If you were looking for indications of where music was headed, 2011 provided a couple hints. It's going everywhere and nowhere. In the past year we saw the spread of music-streaming services like the popular Spotify (turns out that downloading music is actually too much of a time-consuming pain, too many clicks). There was word that some record companies might stop producing physical CDs in 2012. This was the year of the Kanye/Jay-Z collaboration. It was the year of Adele's continued dominance on the charts. Lady Gaga didn't go away. Pitchfork announced it would end Altered Zones, its site devoted to small-scale DIY music, at the end of 2011. It was the year Amy Winehouse died. It was the 20th anniversary of the release of Nirvana's Nevermind. It was the 30th anniversary of the debut of MTV. It was the 40th anniversary of the release of Led Zeppelin IV and the 40th anniversary of the death of Jim Morrison. It was the 50th anniversary of John Coltrane's My Favorite Things. It was the 200th anniversary of Franz Liszt's birthday. How far back do you want to go with this? A few beginnings, lots of endings, and even more commemorations of past glories. That's about the state of things. Ruminative indie rock, atmospheric pastiche-y sound collage, good-old pop, academic metal, solid work by some established giants, hip-hop that went confessional or flat-out surreal, and a few new names caught our attention this year. Each December we stop to reflect on all the music that we happened to turn our ears to in the past year and to take note of what seemed good and great, what might be included in someone's recollections of notable releases from the past, 20 years from now.

- John Adamian