Letter From the Editor
when all the votes from the 2018 midterm elections were finally counted, and despite Donald Trump’s blustering claims to the contrary, the results marked a huge victory for progressive Democrats and, more broadly, a rejection of Trump’s divisive and dangerous tactics. Nearly half of all eligible voters turned out in November, the most for a non-presidential election since 1914. Democratic candidates for the House of Representatives received more than 60.5 million votes. (By contrast, Donald Trump received 63 million votes in 2016 even though turnout for presidential elections usually far eclipse midterm voting.) If Democrats can sustain this support, Trump will be loudly rejected in 2020. There are a lot of reasons to be optimistic about the year ahead in politics. The House is preparing to bury the White House in subpoenas, which along with the Mueller investigation will put powerful restraints on Trump’s runaway presidency. And despite the administration’s abandonment of the environment and embrace of fossil fuels, progressives in the House, led by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, are pushing an ambitious “Green New Deal” to replace America’s dirty electric grid with 100 percent renewable energy, while also fixing infrastructure, creating millions of high-paying jobs.
Music is headed in fascinating, fast-changing directions, too. Though 2018 did not produce defining statements from artists like Beyoncé or Kendrick Lamar, our Year in Music issue showcases diverse and stylistically far-flung talent across the pop landscape — hip-hop and indie rock, especially. Thirty-seven albums made it to Number One this year, more than double the number 20 years ago — meaning more turnover at the top, more new voices breaking through. Maverick country singer Kacey Musgraves and hip-hop time-traveler Travis Scott stepped up in big ways; women owned the top five entries on our best-albums list; and guitars were front and center, on records by Kurt Vile, Brandi Carlile and many more. Two of the greatest living songwriters, John Prine and Paul McCartney, also produced superb new albums, dealing with mortality and the desire to joyously push on.
Even Bob Dylan, often inscrutable and immune to the cultural moment, seemed energized in 2018, as his Never Ending Tour rolled into New York’s Beacon Theatre in December. Dylan’s songs swung with barroom swagger and bold new arrangements (he turned “Honest With Me” into a surging Beach Boys groove) as he roamed through classics — “Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right,” “Like a Rolling Stone” — and more recent tunes like “Early Roman Kings,” taking aim at “lecherous and treacherous” power-hungry leaders with a sharp new resonance. Amid all the noise and chaos of the times, it was a thrill to sit back and hear one of America’s most original voices ring out with truth.