Notes on a Year: Ann Powers on pop music

"Let's have a toast," sang Kanye West in September of this sometimes seemingly endless year, debuting a new song, "Runaway," on the MTV Video Music Awards. Over a glassy keyboard sample and an old-school breakbeat, West intoned a gentle melody. "Runaway," many expected, would offer apologies to Taylor Swift: This was the one-year anniversary of West's notorious interruption of an acceptance speech by the country-pop princess, which led to his brief retreat from the media spotlight.

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