The Year in Music: 2018

In our Year in Music list, we ranked the best albums of 2018, and women dominated. The honor for top album went to Cardi B’s Invasion of Privacy, and the top 20 included everyone from Camila Cabello, Kacey Musgraves and Ariana Grande to Pistol Annies and more. The list also marked a major shift toward newer, younger artists — something that readers debated online. One reader, Eli Cash, tweeted, “When Cardi B gets Rolling Stone’s album of the year, then something is just not right.” But others rejoiced, with hundreds of fire emojis and supportive words from fans like Bryan, who tweeted, “Congratulations, Cardi B. #Bardigang.”