In 2021, We Reunited With the Bodies Behind Our Favorite Music

In Slate's annual Music Club, Slate critic Carl Wilson emails about the year in music with fellow critics -- featuring New York Times contributor Lindsay Zoladz, freelance writer Briana Younger, NPR music critic Ann Powers, Glitter Up the Dark author Sasha Geffen, Pitchfork contributing editor Jenn Pelly, WXNP Nashville editorial director Jewly Hight, Penguin Books author Julianne Escobedo Shepherd, critic Steacy Easton, Slate pop-culture critic Jack Hamilton, and Chris Molanphy, the host of Slate's Hit Parade. Like some of you probably did too, I came back to live music this year. This past June marked my first show after 16 months sealed away from contagion. I filed into the venue hoping for catharsis, thinking the accumulated anxiety of the previous year might dissipate in reunion with thousands of strangers. Something else happened: I'd trained my body in certain nervous patterns, and when I went to shows, I brought my body with me.