Pop culture has become a riot of ambition. In 2010, its creators risked more, endured more, and combined more influences than at any time in recent memory: from Marina Abramovic’s 736 hours and 30 minutes without a bathroom break at MoMA to Kanye West’s epic new album (and the accompanying tweet-a-thon) to James Franco’s life as performance art. Jonathan Franzen’s Freedom sprawls like a highbrow nineteenth-century novel—filled with 21st-century intellectual flotsam. Vampire Weekend applies Afrobeat rhythms to ditties about grammar and beverages. On TV, a little network show called Community is blowing up every sitcom convention (and on AMC, The Walking Dead is causing bloody carnage of an entirely different kind). The only thing all this stuff has in common is that it has nothing in common—except that our critics, and guest critics, gave each a resounding yes. read more [+]