context was – I'm pretty sure it has something to do with spirituality and consumerism and at one point during "Blood On the Leaves" I'm sure it eclipsed both – but it was captivating. That's art, right? It can be awful to one person and amazing to another. Not everyone is going to get into it, and it probably wouldn't *be* art if they did. You can watch Luis Bunuel and Salvador Dalí's *Un Chien Andalou* a 100 times and still not *get* it, much less like it. (Like Reed's "unbalancing" assessment of *Yeezus*, film critic Ado Kyrou noted the surrealist short was the first time "a director tries not to please but rather to alienate nearly all potential spectators.") Yet it feels like something is happening and it's really hard to look away. –*Angela Watercutter*
05Miley Cyrus Became a Meme Machine
Miley Cyrus Became a Meme Machine --------------------------------- See that cat above? The one winking and sticking out its tongue? Yeah, that cat is standing behind Miley Cyrus. It all started with "We Can't Stop," Cyrus' first single off her new album *Bangerz*. The music video instantly sparked parodies that skewered its drugged-out party vibe and dancing teddy bears, including a CollegeHumor version that made it feel like an existential nightmare. Miley even parodied it herself on [*Saturday Night Live*](http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/snl-miley-cyrus-mocks-government-643766), where she performed a rewritten version about the government shutdown called "We Did Stop." While her racy video for "Wrecking Ball" got its fair share of attention, her duet with Robin Thicke at the the MTV Video Music Awards was the real showstopper that launched a thousand thinkpieces. Thanks to her tearaway costume and questionable decision to twerk, the performance exploded on the internet, drawing criticism for its [cultural appropriation](http://www.slate.com/articles/double_x/doublex/2013/08/miley_cyrus_vma_performance_white_appropriation_of_black_bodies.html) – and inspiring countless Robin-Thicke-as-Beetlejuice images on Tumblr. Finally, the one-time country pop star capped off a year of attention-getting incidents – both good and bad – by performing her tearful break-up track "Wrecking Ball" at the American Music Awards in front of a giant, lip-syncing kitten who seemed ripped from a Tumblr feed. Notable internet cat Lil Bub soon ["responded"](http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1718058/lil-bub-miley-cyrus-ama-performance.jhtml) to her AMA performance and criticized her for stealing "my facial expression." It was a moment that not only pandered to the internet audience that couldn't stop talking about her this year – but also signaled more clearly than ever that she was in on the joke. –*Angela Watercutter*
06Janelle Monáe Commanded the Throne as The Electric Lady
Janelle Monáe Commanded the Throne as *The Electric Lady* --------------------------------------------------------- After all these years, it makes absolutely no sense that Janelle Monáe isn't topping every chart she so much as breathes on. That's never been the robosoul goddess's purpose, but this year proved a landmark when Monáe dropped what is undoubtedly one of the best releases of 2013: her masterful double album *The Electric Lady*. The futuristic funk record – a prequel to her last record *The ArchAndroid* and the latest installment in the singer's sci-fi concept-album series *Metropolis*, centered around protagonist android Cindi Mayweather – sold only 47,000 copies the week it was released in September, but with multimillions of YouTube views, a CoverGirl deal, a city [naming a day after her](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XKbOULG_Bhg), a [performance for the president](http://smokingsection.uproxx.com/TSS/2012/01/president-obama-is-a-big-fan-of-janelle-monae), and the admiration of millions of kick-ass little girls around the world, what's an album sale? (Besides, if any pop artist is a poster child of the new music world where album sales are hardly a measure of success, it's Monáe.) What really matters about *The Electric Lady* isn't sales, but how deeply important it felt this year. Guest appearances from Erykah Badu, Miguel, Solange Knowles, and Prince himself riddle the richly sprawling record, which tells the story of Mayweather's leap back in time to rescue the city of Metropolis from the sinister hands of an oppressive group called the Great Divide. What's more, it does that tricky dance between "album" and "longish recording consisting of a set of radio-friendly songs" with uncommon ease, adding epic pop-out anthems like "Q.U.E.E.N.," unstoppable party jams like "Dance Apocalyptic," and theatrical voice-overs by peace-and-love radio DJs in the future. There's no part of the album that doesn't seem to exactly capture where we are right now, both in pop music and in the larger world beyond. At times it's bleakly dystopian, but mostly it's revolutionary. Best of all, as an album that pushed limits, challenging race, gender and class double-standards with a sweeping, rich (and let's face it, delightfully nerdy) narrative, it became a critical darling in no time. Teeming with both personal and universal messages, *Electric Lady* has been hailed as, ironically, the least robotic version of Janelle Monáe the world has ever seen. –*Devon Maloney*
