With landmark albums from Beyoncé, Kendrick Lamar, Bad Bunny and Rosalía, 2022 was a year where the globe’s biggest artists stretched the boundaries of what was possible in pop music.
But it was also a year marked by incredible laziness and craven opportunism.
Sampling came back in a big way but not a clever one. Classic hits were used as a crutch for weak songwriting, often lifted wholesale…