2026 marks 10 years since a transformative moment in contemporary arts culture. To recognize this moment, the Arts section has crafted a retrospective to frame the 2016 arts scene. Our retrospective overlooks culture, music, film and television. Though our list isn’t exhaustive, it spotlights the artists that reoriented our understanding of what art can be. After 2014 was named one of the worst years in pop music history, 2016 felt like a resurrection, an artistic renaissance that brought forth sidelined voices, innovative technologies and artists pushing the bounds of their own potentialities.
Despite being a year of defining moments for the arts, 2016 was a year not unlike the times we currently live in. Our current president was beginning his first presidential campaign, a point that would define our politics for a decade and probably beyond. In the midst of a looming detrimental political turning point, art found a way to bloom, ask us questions and demand careful attention. U.S. streaming services for entertainment, including music, film and television were only beginning to take hold, eventually by the 2020s would restructure how we engage with the arts.
When recounting the arts in 2016, most of it seems to be based in nostalgia, attempting to see the year as an easier time. But, this is something we should be cautious about with our rose-colored glasses. Rather than seeing 2016 as an end-point of the could have beens, see as potential of what could still be. I hope you enjoy the Arts 2016 special issue (and the last special issue I’m curating as Head Arts Editor); use it to inform what you think the arts can be in a time that seems so unlike what we expected.
–Suzanne Bagia, Head Arts Editor
CULTURE
Recapping 2016’s biggest moments in culture by Riley Greenberg and Kalana Amarasekara
MUSIC
The year is 2016, and the 1975 throws it back to 1985 by Riley Greenberg
Mitski’s ‘Puberty 2,’ 10 years later by Jami Buteau
Rihanna’s ‘Anti’ and its impact, 10 years later by Ava Hebenstreit
‘Lemonade,’ 10 years later by Julie-Ann Claude
10 years of Ariana Grande’s ‘Dangerous Woman’ by Shannon Burke
David Bowie’s ‘Blackstar,’ 10 years later by Francisco Aguirre-Ghiso
Frank Ocean’s ‘Blonde,’ ten years later by Francisco Aguirre-Ghiso
Radiohead released ‘A Moon Shaped Pool’ 10 years ago by Crissy Saucier
FILM AND TELEVISON
10 must-watch films from 2016 by Crissy Saucier, Jack Cona and Francisco Aguirre-Ghiso
‘Stranger Things’: A look back at the decade-long TV show by Kaitlyn Saperstein
‘Moonlight’: Ten Years Later by Jack Cona
