I don't see enough of any one art form to feel okay about compiling a year-end "best of" list, so instead I'll just be highlighting a few things I saw and loved in 2012.

I agree with the words of CNN's LZ Granderson:

Pink has managed to carve a brilliant 13-year career [in pop music] by being something that is incredibly rare these days—an artist. A complete artist. Maybe the most underrated artist we've had on the radio in the past 20 years.

My favorite thing Pink did in 2012 is the performance below, which is from the recent American Music Awards telecast. As Beyonce showed us in the "Single Ladies" video, there is nothing cooler than a super-famous person doing something amazing, intricate, and precise with their actual super-famous body. (In this age of easy digital everything, what's impressive about Xeroxes of Will.i.am and Britney?) Also, if you're going to sing along with a backing track, it's so much better to do it while doing something so strenuous that it makes full live singing impossible. Also, her hunky dance partner looks like the dream ballet version of LCD Soundsystem's James Murphy.

Watching Pink, the same thing goes through my mind as when I watch Dolly Parton: Here is a star who understands her job. (For more awards-show awesomeness from Pink, go here, and start paying attention around the two-minute mark.)