07Chance the Rapper Tripped on Acid Rap
Chance the Rapper Tripped on *Acid Rap* --------------------------------------- Twenty-year-old Chancelor Bennett is probably one of the unlikeliest breakout stars in the musical firmament this year, but calling him that wouldn't do justice to the hustle that got him here. So let's instead call the Chicago rapper the luckiest break his *fans* have gotten this year. In April, the man also known as Chance the Rapper dropped his second mixtape *Acid Rap*, a catchy, super-soulful, endlessly clever set that showed off its creator's lively, upbeat talent, even in the face of heavier subjects like friends' deaths and exceeding low expectations. Since the tape's release, Chance began heating up almost immediately, racking up genius, loquacious collaborations all over the map from [Lil Wayne](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vJYXOURPqBY) to [Childish Gambino](http://exclaim.ca/MusicVideo/ClickHear/childish_gambino-worst_guys_ft_chance_rapper) to [James Blake](https://soundcloud.com/1-800-dinosaur/life-round-here-feat-chance). What's more, though the free *Acid Rap* wasn't technically eligible to land on the Billboard sales charts (it's been downloaded for free from mixtape site DatPiff over 350,000 times), it ended up at No. 63 on its Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart anyway, thanks to a distribution company that figured out how to sell the mixtape for a profit on sites like Amazon and iTunes. The event [made headlines](http://www.billboard.com/biz/articles/news/legal-and-management/5650665/chance-the-rapper-with-acid-rap-mixtape-meets-the) and raised important questions about mixtapes and their ever-increasing influence – as unsigned, free releases – to more traditional industry standards like charts, copyrights, and the protection of the RIAA. Who knows? Maybe this ["rap game Ferris Bueller"](pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/18105-chance-the-rapper-acid-rap/) – whose music is refreshingly playful, honest, and focused on living the best life – will end up becoming part of legal history this year, too. –*Devon Maloney*
08Lorde Got Everyone High on Pure Heroine
Lorde Got Everyone High on *Pure Heroine* ----------------------------------------- Sure, everyone's heard "Royals." Seriously, if you went to a mall or turned on a radio in the last six months you heard Lorde's slow-grind jam against the materialism in pop. But "Royals" – for all of the conversation it garnered ([it's brilliant](http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/18614-lorde-pure-heroine/)! [it's racist](http://www.cnn.com/2013/10/09/showbiz/lorde-royals-racism-spat/)!) – was just the beginning for the teenager from New Zealand otherwise known as Ella Yelich-O'Connor. She ultimately followed up "Royals" with the far more bounce-inducing "Team" and proved she had more than one pop hit in her. And those are just two singles. *Pure Heroine* actually ended up being the rarest of birds in popular music – a critical darling and a perfectly catchy album that you could play at a barbeque. It also had soul, right down to the haunting "Ribs" – a requiem for youth from someone still very much living it that managed to talk about Broken Social Scene's track "Lover's Spit," which came out when she was about 5 years old, while also saying "I've never felt more alone/it feels so scary getting old" in the same musical span. Despite her young age – and probably because of it – her sound ended up serving all ages. It got remixed by R&B wunderkind The Weeknd and rappers like Rick Ross and Raekwon jumped on the "Royals" track to show her love. She even landed on the soundtrack to *The Hunger Games: Catching Fire* with a cover of Tears for Fears' "Everybody Wants to Rule the World." Again, she was inescapable – but for good reason. –*Angela Watercutter*
09Daft Punk Came Back Into Our Lives
