Renee Klahr / NPR / Armon Dauphin / Getty Images
I. Short Circuiting
On the first day of December in the year of our collective dread 2020, my editor called me to have the annual conversation. How, Jacob wanted to know, do you plan to write about this year in music? Our back-and-forth fluctuated between the general NPR Music was about to publish its lists of 2020 s best songs and albums and the personal. He talked about listening to sad disco while taking long summer runs in upstate New York. I confessed that while I d marveled at the women rappers, Black country singers and pop-star androgynes who d made social media fun, all I d wanted to do most nights in Nashville was put on headphones and listen to a folkie whisper in my ear. Our talk of bests, our generalizations and volleyed opinions, felt heartwarmingly familiar. But then he asked me a question that jarred me out of that comfort zone.