Best new music blogger

Best musical anniversary

Best honorary member of Chicago’s footwork scene with a day job at a steel mill in Gary

Best consequence of a broken HVAC system

Best transcendental deep-space synth trip

Best group of veterans of the Blue Man backing band

Best classical label

Best instructional dance video

Best onstage psychedelic costume party

Best 4 AM bar for live music

Best cross between the Breeders and Lightning Bolt

Best group making music with the contents of a thrift-store basement

Best career reboot by a septuagenarian harmonica player

Best feminist rock ‘n’ roll exorcism

Best band primed to break out this year

Best hot dice

Best new south-side nightlife spot

Best punk-rock LGBTQ night

Best reason to hang out at a barcade after midnight on a school night

Best lasers at an underground rave

Best nomadic collective for weird, druggy, hard-hitting underground techno

Best progressive cumbia and tropical bass night

Best-dressed DJs

Best music venue

Best band

Best music festival

Best up-and-coming band

Best rock club

Best DJ

Best band name

Best hip-hop artist

Best 4 AM bar

Best karaoke

Best jazz club

Best singer-​songwriter

Best local record label

Best dance club

Best dance party

Best jazz musician

Best dive bar