Do you want to know the history of zydeco? Do you want to understand why a bro-country dude is the number one selling act in a given week? Want to hear what rap is like in Poland? Do you want to make a playlist that goes from Atlanta trap to synthwave to Blog House to New Jack Swing to Classic Rock in the span of eight songs? All of that is possible at the push of a button.
![kendrick lamar untitled unmastered alternate cover kendrick lamar untitled unmastered alternate cover](https://music.mxdwn.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/Kendrick-Lamar-untitled-unmastered-compressed-1280x720.jpg)
An underreported part of the Death Star that was the Internet on the Music Industry’s Alderaan is that it completely shattered the barriers of entry into any and every music genre. I don’t think I’m alone when I say that I’m glad that that kind of person is going extinct. They were the people who said “Country sucks, I only like Johnny Cash.” They were the people who couldn’t make room in their heart for Kanye West, or any other genre iconoclast. They were the people who thought only the Beatles made great music in the ‘60s, and who ignored Otis Redding. These were the people who called ringtone rap trash in 2004 while listening to Fiery Furnaces. There exists, in our not-so-distant past, people who were genre provincialists, people who refused to listen to any music outside their chosen genre.
![kendrick lamar untitled unmastered alternate cover kendrick lamar untitled unmastered alternate cover](https://pyxis.nymag.com/v1/imgs/e61/910/305571796e8db0c8245bfed762d40787b6-04-kendrick-lamar-secret-album.2x.rsocial.w600.jpg)
But first, I want to talk to you about music genres. The results will be as surprising to you as they were to us when we compiled the list. I’m going to let you see the Top 20 Albums of 2016, as voted by nearly 7500 members of the Vinyl Me, Please community-who all voted for their 10 favorite albums of 2016- in a minute.