Music & Culture

The Recording Academy changed its rules this year to make streaming-only albums eligible for Grammy Awards. Chance the Rapper, who released his mixtape, Coloring Book, on Apple Music in May, is up for seven awards.

Music & Culture

The Disruptors: Best Rap Album Nominees Bask In Hip-Hop's Digital Dominance

10:01am February 10, 2017

by Rodney Carmichael

The nominees in the Best Rap Album category show how hip-hop has, across multiple platforms from video to streaming audio to crowd-funding, come to own the Internet.

Sturgill Simpson may have an uneasy relationship with the Nashville establishment, but the Grammys have nominated him for Album Of The Year.

Music & Culture

The Anointed Ones: The Grammys Place Bets On Country Music's Future

8:37am February 10, 2017

by Stephen Thompson

If Sturgill Simpson wins Album Of The Year this weekend, it'll be surprising — but not shocking.

Joey Foster Ellis tells The Wu-Force's "Paper Lanterns" story through collage.

Music & Culture

With The Wu-Force, Watch An Age-Old Story Unfold From A Phone Screen

8:00am February 10, 2017

by Ann Powers

The Wu-Force's Wu Fei, Abigail Washburn and Kai Welch borrow a motif from Pixies' "Where Is My Mind" to soundtrack an inventive video for "Paper Lanterns."

Music & Culture

First Watch: Aldous Harding's Elegant Video For The Haunting 'Horizon'

8:00am February 10, 2017

by Bob Boilen

'No one wants to see an old woman do improvised stick work darling,' Harding's mother, her co-star, told her. She was wrong.

Justin Timberlake joins Walt Dohrn, Anna Kendrick and director Mike Mitchell in the recording studio during the making of Trolls.

Music & Culture

To Get His First Oscar Nod, Justin Timberlake Had To Act Like A Troll

4:44am February 10, 2017

by NPR Staff

Timberlake says he always thought a song needed "misery and self-loathing" to be recognized by the Oscars — until his own theme for the animated movie Trolls was nominated for Best Original Song.

Music & Culture

It's Official: Prince Is Coming To Streaming This Sunday

7:07pm February 09, 2017

by Andrew Flanagan

Prince's Warner Bros. catalog, long held off streaming services, will return on the night of the Grammy awards.

Soapmaker Dr. Bronner Releases Posthumous Album Of His Own Words

4:39pm February 09, 2017

by Andrew Limbong

Walk into any health food store, and you'll find a bottle of Dr. Bronner's soap. It's famous not only for its cleansing power but for its label, which is full of Dr. Bronner's religious and philosophical writings. Now the company is releasing an album of his words set to music. He was a Holocaust survivor, business genius and a difficult family man.

Queue Listen Now

A still from Miranda Lambert's "We Should Be Friends" video.

Music & Culture

Miranda Lambert's Video For 'We Should Be Friends' Is Cute As Hell

2:35pm February 09, 2017

by Lars Gotrich

Bless the salon, for it is a holy place of renewal and tiny dogs.

Sunny Sweeney's new album, Trophy, comes out March 10.

Music & Culture

Songs We Love: Sunny Sweeney, 'Bottle By My Bed'

1:36pm February 09, 2017

by Jewly Hight

Country singer Sunny Sweeney's frank and personal ballad wrestles with the desire for motherhood while recognizing how a female musician's lifestyle can look to a harried mom.

Music & Culture

BadBadNotGood, 'In Your Eyes' (Live)

1:00pm February 09, 2017

by Jason Bentley

The hip-hop-inflected jazz quartet performs a song from its latest release, IV, alongside fellow Toronto native Charlotte Day Wilson.