From Kendrick Lamar and Megan Thee Stallion to Coldplay, here they are: the magnificent, the flawed-but-forceful, the forgettable and the truly, epically misbegotten.

This year artists working within the orbit of the unstable category "roots music" got personal even as they explored complex cultural lineages and challenged the rules of established scenes and forms.

This year artists working within the orbit of the unstable category "roots music" got personal even as they explored complex cultural lineages and challenged the rules of established scenes and forms.