The Top 10 Most Popular Village Voice Online Music Stories of 2015

The year is quickly coming to a close and we’re looking back on the year-in-music. From rap beef to Halloween jams, these are the Village Voice music stories that you couldn’t get enough of in 2015.

10. Sawyer Fredericks on Shyness, Dark Songs, and Life After The Voice

It doesn’t feel accurate to call Sawyer Fredericks a kid. The winner of the eighth season of NBC’s The Voice is just sixteen years old — the youngest winner in the show’s history — yet his folk songs convey an emotional wisdom far beyond his years. Read more from our interview with Sawyer Fredericks… 

9. The Action Bronson vs. Ghostface Killah Beef: A Timeline

A timeline of the rappers’ history shows the ongoing, tiresome comparisons between the two. Both have been plagued since the outset of Action’s career, circa 2011, though for a time they’d kept things diplomatic, even supportive. But with the recent success of the younger MC’s full-length debut, Mr. Wonderful, maybe it was only a matter of time before the two stopped being polite and started getting real. Whether this spawns a barrage of beef records or just ends up a blip on the radar remains to be seen. Braggadocio, jabs, and friendly competition make hip-hop great, and as long as these two can act like grown-ass men and keep it on wax, New York rap will be better for it. Read more about the beef between these two rappers…

8. Motorhead’s Lemmy Kilmister Just Wants to Rock, ‘Not Be in Hospital’

We want our rock stars to be larger than life, invincible. None, perhaps, have done so more ably than one Ian Fraser “Lemmy” Kilmister, arguably the hardest-living man in show business. Read more from our last interview with Lemmy… 

7. In New Documentary, Hardcore Singer Mike Judge Talks About His ‘Leave of Absence’

If you had to put your finger on a moment when Mike “Judge” Ferraro, singer of straight-edge band Judge, figured he was done with hardcore, it might have been just before the band’s final song during a concert in Ybor City on their 1991 tour… After that tour, the band broke up and the young man now known as Mike Judge, who had been a scene fixture since he was fifteen and went by Mike Ferraro, dropped off the map. While most bands slowly fizzle out, Judge stopped cold. “I just had to walk away for a while, and it just so happened that ‘while’ turned into something like twenty fucking years,” Judge told the Voice. Read more from our interview with Mike Judge… 

6. Twenty Songs That Will Convert You to Country

“I’m into everything but _____ and country.” For years, this was an all-too-common response when people were asked what kind of music they like. Here’s a list of songs that’ll convert you to country fandom and make you reconsider that “Anything but” proclamation. Embrace the banjo and the Southern drawl. It’s good for us; it’s good for y’all. Read more about your new favorite country songs…

5. Sex, Knives, and Veganism: Ten Things You Didn’t Know About Doyle From the Misfits

Suspecting there might be more things about him that people didn’t know, we spoke to Doyle, his lead singer, Alex Story, and his girlfriend, Alissa White-Gluz (vocalist for Swedish metal band Arch Enemy) prior to their show at Saint Vitus. I wanted to know what makes this guy tick (and, to be honest, I wanted some juicy tidbits, too). By the time I got around to asking him his favorite sex position, I felt we’d really made progress in the getting-to-know-you department. But of course we talked about music, too. Read more about the mysterious Doyle… 

4. Here’s the ‘Back to Black’ Story That Hit the Amy Winehouse Documentary’s Cutting Room Floor

Asif Kapadia’s choice to leave the Dap-Kings out of Amy isn’t so much an act of erasure as a necessary casualty of the editing process, one he laments now that the film is in theaters. Initially, Kapadia was worried he wouldn’t have enough material for Amy. Read more about what got left out of the film… 

3. Five Rap Artists to Watch For in 2015

Hip-hop moves fast. Even in this accelerated internet age, where music seems like it’s here today, gone before we finish typing this sentence, rap’s always thrived by having someone new always around the corner to introduce new styles and flip the game in an instant. With so many regions nationwide boasting exciting scenes spawning new styles, we’re giving you the heads-up on five new voices we’re excited to hear more from in the new year. Read more about 2015’s rappers-to-watch…

2. Here Are the 15 Best Halloween Songs That Aren’t Michael Jackson’s ‘Thriller’

Our playlist will be the perfect addition to your Halloween, giving you a much-needed reprieve from the struggle to find the perfect costume and the endless consumption of American Horror Story (whose theme song is enough in itself to send chills down your spine) and pumpkin IPAs. Cue the thunder and lightning. Dim the lights and flip the switch to your fog machine. It’s time to revel in the dark. Read more about the perfect way to soundtrack your Halloween…

1. 5 Seconds of Summer Prove They’ve Got Headliner Chops at First Major NYC Gig

This show and this band will continue to serve as the first show and first favorite band for many, many people in the years to come. They’ll continue to lay a foundation for decades of music fandom and taste, and kids will remember these songs for the rest of their lives. Critical legitimacy? Who needs it when you’re helping kids find their passion with a single song? Read more about 5 Seconds of Summer’s big gig…