“I THINK I’VE LOST myself a little bit. I’ve tried to find joy in the wrong places, and … it’s left me with less joy.” In a video message posted on Instagram in early October, Tennessee singer-songwriter Morgan Wallen stared piercingly into the camera searching for the words to explain how a whirlwind year—one in which his 2018 debut album, If I Know Me, went platinum; his single “7 Summers” became a viral smash on TikTok; his son, Indigo, was born; and his Saturday Night Live debut was to take place in an episode hosted by Bill Burr—had seemingly gone off the rails. Pictures of Wallen kissing strangers and partying maskless with fans in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, had caused SNL to pull the country star from the Burr episode and replace him with Jack White, citing a breach of covid-19 safety protocol. It wasn’t Wallen’s first slipup: In May, he was arrested for public intoxication and disorderly conduct after being kicked out of Kid Rock’s honky-tonk in Tennessee and arguing with officers, an incident that produced a mug shot in which the singer affected the perfect visage of party-boy vacancy. A few days after the arrest, Wallen took to IG to post a fragment of a song he’d written about the recent tumult, a lilting acoustic jam in which he worried he was losing control: “I don’t wanna go downtown doing what we used to/Twist the top off another round, hell, I got enough loose screws.” Speaking with Nashville radio personality Bobby Bones the same week, the performer suggested his reputation for partying had gotten the best of him.
DANGEROUS: THE DOUBLE ALBUM MORGAN WALLEN. BIG LOUD/REPUBLIC RECORDS.
Esta historia es de la edición January 18–31, 2021 de New York magazine.
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Esta historia es de la edición January 18–31, 2021 de New York magazine.
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THE BEST ART SHOWS OF THE YEAR
IN NOVEMBER, Sotheby's made history when it sold for a million bucks a painting made by artificial intelligence. Ai-Da, \"the first humanoid robot artist to have an artwork auctioned by a major auction house,\" created a portrait of Alan Turing that resembles nothing more than a bad Francis Bacon rip-off. Still, the auction house described the sale as \"a new frontier in the global art market.\"
THE BIGGEST PODCAST MOMENTS OF THE YEAR
A STRANGE THING happened with podcasts in 2024: The industry was repeatedly thrust into the spotlight owing to a preponderance of head-turning events and a presidential-election cycle that radically foregrounded the medium's consequential nature. To reflect this, we've carved out a list of ten big moments from the year as refracted through podcasting.
THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR
THE YEAR IN CULTURE - BEST BOOKS
THE BEST THEATER OF THE YEAR
IT'S BEEN a year of successful straight plays, even measured by a metric at which they usually do poorly: ticket sales. Partially that's owed to Hollywood stars: Jeremy Strong, Jim Parsons, Rachel Zegler, Rachel McAdams (to my mind, the most compelling).
THE BEST ALBUMS OF THE YEAR
2024 WAS one big stress test that presented artists with a choice: Face uncomfortable realities or serve distractions to the audience. Pop music turned inward while hip-hop weathered court cases and incalculable losses. Country struggled to reconcile conservative interests with a much wider base of artists. But the year's best music offered a reprieve.
THE BEST TELEVISION OF THE YEAR
IT WAS SURPRISING how much 2024 felt like an uneventful wake for the Peak TV era. There was still great television, but there was much more mid or meh television and far fewer moments when a critical mass of viewers seemed equally excited about the same series.
THE BEST COMEDY SPECIALS OF THE YEAR
THE YEAR IN CULTURE - COMEDY SPECIALS
THE BEST MOVIES OF THE YEAR
PEOPLE LOVED Megalopolis, hated it, puzzled over it, clipped it into memes, and tried to astroturf it into a camp classic, but, most important, they cared about it even though it featured none of the qualities you'd expect of a breakthrough work in these noisy times.
A Truly Great Time
This was the year our city's new restaurants loosened up.
The Art of the Well-Stuffed Stocking
THE CHRISTMAS ENTHUSIASTS on the Strategist team gathered to discuss the oversize socks they drape on their couches and what they put inside them.
