Some decades are remembered for certain genres of music, but the 2010s were a decade that belonged to powerful women in music. Female singer-songwriters have been around since the 19th century, but the 2010s in particular were dominated by women of all colors. Angel Olsen, Grimes, St. Vincent, Mitski, Jamila Woods, Sharon Van Etten, SZA, Robyn, Weyes Blood, U.S. Girls, Janelle Monáe, Bat for Lashes, Björk, Cate Le Bon, Haim, Kacey Musgraves, Solange, Courtney Barnett, Joanna Newsom, Fiona Apple, PJ Harvey, and Patti Smith all recorded and released critically acclaimed albums, while Lorde, Taylor Swift, Adele, Beyoncé, Lady Gaga, Katy Perry, Miley Cyrus, Billie Eilish, Lana Del Rey, Rihanna, Cardi B, Kesha, Demi Lovato, and Ariana Grande sold out stadiums and arenas throughout the world. The #MeToo movement created a revolution, and in music women created an evolution, transforming several music genres while delivering unique and courageous perspectives to address the current social climate of sexism, misogyny, and xenophobia. 90s rock band Sleater-Kinney stormed back in 2015 and released No Cities to Love, one of the strongest statements of its time. While people were watching Portlandia starring Carrie Brownstein, the punk rocker-turned-actress was busy carrying the torch as one of the feminist saviors in American rock music. Female vocalists also were the leaders for many indie rock bands including: Chvrches, Beach House, Metric, School of Seven Bells, The Jezabels, Pure Bathing Culture, Florence + the Machine, and the xx.
While women took over the reigns in music, plenty of landmark albums by black male artists emerged during the 2010s by Kendrick Lamar, Kanye West, Frank Ocean, Run the Jewels, Chance the Rapper, Drake, D’Angelo and the Vanguard, and Kamasi Washington. Many legendary white male rock n’ roll artists also produced great albums during the decade including: Bob Dylan, Paul Simon, Bruce Springsteen, Robert Plant, Roger Waters, Nick Cave, Iggy Pop, David Bowie, and Leonard Cohen. Comebacks were also happening during these years. Fine new albums were unveiled by hard rock and heavy metal bands such as AC/DC, Rush, Black Sabbath, Judas Priest, Iron Maiden, Tool, Rammstein, Foo Fighters, Metallica, Def Leppard, and ZZ Top. Post punk and synth pop bands from the 80s also released some very good albums including Simple Minds, Devo, Pet Shop Boys, Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark, New Order, and Alphaville. If all of that wasn’t enough, 90s shoegaze legends My Bloody Valentine, Ride, Jesus and Mary Chain, and Slowdive returned (after over 20 years) with new albums during the decade as well. To round out the comebacks, many major music artists who hadn’t released an album in a very long time embarked on reunion tours including: Guns N’ Roses, Rage Against the Machine, The Spice Girls, The Stone Roses, Kraftwerk, and The Replacements. During the 2010s, the pop, rock, and R&B world lost many leaders including Tom Petty, David Bowie, Leonard Cohen, Lou Reed, Prince, Aretha Franklin, Whitney Houston, Adam Yauch, Gregg Allman, Chuck Berry, Ornette Coleman, B.B. King, Etta James, Ravi Shankar, Pete Seeger, Merle Haggard, Roy Clark, Captain Beefheart, Glen Campbell, Ray Manzarek, Donna Summer, George Michael, Ric Ocasek, Chris Cornell, Glen Frey, Jay Reatard, and Keith Flint. Two notable names included in this list released albums just days before their deaths: David Bowie and Leonard Cohen. Bowie’s final album, Blackstar, was a modern classic and left the world stunned with his final brilliant act perfectly timed, while Cohen’s last album, You Want it Darker, was a seminal masterpiece (and his posthumous album, Thanks for the Dance, released by his son Adam was excellent as well).
