Arts review of 2019: Fiona Shepherd on the year in pop

In 2019 a Swedish teenager spearheaded a global cultural shakedown and climate activism became the new rock’n’roll, as the youth took to the streets en masse. Meanwhile, mainstream popular music continued its retreat to a place of safety and the biggest new star of the year was a thoroughly ordinary young man from Bathgate. In their contrasting ways, Greta Thunberg and Lewis Capaldi were everywhere in 2019, Thunberg even featuring in a cameo capacity in one of the year’s most breathtaking live shows, delivering a short, clear-sighted filmed address during Björk’s esoteric eco-themed Cornucopia extravaganza.