Music & Culture

Love In Exile is (from left) Arooj Aftab, Vijay Iyer and Shahzad Ismaily. The Trio just released its self-titled debut album.

Music & Culture

New trio Love In Exile is a manifestation of musical telepathy

1:01pm March 27, 2023

by Nate Chinen

On their debut album, the improvisational supergroup — singer Arooj Aftab, pianist Vijay Iyer and bassist Shahzad Ismaily — try to answer a musical riddle: What does listening sound like?

Musician Pras Michel in a 2015 portrait taken in Los Angeles.

Pras Michel stands trial in Washington, D.C., for conspiracy and other charges

10:48am March 27, 2023

Hip-hop musician Pras Michel of Fugees faces criminal trial in Washington, D.C., for allegedly conspiring to violate election law and influence American policymakers on behalf of China.

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Music & Culture

R&B singer Ricardo Valdez Valentine Jr., better known as 6LACK, releases a new album

5:06am March 27, 2023

NPR's Leila Fadel speaks to Grammy-nominated artist 6LACK about his newest album: Since I Have a Lover.

Music & Culture

A Grammys correction

5:00pm March 26, 2023

The difference between song and record of the year at the Grammys can be confusing. So confusing, that we messed it up on a story on npr.org, and had to issue a correction.

"Hate on me," Jake Wesley Rogers sang on stage at the Love Rising benefit concert in Nashville's Bridgestone Arena on March 20. "You might as well hate the sun."

Music & Culture

Visibility, with the volume up loud, in Tennessee

10:27am March 26, 2023

by Ann Powers

A pop critic looks at two benefit shows in Nashville that put a rainbow-hued spotlight on the way a buzzword like "visibility" can become more than symbolic, especially in moments of crisis.

BTS swag is raffled off at an in-person event hosted by the Titas of BTS on March 10. Some 40 women gathered at a bar in Quezon City to celebrate the March birthdays of BTS members Suga and J-Hope.

These BTS superfans in the Philippines show you're never too old to be a K-pop stan

12:46pm March 25, 2023

by Ashley Westerman

The K-pop phenomenon BTS is on a break right now. But their fans are not — especially thousands of them in the Philippines, who call themselves the "titas" or aunties of BTS. All of them are over 30.

Ibrahim Muslimani, 30, speaks to a class about a piece of music blending different eras and languages at the Nefes Foundation for Arts and Culture, which he founded in 2016, in Gaziantep, Turkey, on Nov. 22, 2022.

A music school uniting Syrian and Turkish cultures survives the massive earthquake

6:01am March 25, 2023

by Fatma Tanis

A handful of students return to a school in Gaziantep, Turkey, that seeks to help revive old Syrian and Turkish music and integrate refugees.

Fall Out Boy on returning to the basics and making the 'saddest New Year's song ever'

5:38pm March 24, 2023

NPR's Juana Summers talks with Fall Out Boy members Patrick Stump and Pete Wentz about their new album So Much (For) Stardust.

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What's making us happy: A guide to your weekend listening and viewing

5:00pm March 24, 2023

Each week, the guests and hosts on NPR's Pop Culture Happy Hour share what's bringing them joy. This week: Spellbound, Cheat Codes, This Is Pop and more.

Afroman, pictured performing in 2018, made music videos featuring home video footage of a police raid of his house last year. Now some of the officers are suing him, and he plans to countersue.

Afroman put home footage of a police raid in music videos. Now the cops are suing him

4:54pm March 24, 2023

by Rachel Treisman

A police search of the rapper's Ohio home didn't lead to charges, but spawned music videos, merchandise, theft accusations and an invasion of privacy lawsuit. Afroman tells NPR he plans to countersue.