For the second consecutive year, here is Pitchfork’s staff list of 101 bad, troubling, goofy, heartwarming, terrific moments in and around music culture.
Check out all of Pitchfork’s 2025 wrap-up coverage here.
ICE recruitment ads take over streaming services
Trump elected chair of Kennedy Center
ICE uses Sabrina Carpenter song in recruitment video
Chris Martin reveals he bought one of Adam Duritz’s dreadlocks
Daniel Ek invests €600m in AI defense startup company
Eric Adams not a Kehlani fan
AI “artists” getting “signed” for record deals
“We Are Charlie Kirk” AI song
Warner Music partners with music AI platform Suno
YoungBoy pardoned by Donald Trump, pays respects by naming album Make America Slime Again, rapping in front of “All Hail Trump” graffiti
VTuber Ironmouse performs at the Streamer Awards, in partnership with Warframe and MarcoMeatball
Drake rebrands as streamer, lets Adin Ross call him “Aubs”
Tekashi 6ix9ine rebrands as a streamer, also hangs with Adin Ross
Jojo Siwa covers “Bette Davis Eyes”
Nicki Minaj’s entire digital footprint
Fyre Fest scammer Billy McFarland’s new festival, PHNX, has begrudgingly good name
“I like being squirted in the face by music because it makes me feel alive”
–Carlos Santana
Justin Bieber thanks Druski for saying he has “a Black soul”
Lizzo quotes Lois Griffin in Substack debut about cancel culture
Shortest-ever song to hit the Billboard Hot 100 is 34-second song from the Minecraft movie
Mark Zuckerberg impersonates Benson Boone
PlaqueBoyMax nominated for a Grammy
Nick Cave’s AI music video for “Tupelo”
Katy Perry launches into space
Katy Perry hard launches with Justin Trudeau
Will Smith comeback tour a tough hang
“I’m lumpenproletariat”
–Pharrell
Guy who organized “Watch me eat cheese balls in Union Square” and “Timothee Lookalike contest” gimmicks orchestrates convoluted scheme to hijack Billboard charts, fails
Italian brainrot anthems infest Spotify Viral 50 charts
Rihanna’s Smurfs song
Autechre live show sensory overload
X content
SoundCloud rapper Comethazine rebrands as the jazz musician Frank Kole
Bon Iver’s Sable, Fable brand collabs
The Spirit Tunnel
“I got the whole block looking like you”
–Taylor Swift
“Ethel Cain hated my Instagram post”
–Lana Del Rey
Seventeen X Sacai Labubu wearing Carhartt WIP sells for $31,250 on Pharrell’s Joopiter
Rod Stewart pays tribute to Ozzy Osbourne with AI Ozzy Osbourne taking selfies in heaven
Grimes DJs biohacker Bryan Johnson’s mushroom trip
NLE Choppa rebrands as Christian rapper NLE The Great, does roundtable talk with Jonathan Majors and Kirk Franklin
“Let’s go for it!”
–Lorde, on the incest storyline in The White Lotus
The phrase “reheating nachos” is born
FattMack beefs with Fattmacc over who gets to call themselves FattMack-macc
Jack White and Eminem play Detroit Lions Halftime show on Thanksgiving
Andrew Yang’s “touch grass” parties
More variants of The Life of a Showgirl than COVID
Neil Young sued by Chrome Hearts fashion brand
Gelo Ball
Jack White hard launches new cellular telephone
Coldplay kiss cam imbroglio
A$AP Rocky rolls out RayBan campaign at his own firearm trial
The Dare attempts to crowdsurf, no one catches him
The Slick Rick song about how hard it is to be a landlord
Cameron Winter covers “Dancing in the Dark” for Xbox
PinkPanthress’ lock screen is photo of her and Nathan Fielder
Is Timothée Chalamet EsDeeKid?
Pain rapper Toosii commits to Syracuse’s college football team at 25 years old
Robert Pattinson romance scene in Mickey 17 soundtracked by Elliott Smith’s “Twilight”
Gamblers lose money on Oasis onstage break-up bets
Stereogum publishes the Zohran Mamdani emails
X content
Teaching LAZER DIM 700 the London Way
Foo Fighters and Nine Inch Nails switch drummers
The New Yorker explains how music criticism lost its edge
Demi Lovato goes as Poot Lovato for Halloween
Haim’s paparazzi-inspired single covers
Bob Dylan narrates mgk album trailer
What if Adrienne Lenker was drill?
The “6 7 kid” meets Skrilla at the Hyperpop Daily basketball tournament
Garbage selector
Model/Actriz’s Cole Haden writes on Miley Cyrus album
underscores puts headphones on her hair
Instagram content
Two million attend Lady Gaga show in Brazil
Chappell Roan brings out Heart’s Nancy Wilson to perform “Barracuda”
Julie Doiron finds new audience
Swamp Izzo finds new audience
Charli XCX collaborates with John Cale
Monaleo and Stunna4Vegas’ livestream wedding, with performances by Bun B and BunnaB
Harry Styles runs sub-3 Berlin Marathon
“It’s not clocking to you that I’m standing on business”
–Justin Bieber
Teen wants to start noise band
Lyra Pramuk’s lyric-selecting slime mold
UK government bans ticket resale for profit
“Get me to God’s country”
—Morgan Wallen
Dan Deacon sings National Anthem at Orioles game
Perfidia Beverly Hills quotes Junglepussy in One Battle After Another
“And who’s Madeline?”
–Lily Allen
Martin Newell from Cleaners From Venus hangs out with The Rock
Mood Machine by Liz Pelly
Oklou performs on ice skating rink
Miniature horse wakes children up from anesthesia with keyboard solo
Kendrick’s Super Bowl smile
Max B is free
Wednesday’s Karly Hartzman rebrands as essayist
Los Thuthanaka
Cindy Lee goes back on tour
Deerhoof, Xiu Xiu, King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard, Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Hotline TNT, Massive Attack, and Sylvan Esso remove their music from Spotify
Paul Thomas Anderson and Benny Safdie film Cameron Winter show at Carnegie Hall
Bad Bunny’s historic Puerto Rico residency
Liberation Weekend promotes trans rights in the face of increasingly bigoted government
The Rehearsal’s use of “Bring Me to Life” by Evanescence
