For this year’s breakthrough artists—Katy Perry, for example, or Duffy or Santogold—grit is a defining characteristic. Other acts proved their mettle too: Metallica stormed back, Lil Wayne and Nas beat the odds to follow success with success, Portishead reemerged spectacularly after 10 years. It’s true now more than ever: Don’t stop believin’.

Here’s the official ballot. Make your picks, then click submit. (You can tick off boxes, or if you think you're so damn smart, write in your own favorite artist.)

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Folie à Deux, Fall Out Boy
Click to listen to “I Don’t Care”
Stay Positive, The Hold Steady
Click to listen to “Sequestered in Memphis”
Day & Age, The Killers
Click to listen to “Human”
Only by the Night, Kings of Leon
Click to listen to “Sex on Fire”
Death Magnetic, Metallica
Click to listen to “The Day That Never Comes”
Write-In Vote:
Invincible Summer, Common
Click to listen to “Universal Mind Control”
Tha Carter III, Lil Wayne
Click to listen to “A Milli”
Untitled, Nas
Click to listen to “Hero”
808s & Heartbreak, Kanye West
Click to listen to “Love Lockdown”
The Recession, Young Jeezy
Click to listen to “Welcome Back”
Write-In Vote:
Crystal Castles, Crystal Castles
Click to listen to “Crimewave”
Convivial, Luomo
Click to listen to “Love You All”
Saturdays=Youth, M83
Click to listen to “Graveyard Girl”
3, Portishead
Click to listen to “Nylon Smile”
Radio Retaliation, Thievery Corporation
Click to listen to “Beautiful Drug”
Write-In Vote:
 
Good Time, Alan Jackson
Click to listen to “Country Boy”
Sleepless Nights, Patty Loveless
Click to listen to “Why Baby Why”
Play, Brad Paisley
Click to listen to “Start a Band”
Randy Rogers Band, Randy Rogers Band
Click to listen to “Buy Myself
a Chance”
Love on the Inside, Sugarland
Click to listen to “Already Gone”
Write-In Vote:
Pass It On, Dave Holland Sextet
Click to listen to “Double Vision”
Two Men with the Blues, Willie Nelson & Wynton Marsalis
Click to listen to “Bright Lights, Big City”
9 Levels, Greg Osby
Click to listen to “Humility”
Cantando, Bobo Stenson Trio
Click to listen to “Love I’ve Found You”
Awake, Miguel Zenón
Click to listen to “Lamamilla”
Write-In Vote:
Comme Si de Rien N’Était, Carla Bruni
Click to listen to “l’Amoureuse"
Congotronics, Kasai Allstars
Click to listen to “Mukuba”
Novas Bossas, Milton Nascimento/Jobim Trio
Click to listen to “Tudo Que Você Podia Ser”
Movement, Rootz Underground
Click to listen to “Hammer”
Tchamantché, Rokia Traoré
Click to listen to “Dianfa”
Write-In Vote:
 
21
Click to listen to “Young Folks” by Peter Bjorn and John
American Teen
Click to listen to “Trouble” by Cat Stevens
Forgetting Sarah Marshall
Click to listen to “Get Me Away from Here, I’m Dying” by Belle and Sebastian
My Blueberry Nights
Click to listen to “The Story” by Norah Jones
Nick & Nora’s Infinite Playlist
Click to listen to “Lover” by Devendra Banhart
Write-In Vote:
“Bleeding Love,” Leona Lewis
“Lollipop,” Lil Wayne
“Paper Planes,” M.I.A.
“I Kissed a Girl,” Katy Perry
“Low,” Flo Rida
Write-In Vote:
Beck
 
Kid Rock
 
Mötley Crüe
 
Radiohead
 
Stone Temple Pilots
 
Write-In Vote:
 
Duffy
Click to listen to “Warwick Avenue”
MGMT
Click to listen to “Time to Pretend”
Paramore
Click to listen to “That’s What You Get”
Santogold
Click to listen to “Say Aha”
Vampire Weekend
Click to listen to “Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa”
Write-In Vote:
The Niney Years, Dennis Brown
Click to listen to “Here I Come”
Tell Tale Signs, Bob Dylan
Click to listen to “Someday Baby”
Polk Miller and His Old South Quartette
Click to listen to “What a Time”
Pussycat, John Phillips
Click to listen to “Oh Virginia”
Pacific Ocean Blue, Dennis Wilson
Click to listen to “Dreamer”
Write-In Vote:
Having “Sweet Caroline” as the seventh-inning-stretch sing-along at Fenway Park is enough to justify his entry into any Hall of Fame. But Diamond’s career highlights also include writing the 1967 song of the year (“I’m a Believer” for the Monkees), having his works wonderfully covered by everyone from UB40 to Urge Overkill and, this year, making a breathtakingly beautiful, largely acoustic album with Rick Rubin. With a new greatest-hits album on the shelves and a massive nationwide tour under his belt, Idol’s rebel yell is once again ringing out loud and clear. Spirit of ’76 punks, classic rockers and fans of 1980s glittering pop can all get behind the man whose MTV-ready sneer made him a global icon.
Straight Outta Compton dropped 20 years ago and changed not only hip-hop but the entire music industry. Brutal, reality-driven street tales of gun violence and gangsterism adrenalized rap’s rhymes. Dr. Dre’s West Coast production style rewrote the beat book. And the collective’s “express yourself” business approach revolutionized the model of success. With prog all the rage in some new-music circles, the band that practically invented the genre is as big as ever. Rush’s musical virtuosity, intricate time changes, suite-style song cycles and cerebral texts continued to fill arenas this year as the trio extended its Snakes & Arrows tour and prepared to release a live DVD.
Write-In Vote:
With the 1991 LP Gish, this band, as much as Nirvana, created the sound of the 1990s. Now out on the road celebrating the band’s 20th anniversary, Billy Corgan and company are innovating again by creating a multiset tour concept: They are offering ticket bundles to multiple shows featuring mutually exclusive music. And with a catalogue that includes such seminal albums as Siamese Dream and Mellon Collie, why not?

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