I’ve always been a fan of live music ever since my mother took me to an Arlo Guthrie concert when I was a teenager. In the 2010s I became a concertgoer and developed a passion for music photography. After spending much of the decade shooting concerts on my less than suitable smartphone, I was fed up with clipped and distorted audio, pixelated video, and out of focus photographs. I spent months researching small mirrorless cameras and bought the Sony RX-100 V. On May 2, 2017, Matisyahu played a free concert here in my Pittsburgh neighborhood of Squirrel Hill, and I filmed and edited a short video on my smartphone. One day later, my new tiny digital camera arrived in the mail from B&H, and armed with my new toy, I bought tickets to see Midnight Oil in NYC. Clicking that shutter button 200 times or more was euphoric. After seeing Future Islands, Tycho, and Nick Cave back in my city, I realized soon thereafter that I might be able to get into concerts with a slightly larger camera. I upped the ante and purchased the Sony A6500 mirrorless camera (and several lenses). I spent $400 on a concert ticket to see Depeche Mode, flied to Chicago, and stayed with a friend. I had never been so nervous in my life about going to a concert, because I expected the security guards to deny me entrance if they discovered I had a camera with interchangeable lenses with me. Miraculously, my camera and I survived unscathed, accompanied by memories to last a lifetime. Not long afterwards, I traveled up to Buffalo and photographed my second U2 concert of the year. Around Halloweeen, I took a trip to NYC, and stumbled upon a concert by Fischerspooner. I hid my precious 85mm lens under a platinum blonde costume wig in a plastic bag and got past security. It was an energetic show at Brooklyn Steel and Michael Stipe from R.E.M. was even in attendance. The following year I saw Radiohead in Pittsburgh and Philadelphia, shooting from the floor with my 85mm lens I sneaked in. The 2010s for me was the decade I got serious about not just traveling all around the country to see live music, but taking my music photography to a whole new level (while trying not to max out my credits cards in the process).
Assembling an all-inclusive, “definitive” list of the top 50 most influential albums from the 2010s (or any decade) is no easy task, so rather than compiling a list that includes artists and bands of all kinds and genres, I’ve focused only on the albums and artists that I love. I could only hope that some of you discovering these albums for the very first time will not only enjoy listening to them, but find the music to be life-changing as well. I’ve organized the albums chronologically by year (in no particular order). Though some years contain more albums than others, it is only because the albums I picked happened to be released in that specific year. I also set a 3 album maximum limit for one single artist (so I could include albums from artists that weren’t as popular). Below this, I’ve included “5 Honorable Mentions” as well as a separate list of “Notables” that didn’t make the cut. I added Spotify playlists for all of 50 of these albums too. The ’10s were quite an amazing decade of music for myself and so many people, and getting to see so many artists that I loved in live settings was quite simply profound. I hope you enjoyed my journey through the decades. It was quite a challenge poring over so many songs, albums, and artists these last few months. The albums I included over these 5 decades (1970s, 1980s, 1990s, 2000s, and 2010s) meant something to me, however, nothing is set in stone, and I may very well expand or edit my existing lists so long as I’m still alive and discovering new music. If you missed last week’s albums of the 2000s, you can check them out here (and the 1990s albums here, and the 1980s albums here, and the 1970s albums here).

2010
The National High Violet | |
Arcade Fire The Suburbs | |
Devo Something for Everybody | |
Tamaryn The Waves | |
Beach House Teen Dream |
2011
The Jezabels Prisoner | |
Acid House Kings Music Sounds Better with You | |
Cut Copy Zonoscope | |
PJ Harvey Let England Shake | |
The Black Keys El Camino | |
M83 Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming |
2012
Grimes Visions | |
Metric Synthetica | |
School of Seven Bells Ghostory | |
Tame Impala Lonerism | |
The Raveonettes Observator |
2013
Cut Copy Free Your Mind | |
Kurt Vile Wakin on a Pretty Daze | |
Daft Punk Random Access Memories | |
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark English Electric | |
My Bloody Valentine m b v | |
Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds Push the Sky Away | |
