Alexander 23 releases his debut album Aftershock! The singer and songwriter first began teasing the album announcement on social media through a teaser clip shared on the cryptic website didyoufeelit.xyz. When fans visited the website, they were prompted with the question: “What is an aftershock and how do I know if I’ve felt one?”

A glamorously gaudy, self-made, post-modern diva stitched together from elements of Madonna, David Bowie, and Freddie Mercury, Lady Gaga was the first millennial superstar. Mastering the constant connection of the Internet era, Gaga generated countless mini-sensations with her style, her videos, and her music, cultivating a devoted audience she dubbed "Little Monsters." But it wasn't just a cult that turned her 2008 manifesto The Fame into a self-fulfilling prophecy: Gaga crossed over into the mainstream, ushering out one pop epoch and kick-starting a new one, quickly making such turn-of-the-century stars as Christina Aguilera and Britney Spears seem old-fashioned. It was quite a trick for any artist to pull off, but especially impressive for one who specialized in repurposing the past (particularly the '80s) for present use, creating sustainable pop for a digital world. Gaga's fame soon extended beyond music: she received accolades for her 2015 role in American Horror Story: Hotel and her Oscar-nominated turn in Bradley Cooper's 2018 remake of A Star Is Born.

The Rise & Fall of Loverboy is one of those odd albums whose musical styles and themes seem to vary wildly from track to track … Paradoxically, it is this feature that ties everything together. One never knows where Sir Sly are headed. [Frontman] Jacobs has turned over a new lead. He looks to other people's music for his salvation and then filters it through his own experiences to see what matters.

Without any announcement or promotion, 47-year-old Eminem released his 11th solo album, cheerfully starting 2020. “Music To Be Murdered By” is a kind of horror film for competing rappers, named after the eponymous record of the cult horror director Alfred Hitchcock. He even appears in a tracklist with two hermitages. Throughout the album, Em touches on literally everything: from critics who do not accept his current work, and rappers who provoke a nervous tick in Marshall himself, to memories of parties in the prime of his own popularity and toxic romantic relationships.