Music & Culture

Music & Culture

Rapper Megan Thee Stallion is now Megan Thee College Graduate

6:05am December 13, 2021

She walked across Texas Southern University's stage — receiving a Bachelor's degree in health administration. She says she wanted to complete her education to honor her late mother and grandmother.

Robert Plant and Alison Krauss perform a Tiny Desk (home) concert.

Music & Culture

Robert Plant and Alison Krauss: Tiny Desk (Home) Concert

5:00am December 13, 2021

by Bob Boilen

14 years after their last collaboration, Robert Plant and Alison Krauss are back at Sound Emporium, where they recorded their new album Raise The Roof.

Music & Culture

There's big money in writing a holiday hit

8:00am December 12, 2021

Don Gonyea speaks with writer and former record executive Tim Sommer on what musical artists stand to gain from a holiday hit.

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Music & Culture

Neil Young's latest album got its name from where it was recorded – in a barn

8:00am December 12, 2021

by Don Gonyea

Handmade music, raw and rootsy, recorded in a 19th-century log barn. That's the setting for the new album titled "Barn" by Neil Young & Crazy Horse.

Fatima Al Qadiri, Danny Harle, and UNIIQU3 all land on NPR Music's best electronic music of 2021 list.

Music & Culture

The Best Electronic Music of 2021

10:00am December 11, 2021

From Jersey club to the U.K. underground, 2021's best electronic music looks like a complex melting pot of genre and history.

Music & Culture

Stonecoldboldness: A many-sided memorial to the writing of Greg Tate

9:37am December 11, 2021

A critic whose writing was nearly music itself, Greg Tate — who died this week at 64 — influenced generations of writers. His colleagues, peers and followers offer a guide to his essential works.

Music & Culture

For a dose of spiritual healing, tap into Daniel Lanois' latest album 'Heavy Sun'

8:20am December 11, 2021

by Scott Simon

We revisit a conversation between Scott Simon and legendary music producer Daniel Lanois, who said he hoped to uplift spirits with the space-gospel vibe of his album, "Heavy Sun."

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Olivia Rodrigo performs during the MTV Video Music Awards in September in New York City. Rodrigo's SOUR tour sold out within hours, frustrating many fans who've followed the breakout pop star's successful year.

Music & Culture

Fans are sour after scalpers snap up Olivia Rodrigo concert tickets

9:58pm December 10, 2021

by Emma Bowman

The pop star's SOUR tour sold out as fans faced long queues and site outages. A Ticketmaster feature meant to "level the playing field" failed to bar scalpers, who are reselling tickets for thousands.

Nesmith with his bandmates Davy Jones, Mickey Dolenz and Peter Tork, photographed in Los Angeles in 1967

Michael Nesmith — considerably more than a Monkee — dies at 78

2:04pm December 10, 2021

Nesmith rose to fame as one of the Pre-Fab Four — but he had a long and influential career after the Monkees. He helped invent the format that became MTV, and produced the cult film Repo Man.

Daniel Warren Johnson's (Murder Falcon, Extremity) illustration for Viking's Choice gets a festive update.

Music & Culture

Stream 8 hours of yuletide music with the Viking's Choice Holiday Special

11:54am December 10, 2021

by Lars Gotrich

Join Lars Gotrich, NPR's resident Viking, for an eight-hour holiday music marathon on Dec. 23. Let's make the yuletide weird.