Music & Culture

Music & Culture

'Sharecropper's Son': Louisiana Musician Finds Success Decades After Trying

12:27pm May 24, 2021

by Vince Pearson

Robert Finley had given up on a professional music career – and then glaucoma took his eyesight. How a health crisis led to Finley's astounding rise as a critically acclaimed performer.

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Megan Thee Stallion kicked off Saturday Night Live's 46th season in style — and with substance.

Music & Culture

'SNL' Musical Guests, Ranked From No. 1 To Morgan Wallen

10:47am May 24, 2021

by Stephen Thompson

Every year, Saturday Night Live showcases some of the biggest stars in pop, rock, hip-hop and more. At the end of each season, we rank them with cold-hearted precision.

Bob Dylan onstage during the 17th Annual Critics' Choice Movie Awards held at The Hollywood Palladium on January 12, 2012

Music & Culture

Celebrate Bob Dylan's 80th Birthday With 80 Cover Songs

9:53am May 24, 2021

World Cafe celebrates one of the greatest songwriters of all time with covers performed by artists who love him.

Music & Culture

Happy 80th Birthday Robert Allen Zimmerman AKA Bob Dylan

7:27am May 24, 2021

Legendary musician Bob Dylan celebrates his 80th birthday on Monday. People in Minnesota, where he was born, are honoring the milestone with special events.

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Mdou Moctar performs a Tiny Desk (home) concert.

Music & Culture

Mdou Moctar: Tiny Desk (Home) Concert

5:01am May 24, 2021

by Bob Boilen

The African guitarist assembled a band in Niger for this special Tiny Desk quarantine concert.

American composers and musicians Noble Sissle, center left, and Eubie Blake, on piano, perform with a group of women on stage in the early 20th century. Sissle and Blake wrote the score for Shuffle Along.

'Shuffle Along' Changed Musical Theater 100 Years Ago

5:07pm May 23, 2021

by Jeff Lunden

Though much of it is unwatchable today — it contains blackface and other minstrelsy — Shuffle Along brought jazz to Broadway and was the first African American show to be a smash hit.

Maneskin from Italy performs "Zitti E Buoni" at the final of the Eurovision Song Contest at Ahoy arena in Rotterdam, Netherlands, on Saturday.

Rock Band Maneskin Wins Eurovision Song Contest For Italy

7:32pm May 22, 2021

by The Associated Press

A four-piece band of Italian rockers won the Eurovision Song Contest on Sunday — Italy's third victory in the immensely popular festival.

Music & Culture

Ian Brennan's New Album Is A Unique Look At The Comoros Islands

7:54am May 22, 2021

NPR's Scott Simon speaks to producer Ian Brennan about the new album, We are an Island, but We are not Alone, which he produced with local musicians in the Comoros Islands.

Olivia Rodrigo's debut album, Sour, is out May 21, less than six months after she shattered streaming records with the breakthrough single "drivers license."

Music & Culture

On 'Sour,' Olivia Rodrigo Is A Lowercase Girl With Caps-Lock Feelings

8:40pm May 21, 2021

by Lindsay Zoladz

The debut album by the "drivers license" phenom plays like one bottled-up soliloquy after another, bursting from a quiet observer who has been paying closer attention than you think.

Music & Culture

Muscle Shoals Drummer Roger Hawkins Dies At 75

4:46pm May 21, 2021

by Elizabeth Blair

Roger Hawkins, drummer and cofounder of Muscle Shoals Sound Studio, has died. He played on albums for everyone from Aretha Franklin to Wilson Pickett.

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