We say it every year: There are way too many music books for any human to keep track of, let alone read. Yet this year has seen a backbreaking pile of welcome additions to the boundless stacks, just a ...

This was such an exciting year in music, and as you can see from my list, an especially exciting year for women in music yet again. They dominated the pop, country, and rap charts, just to name a few.

Strummy singer-songwriter confessionals, twisty guitar pop, L.A. shoegaze, Spanish garage-punk, North Carolina folk-rock, Ohio disaffection — it was a great year for all manner of indie-rock. Legends ...