Music & Culture

Radiohead's original cover art for the 1997 release of OK Computer

Music & Culture

Hear Radiohead Talk About 'OK Computer' In A 1997 Interview

9:40am June 23, 2017

by Robin Hilton

In the summer of 1997, Radiohead's Ed O'Brien and Colin Greenwood sat down with NPR to talk about their new album OK Computer, just as everything was about to change for the band.

The Beach Boys' 1967 – Sunshine Tomorrow includes 54 rarities from 1967, the year Wild Honey was released.

Music & Culture

Songs We Love: The Beach Boys, 'Aren't You Glad'

9:33am June 23, 2017

by Tom Moon

Out of the frustrating Smile sessions came a reset: the Beach Boys' deceptively simple Wild Honey. A new box set collects 54 rarities from 1967, including a new stereo mix of this under-loved song.

Holly Macve performs a Tiny Desk Concert on May 5, 2017. (Claire Harbage/NPR)

Music & Culture

Holly Macve: Tiny Desk Concert

9:00am June 23, 2017

by Stephen Thompson

Backed by a suitably low-key band, Macve would sound subtly radiant just about anywhere, from your nearest country bar to the most dreamily lit stage in Twin Peaks.

Prodigy of Mobb Deep in performance at New York's Hammerstein Ballroom in 2007.

Music & Culture

Prodigy And The America That Raised Him

8:45am June 23, 2017

by Kevin Powell

Mobb Deep's unapologetic poetry rose from the blacked-out hallways of this nation's ongoing nightmare, Kevin Powell writes.

Alan Gilbert (center) with the New York Philharmonic at Carnegie Hall. He has left that orchestra and announced his new position as chief conductor of the NDR Elbphiharmonie, in Hamburg, Germany.

Music & Culture

Philharmonic Flip-Flop: Conductor Alan Gilbert Trades New York For Hamburg

8:00am June 23, 2017

by Tom Huizenga

The conductor, who cut his tenure short as the New York Philharmonic's music director, finds a welcoming new home — with a glitzy new concert hall — in Hamburg, Germany.

An illustrated scene from Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, the play Mendelssohn celebrates in his expansive, beautiful Overture in E major, Op. 21.

Music & Culture

Meet Felix Mendelssohn, Composer Of The Original Song Of The Summer

7:48am June 23, 2017

Celebrate the sunniest of seasons with the German prodigy's timeless Overture to A Midsummer Night's Dream.

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Dickson "Chinx" Chingaira, a Zimbabwean revolutionary and musician died of cancer last week at the age of 61.

Music & Culture

The Conflicted Legacy Of Zimbabwean Musician And Revolutionary 'Chinx' Chingaira

7:40pm June 22, 2017

by Frank Chikowore

Dickson "Chinx" Chingaira, who died last week at the age of 61, fought and sung for President Robert Mugabe, who has wielded despotic power in the country since 1980.

The new documentary Can't Stop Won't Stop tells the story of Sean Combs' Bad Boy Records around a 2016 concert that reunited some of the label's stars.

Music & Culture

'Can't Stop, Won't Stop': Bad Boy Records Was A Generation's Soundtrack

4:32pm June 22, 2017

by Frannie Kelley

The label and its founder, Sean "Diddy" Combs, helped to shape much of what we take for granted in pop culture. The new documentary Can't Stop Won't Stop tells Bad Boy's story.

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For Mogoya, her first album in eight years, Oumou Sangaré enlisted young Swedish and French producers to help rejuvenate her sound.

Music & Culture

Mali's Oumou Sangaré Keeps Speaking Out On 'Mogoya'

4:31pm June 22, 2017

by Banning Eyre

The celebrated singer has crafted a rich, rejuvenating album that addresses weighty subjects like suicide and the aftermath of her country's recent political crises.

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Jade Jackson performs inside the World Cafe performance studio.

Music & Culture

Jade Jackson On World Cafe

3:57pm June 22, 2017

by David Dye

Since releasing her debut in May, the singer-songwriter has begun to turn heads with a fresh take on the Bakersfield sound and a knack for honest lyrics. Hear an interview and live performance.