Daft Punk Came Back Into Our Lives ---------------------------------- There was a time when it seemed like we might never hear from Daft Punk again. Sure, they'd make *Tron* soundtracks, but original material? We'd lost hope. Then, early this year, the band signed with Columbia Records and delivered the most random *where did that come from?* musical happening of 2013: a 15-second tease (above) of what we now know as the track "Get Lucky" [played during *Saturday Night Live*](http://www.rollingstone.com/music/videos/daft-punk-teases-new-music-in-mysterious-trailer-during-snl-20130303 ). After repeated teases, there was also talk that they would debut the album at a small town in Australia called Wee Waa. [They didn't](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/underwire/2013/05/daft-punk-wee-waa-premiere/). But who cares? After all the hype, When *Random Access Memories* finally dropped in May, the album's funky guitar licks and Pharrell Williams falsetto were everywhere, and no one wanted to stop dancing to the most mysterious duo in dance music. Now *that* we had anticipated. –*Angela Watercutter*
10FKA Twigs Dared You to Keep Watching
FKA Twigs Dared You to Keep Watching ------------------------------------ If you came across one of FKA twigs' videos online this year, it's probably been etched on your brain ever since. That's because the budding London trip-hop singer, who put out her second release – the haunting four-song *EP2* – this fall, is more conceptual artist than simple musician. Each song on both *EP1* and *EP2* is paired with a haunting, unforgettable video that is equal parts beautiful, disturbing, and utterly mesmerizing. The bizarre worlds she and her artistic team create for sweetly distant, ephemeral songs like ["Water Me"](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kFtMl-uipA8) and ["Hide"](http://www.youtube.com/user/twigstv) challenge sexual and gendered norms in ways few artists dare to explore, using grossly distorted beauty ideals, almost-violent intimacy, and artful symbolism to ask viewers to challenge their own perceptions of what's right and wrong, good or bad. Not one of her videos is NSFW, but each one knowingly toes the line, and when the videos end, you feel just as unsettled as if they had gone over. Some have even called FKA twigs [an alternative panacea to the year's tiresome sexuality debates](http://www.thefader.com/2013/10/14/miley-cyrus-sinead-o-connor-female-se/), in the media and between artists like Miley Cyrus and Sinéad O'Connor. This year, her work has quietly become some of the most innovative and gripping stuff out there, and though her subversive art hasn't gotten the huge break it deserves yet, that certainly doesn't mean it won't happen very soon. –*Devon Maloney*
11YTST-UZU-Album-Cover.jpg
Yamantaka // Sonic Titan Bewitched with *UZU* --------------------------------------------- If there's one moment on this list that truly went under the radar this year, it was the release of Yamantaka // Sonic Titan's second record *UZU* ([listen here](https://play.spotify.com/album/4enluVWX8D5X6rCipnfTDT)). The Montreal-formed, Toronto-based rock septet is hardly a well-established act – they only put out their debut album *YT//ST* two years ago, and *UZU* is their first record with an American label – but that hasn't stopped them from creating some of the most inventive, fascinating music out there right now, music that's as arena-ready as any major chart-pop act and about a hundred times as urgent: think prog-metal, operatic Arcade Fire with a dead-serious bone to pick. But comparing them to someone else is kind of unfair, since they don't sound much like anybody. As their name suggests, Yamantaka is about intercontinental confusion and confrontation: they call themselves a "multidisciplinary hyper-orientalist cesspool of 'east' meets 'west' culture clash," drawing from traditional musics from Japan (kabuki and nôh theatre), China (opera), and the Iroquois nation (among others) to make sense of their own multicultural multi-gendered identity politics in grandiose, sweeping statements. Their utterly unique live performances are unforgettable operas featuring dramatic, soon-to-be iconic facepaint, ominous stage lighting and elaborate, totally DIY costumes. They're one of those do-before-you-die experiences (not to mention magnitudes cheaper than a Nine Inch Nails concert). The release of *UZU*, a mythological concept album based on 16th century Chinese novel *Journey to the West*, this October was proof that the band – which began as the art project experiment of vocalist Ruby Kato Attwood and drummer/producer Alaska B and – has huge ambitions that haven't stopped growing. Since its debut in 2011, has penned and performed a [dark rock opera about rival drag queens](http://popmontreal.com/events-tickets/yamantaka-sonic-titans-opera-33/) and is working on a video game to be titled *YOUR TASK // SHOOT THINGS*. Lucky us. —*Devon Maloney*
