I would say 2016 was a terrible year in every aspect (don't try to deny it,
specially from a political point of view) except for music, but even then we lost so many great artists, some of them were music icons such as David Bowie, Prince or Leonard Cohen, or underrated heroes like Alan Vega, Sharon Jones, Pete Burns or Don Buchla.
But still, there was a lot of amazing music released this year, by established pop legends like Rihanna, Carly Rae Jepsen, Ariana Grande and (of course) Beyoncé, slightly more experimental/alternative leaning artists such as Jessy Lanza, Jenny Hval or Kero Kero Bonito, comebacks from Frank Ocean, James Blake and Radiohead, as well as political stuff coming from Blood Orange, Solange and ANOHNI - you name it, in fact it was hard to make these lists considering how many awesome releases there were. And you're going to find all the highlights of the year here.
Have fun bbs!
PS: shoutout to AlexisNeiers for the cool OP <3