The 200 Greatest Songs By 21st Century Women+
This list is part of Turning the Tables, an ongoing project from NPR Music dedicated to recasting the popular music canon in more inclusive – and accurate – ways. This year, our list, selected by a panel of more than 70 women and non-binary writers, tackles history in the making, celebrating artists whose work is changing this century's sense of what popular music can be. The songs are by artists whose major musical contributions came on or after Jan. 1, 2000, and have shifted attitudes, defied categories and pushed sound in new directions since then.
Our list includes songs performed by women and non-binary artists. The use of the term "Women+" is part of our engagement in a movement to recognize a wide spectrum of gender identities coming to greater light in the 21st century.
That 's "Wrecking Ball" became her first No. 1 single is no surprise — it's one of the great showcases of her truest talents. A high-water mark in the current hits-by-committee era, the song was originally penned in a session for . With Miley drawing "wrecked" to four syllables, the woeful vulnerability of this break-up ballad infused undeniable depth into the controversy-courting roll out of that set to singe her Disney image from collective memory.
