Starting today on Awl Music: "Gossip," a playlist by Emily Gould, that'll be unrolled throughout the week. (You can follow along on Tumblr and Twitter too for when new videos go up, if you like.)

"The only thing worse than being talked about is not being talked about," said Oscar Wilde, who never had the opportunity to Twitter-search himself. Gossip is an enduring theme of pop music: being talked about, whispering behind someone's back, admonishing listeners not to believe the rumors, feeling apologetic about having let slip something you shouldn't have ("sweetness, I was only joking"), or feeling peeved because someone else did ("you had to [...]

This is not a “best of 2011” music list. I didn’t hear or read or see all the music this year. Did you? Perhaps after consulting with a suitably large staff, a publication could reasonably claim to draw a box around, say, the best music of the year. I tend to count myself rarely satisfied with these attempts, though, even if I'm consulted. How about you?

No, don’t even start, as I’ve seen every single one of you beefing on Twitter about a subjective list. You weren’t wrong to do so! Lists are always wrong. It’s a part of their power, this axiomatic guarantee of failure. A list might “start [...]