The Scene
As 2024 comes to a close, the annual crush of year-in-review lists has cataloged the most noteworthy moments and media across industries and disciplines.
Beyond critics’ lists of the best movies, TV shows, and music of 2024, here are some more obscure lists you may have missed.
The Lists
- 2024 saw several major technological advancements — and some big failures. MIT Technology Review rounded up the most-notable “flops, flimflams, and fiascos” in technology, including the Boeing Starliner spaceship that stranded two astronauts in space and the CrowdStrike outage that led to thousands of canceled flights in the US and elsewhere.
- Bloomberg Businessweek’s annual Jealousy List of articles it wishes it published this year highlighted stories that filled journalists with “the kind of indescribable resentment that theologians once thought was a dangerous gateway to other sins.” A podcast about a mystery at a Furry convention and The Atlantic’s account of migrants’ journeys in Central America made the cut.
- Architecture and design magazine Dezeen highlighted the top product designs of 2024. Among them were attempts to make the world’s thinnest watch and a car without a rear window. Also included were a bag made from 99% air, and a fabric bathtub that can be hung like a hammock.
- Continuing the theme, The New York Times judged books by their covers. This year’s best book covers list is as aesthetically pleasing as it is insightful about how smart sleeve design plays a role in amplifying a book’s message.
- Literary Hub honored “wounding wondrousness” in a round up of the most scathing book reviews of 2024. Some of the best takedowns including The New Yorker’s Naomi Fry on Melania Trump’s memoir — “one of the flattest, most abstract, and least revealing accounts of a life that I’ve probably ever read” — and Times Literary Supplement’s Ann Manov on Sally Rooney’s Intermezzo — “has the form but not the content of a novel of ideas.”
- In a sea of bleak climate news, 2024 saw some notable environment and nature successes. The BBC documented the UK closing its last coal-fired power plant, Amazon deforestation reaching a nine-year low, and the ocean around the Azores receiving new protections.
- A little hyper-specific, but wildly entertaining, the New Scientist collected the best and weirdest photos of robots from 2024. Highlights include a smiling robot face covered with living human skin cells, and a police robot dog having an encounter with a real dog.
- The final list on this list takes the form of an hour-and-a-half DJ set: Jake Newby, who writes an illuminating newsletter about Chinese music, mixed his top 2024 tunes from Chinese artists. Genres range from indie rock to hip hop to experimental ambient sounds.
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