It only makes sense that 'Running Up That Hill' is everywhere

If you write or talk about music for a living, a few new unwritten rules have cropped up in recent years. For example, the job of compiling best-of-the-year lists has expanded to include an obligatory best-of-the-year-so-far, usually sometime in June. (Speaking of which, here are the albums and songs lists we just put together at NPR Music.)

Around the same time, we're required — not by law, but it feels that way sometimes — to assess the popular-music landscape and start," Billie Eilish's "" and Lizzo's "" appeared to be the only tracks in existence between the months of April and October. In other years, we spend many weeks waiting for clarity as the cultural tides churn and shift.