Culture
The Summer When Everyone Wanted a Good, Good Night
I find it hard to even write the words “DJ Earworm.” I’ve tried to say the word “mashup” out loud alone while I’m typing, and it feels as…
Tag
musicians
Culture
Olivia Rodrigo’s Early-Twenties Lament
“They say modern love’s a cruel endeavor,” Olivia Rodrigo sings on “u + me = <3,” a lush, desperate new song from her third album, “You…
Business
Lizzo in the Age of Backlash
Lizzo’s charting songs of herself, as encapsulated on her 2019 platinum record “Cuz I Love You,” were infectious, if not cool; her fat and…
Business
Musicians shortchanged by AI deals with labels, lawsuit alleges
Musicians have been left out of settlements between major record labels and AI companies, a new lawsuit alleges. The American Federation…
Culture
Inside Phoebe Bridgers’s Secret Show at Madison Square Garden
That same year, Bridgers released “The Record” with her band boygenius, which would go on to win three Grammys; attended the Met Gala for…
Culture
The Death of Afrika Bambaataa and the Afterlife of Hip-Hop
The man who was called the “godfather of hip-hop,” and who took full license from that status, is dead. Afrika Bambaataa passed away in…
Culture
The History of Jazz Has Instantly Expanded
Like just about every major tenor saxophonist of his generation, Henderson was influenced by Coltrane, but Henderson absorbed that…
Culture
The Art of the Fictional Pop Song
Then again, an especially good fictional song can come to feel more real than its story of origin. Lustra’s pop-punk cuckoldry anthem…
Culture
Noah Kahan Makes an Unlikely Home-Town Hero
In 2023, Noah Kahan, a singer and songwriter from Strafford, Vermont, leapfrogged to superstardom following the release of “Stick Season,”…
Culture
Mad About the Mandolin
Calace, I discovered, was a Neapolitan workshop that had been making mandolins since 1825, and Raffaele Calace, the grandson of the…
Business
Is It Wrong to Write a Book with A.I.?
And yet the value of a novel isn’t only in its prose. On Amazon, “Shy Girl” has a rating of four out of five stars, based on input from…
Culture
The BTS Machine Lurches Back to Life
Ten years ago, outside of Korea and Japan, fans of acts like BigBang and Loona were often seen as members of a fringe subculture. Not so…
Culture
The Soft Power of BTS
The mega-popular K-pop stars have been on hiatus for nearly four years. Their new album, “Arirang,” tests the group’s staying power in the…
Culture
Mitski’s New Album Is a Dark Ode to Isolation
Mitski’s sound and writing style have evolved on almost every album she’s released. Her early album “Retired from Sad, New Career in…
News
The Download: unraveling a death threat mystery, and AI voice recreation for musicians
In April 2024, a mysterious someone using the online handles “Waifu” and “Judische” began posting death threats on Telegram and Discord…
Celebrity
Charli XCX Misses the Moment
Download a transcript. Listen and subscribe: Apple | Spotify | Wherever You Listen Sign up to receive our weekly cultural-recommendations…
Culture
What a Rare Condition Can Teach Us About the Power of Music
People with musical anhedonia, a rare inability to enjoy music, are teaching scientists how the brain processes songs. Source link
News
What Do We Want from a Protest Song?
He is also sitting in front of a screen. “Am I the only one willin’ to bleed / Or take a bullet for bein’ free / Screamin’ ‘What the…
Culture
A Pioneer of Electronic Music Reanimates Old Songs
The project evolved out of an informal recording session. In the summer of 2025, the Copelands were offered two free days in a studio in…
News
In “Riot Women,” the Punks Are All Grown Up
The British drama “Riot Women” begins with a blackly comic suicide attempt. Beth (Joanna Scanlan), a teacher on what she calls “the wrong…
Culture
How Bad Bunny Saved the Grammys
The Grammys have long been a dependable engine of outrage. Every year, it seemed, one humiliation or another would seize the ceremony,…
Culture
When a Man Loves a Cello
In January, 2022, the British cellist Steven Isserlis was walking to a professional engagement when catastrophe struck. The skies opened.…
News
Politicians and Pop Stars Go Pow! — The Year’s Top Alliances and Beefs Between Musicians and Lawmakers
It’s not as if music and politics haven’t been strange bedfellows for decades. But the bedding down got weirder than ever in 2025, when…
News
Natalia Lafourcade Reimagines Mexican Folk Music
After the incident, she needed reconstructive surgery, and had brain inflammation so severe that when she tried to look up, all she saw…