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Announcing the Inaugural Noisey Artists of the Year

Over the next week, we'll be announcing five artists we believe define the year 2015.

Hello friends,

It’s that time of year again, isn't it? You know, when it gets cold outside and you can make fun of your friends for wearing goofy sweaters while you secretly enjoy wearing goofy sweaters. You’ve spent the year cultivating your excellent taste in music released over the previous 12 months—an opinion that manages to to be informed but hip, ironic yet challenging, and somehow pop-friendly and DIYish—and now you get to have conversations with all your pals about what you think was the best music released this year. One person inevitably gets pissed. Another person calls something problematic. Someone else actually offers a well-reasoned argument that changes the way you think about a popular music-related subject. The internet becomes a wasteland; it’s the most wonderful time of the year.

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We here at Noisey love to argue and tell you that our opinions are the best in the world (because, duh). But we also take pride in delivering you thoughtful information and ideas about music on a day-to-day basis. We strive to be a driving force of conversation, making our little weird corner of the internet a combination of creative work that’s smart, clever, and at least—we hope—even a little bit insightful. A day on Noisey will take you many places: a candid conversation with Julian Casablancas, a few days on the road with Swedish punk heroes Refused, hours of talking with Slayer's Tom Araya, Robert Plant’s definition of the meaning of life, three days of doing drugs with the Grateful Dead, or even a deep-dive into the world of Atlanta trap music.

We attempt to cover it all, and we know: It gets really fucking weird sometimes.

So if you’re here, we’d like to say thanks. Thanks for reading us and somehow putting up with our racket as the staff regularly makes fun of each other’s music tastes in public.

To celebrate the end of the year joys and the weirdness that is Noisey, we have something special planned for you. This year, for the first time, we’re launching a year-end event called Noisey Artists of the Year. The idea behind this is simple: Who are the artists that defined culture in 2015? What does that mean to define culture in 2015? And, um, is the music they make dope?

Starting in the next couple hours and continuing every day this week till Friday, we’ll announce five Noisey Artists of the Year. These selections, like our coverage, cross all genres ("genre agnostic," we like to say). But holy shit, picking them was not easy. The Noisey Staff—in a long afternoon meeting filled with long discussions, lots of coffee, and an unfortunate amount of body odor—determined these choices. If you think listing your favorite ten albums in the year is difficult, try doing that alongside a bunch of smart, stubborn, and opinionated writers who all think and provide very solid arguments why their favorite artists are indeed the best artists.

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But we got there. And we’re stoked.

So gather round children, and get ready for Noisey’s Artists of the Year. Who will make the cut? Will it be the ‘why u always lyin’ guy’? The Left Shark? A "Hotline Bling" dance move? Nah, we’re just kidding. This is serious, we promise.

Love,
Noisey

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1. Baptized Inside Purple Activis: Why Future Is the Artist of the Year

In an electrifying career reorientation, Future showed why he deserves a place in the rap canon this year.

2. Captain, Not Crony: Why Speedy Ortiz Is the Artist of the Year

On top of their dynamite record 'Foil Deer,' Speedy Ortiz have established themselves as a fearless band in a time when it's not safe to be bold.

3. Death, Glory, and Triumph: Why Iron Maiden Is the Artist of the Year

Forty years in, this British heavy metal institution is still pushing boundaries, cheating death, and slaying bands half their age.

4. Ride the Wild Haze: Why Beach Slang Is the Artist of the Year

In just over a year, the Philadelphia band went from having four songs to their name to being rock's fastest rising stars.

5. Loving You Is Complicated: Why Kendrick Lamar Is the Artist of the Year

Oftentimes, it feels like Kendrick Lamar isn’t there at all. And yet, he remained at the heart of the year’s hip-hop dialogue through sheer force of the gravity of his grand artistic statement.