Pet Shop Boys Electric | |
Pure Bathing Culture Moon Tides | |
Sigur Rós Kveikur | |
Vampire Weekend Modern Vampires of the City |
2014
Real Estate Atlas | |
Future Islands Singles | |
Alvvays Alvvays | |
Robert Plant lullaby and… The Ceaseless Roar | |
The Black Keys Turn Blue | |
Simple Minds Big Music | |
The War on Drugs Lost in the Dream |
2015
Kurt Vile B’lieve I’m Goin Down… | |
Father John Misty I Love You, Honeybear | |
New Order Music Complete | |
Sufjan Stevens Carrie & Lowell |
2016
David Bowie Blackstar | |
Leonard Cohen You Want It Darker | |
Radiohead A Moon Shaped Pool | |
Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds Skeleton Tree | |
Tycho Epoch |
2017
LCD Soundsystem American Dream | |
The War on Drugs A Deeper Understanding | |
St. Vincent MASSEDUCTION | |
Slowdive Slowdive |
2018
Korine New Arrangements |
2019
Bat for Lashes Lost Girls | |
Drab Majesty Modern Mirror | |
Weyes Blood Titanic Rising |
5 Honorable Mentions
Alphaville Catching Rays on Giant 2010 | |
The Brian Jonestown Massacre Aufheben 2012 | |
Erasure The Violet Flame 2014 | |
Suede Night Thoughts 2016 | |
Angel Olsen All Mirrors 2019 |
Notables
(Or Albums That Didn’t Make the List)
Alt-J – This Is All Yours (2014) |
Arcade Fire – Reflektor (2013) |
Beach House – 7 (2018) |
The Black Keys – Brothers (2010) |
Boards of Canada – Tomorrow’s Harvest (2013) |
Bob Dylan – Tempest (2012) |
Bon Iver – Bon Iver (2011) |
Bruce Springsteen – Wrecking Ball (2012) |
Caribou – Swim (2010) |
Cate Le Bon – Reward (2019) |
Chvrches – The Bones of What You Believe (2013) |
Club 8 – Pleasure (2015) |
Club 8 – The People’s Record (2010) |
Courtney Barnett – Sometimes I Sit and Think, And Sometimes I Just Sit. (2015) |
David Bowie – The Next Day (2013) |
Dead Can Dance – Anastasis (2012) |
Destroyer – Kaputt (2013) |
Drab Majesty – The Demonstration (2017) |
Enya – Dark Sky Island (2015) |
Florence + the Machine – Ceremonials (2011) |
Garbage – Strange Little Birds (2016) |
Gary Numan – Savage (Songs from a Broken World) (2017) |
Iggy Pop – Post Pop Depression (2015) |
Jamie xx – In Colour (2015) |
Johnny Marr – The Messenger (2013) |
The Joy Formidable – The Big Roar (2011) |
Kate Bush – 50 Words for Snow (2011) |
LCD Soundsystem – This is Happening (2010) |
Leonard Cohen – Popular Problems (2014) |
Leonard Cohen – Thanks for the Dance (2019) |
Light Asylum – Light Asylum (2012) |
Lorde – Melodrama (2017) |
MGMT – Congratulations (2010) |
Moby – Innocents (2013) |
Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds – Ghosteen (2019) |
Nine Inch Nails – Bad Witch (2018) |
Patti Smith – Banga (2012) |
Paul Simon – So Beautiful or So What (2011) |
Pillar Point – Marble Mouth (2016) |
R.E.M. – Collapse into Now (2011) |
The Raveonettes – Raven in the Grave (2011) |
Robyn – Body Talk (2010) |
School of Seven Bells – Disconnect from Desire (2010) |
Sharon Van Etten – Remind Me Tomorrow (2019) |
St. Vincent – St. Vincent (2014) |
St. Vincent – Strange Mercy (2011) |
Suede – Bloodsports (2013) |
Tame Impala – Currents (2015) |
Teenage Fanclub – Here (2016) |
Temples – Sun Structures (2014) |
Titus Andronicus – The Monitor (2010) |
Tycho – Awake (2014) |
The Wake – A Light Far Out (2012) |
Fascinating
Back to just “fascinating”, huh?
Very interesting list of music! I don’t know many of the albums to be honest but I love the stories about how you’ve got into music photography. The part where you hid the 85mm lens under a platinum blonde costume wig is just epic 🙂 You just seem to be so passionate about music which is great! I’ve give the albums a quick listen and I quite like the ones by Kurt Vile, Father John Misty and Leonard Cohen (a classic).
Thanks Sirinya! I appreciate you reading about my music/photography stories. No doubt the whole experience of photographing bands is exciting to me, as well as seeing/hearing my favorite artists/bands at the same time. It’s almost a perfect storm of passion, as I’m creating my own art while I’m hearing (and seeing) someone else’s art at the same time. Yes, I like Kurt Vile a lot, but did you hear The War on Drugs too? Kurt Vile used to be in that band but Adam Granduciel kept the band going and frankly, in my opinion, made The War on Drugs the greatest its ever been. 🙂 I’ve included two of his albums here (released in 2014 and 2017). Enjoy. 🙂
You’re welcome Jonathan! I quite enjoy reading your stories, they are really fun and entertaining 🙂 I’ve just given The War on Drugs a quick listen. I didn’t know this band before but it is cool to discover something new! Oh and I also like the Paul Simon album you mention in Notables 🙂