Look Back at 2020 One Last Time: Our Podcasts on the Year’s Best Music

There’s something utterly unique about all the great new music from the awful year of 2020: Almost none of it has yet been performed in front of a live audience, which makes the recordings feel all the more precious. Our Rolling Stone Music Now podcast rounded up some of last year’s best musical moments over the course of multiple episodes.

To hear the full episodes, press play below, or see all episodes and download and subscribe on iTunes or Spotify.

Jeff Ihaza joined us to go over the year in hip-hop, from the silence of Kendrick Lamar to Kanye West’s half-hearted presidential run to the music of Lil Baby, Pop Smoke, and Megan Thee Stallion.

Rob Sheffield, Brittany Spanos, and Simon Vozick-Levinson discussed Rolling Stone’s picks for best albums of the year, from artists who ranging from Bad Bunny to Bruce Springsteen to The Weeknd.

We ran down the greatest singles of the year, with Brittany Spanos and Rob Sheffield.

Jason Isbell joined us to talk about making his album Reunions, which landed on our list of the year’s best.

Current Rolling Stone cover star Dua Lipa talked about what it was like to become the first-ever queen of work-from-home pop stars with her smash Future Nostalgia.

Killer Mike discussed Run the Jewels’ RTJ4 and much more with Jamil Smith.

Download and subscribe to our weekly podcast, Rolling Stone Music Now, hosted by Brian Hiatt, on iTunes or Spotify (or wherever you get your podcasts), and check out two years’ worth of episodes in the archive, including in-depth, career-spanning interviews with Bruce Springsteen, Halsey, Ice Cube, Neil Young, the National, Questlove, Julian Casablancas, Sheryl Crow, Johnny Marr, Scott Weiland, Alice Cooper, Fleetwood Mac, Elvis Costello, Donald Fagen, Phil Collins, Alicia Keys, Stephen Malkmus, Sebastian Bach, Tom Petty, Kelly Clarkson, Pete Townshend, Bob Seger, the Zombies, Gary Clark Jr., and many more — plus dozens of episodes featuring genre-spanning discussions, debates, and explainers with Rolling Stone’s critics and reporters. Tune in every Friday at 1 p.m. ET to hear Rolling Stone Music Now broadcast live from SiriusXM’s studios on Volume, channel 106.