Best of 2024: Why we loved these 18 albums from Cowboy Carter to The Tortured Poets Department

As 2024 winds down and 2025 looms on the horizon, it’s time to look back at the year that was in pop culture. We asked our staff to pick their favorite movies, games, music and television from the past year, and now we are sharing it with you.

The rules are pretty simple: The album/movie/game just needed to be released in the calendar year 2024 to be considered. For television, just one episode had to air for the first time over the last year. To be clear, this list isn’t necessarily the best of the year, it’s our favorites. 

This last year was a fun one for music, as we saw a fantastic showing from the ladies with massive albums from Beyoncé and Taylor Swift, plus a breakthrough album from new pop princess Sabrina Carpenter.

Here are some of our favorites of the year.

Warning: Some of these music videos contain NSFW language.