The artist of the year 2019 came to the attention of pop fans via TIKTOK, and to the attention of much of the rest of the world via his forcible removal from the BILLBOARD chart that TikTok had helped him land on. He's smart, ambitious and blessed with self-awareness, and what comes next is anybody's guess. Or maybe the artist of the year is four women who appropriated their name from four men and set out to right some wrongs on the very chart from which that other artist of the year was summarily tossed. Or maybe it was the fearless pop star who added the phrases "re-recording rights" and "private equity" to the everyday pop music lexicon. Or the co-ed rock band who dropped its third and fourth albums five months apart and tried its best to tell us not what is, but what is not. Or the bold, brassy woman who had major hits in 2019 with songs from 2016 and 2017, a little help of her own from TikTok and a magic flute (which may have been the instrument of the year). Below are reflections from throughout the year on the artists who left a noticeable dent in our loudspeakers and headphones, and maybe in our perceptions of the world. But this is just one list. You'll find a couple hundred more (and counting) in MusicSET: "Best Music of 2019: The Year in Lists."