Music & Culture

Music & Culture

Singer Bob Dylan Reaches Billboard 200 Milestone

8:26am June 30, 2020

With his latest recording, Bob Dylan has become the first artist to have an album in the Billboard Top 40 in every decade since the sixties. The album Rough and Rowdy Ways came out this month.

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CDC Says Singers Could Be Virus Superspreaders — But 100 Sang Unmasked With Pence

2:10pm June 29, 2020

by Anastasia Tsioulcas

At a campaign rally in Dallas that featured Vice President Pence, a choir of about 100 people sang unmasked. Epidemiologists worry that singers are particularly likely to spread the coronavirus.

Music & Culture

NPR Music's 25 Favorite Albums Of 2020 (So Far)

8:27am June 29, 2020

How can it be possible that we're only halfway through the year? Here are 25 albums from 2020's first six months that are worth holding onto for the next six, and beyond.

Music & Culture

Beyoncé To Drop Visual Album, 'Black Is King,' On Disney+ In July

6:51pm June 28, 2020

by Rachel Treisman

Beyoncé's upcoming visual album, Black Is King, is based on the music of The Lion King: The Gift soundtrack. A press release calls it "a celebratory memoir for the world on the Black experience."

Music & Culture

Dirty Projectors On New EP, Sharing Vocals

7:57am June 27, 2020

Dave Longstreth and Felicia Douglass of Dirty Projectors talk about the band's new EP, Flight Tower, which is one of five in a cycle by the band, each featuring a different singer.

Music & Culture

A Look At Songs Inspired By The 2020 Protests For Racial Justice

7:57am June 27, 2020

We take a listen to some of the protest songs of 2020, including Black Lives Matter by Richard Alexander, Mercy by Joy Oladokun and Anderson Paak's Lockdown.

The song "True Trans Soul Rebel" by Against Me! is on Deborah Sprague's Pride playlist.

Music & Culture

A Different Kind Of Pride: Perspectives On 50 Years Of Celebration, Part 6

6:00am June 27, 2020

by Deborah Sprague

We asked writers in the LGBTQ+ community to reflect on the relationship between celebration, music and LGBTQ+ activism. Deborah Sprague writes about songs that reflect her experience as a trans woman.

A drawing of composer William Dawson in 1935 by Aaron Douglas. Dawson's Negro Folk Symphony, long neglected, has received a new recording.

Music & Culture

Someone Finally Remembered William Dawson's 'Negro Folk Symphony'

4:13pm June 26, 2020

by Tom Huizenga

Broadcast nationwide in 1934 and praised by listeners and critics alike, a masterful symphony soon fell silent. A new recording hopes to help revive an American treasure.

Rapper Huey attends a party held at 40/40 club on May 6, 2007 in New York City.

Music & Culture

Huey, The Rapper Behind 'Pop, Lock & Drop It,' Killed In St. Louis Shooting

3:47pm June 26, 2020

by Andrew Limbong

The Kinloch, Mo., native was shot Thursday night in his hometown, according to St. Louis County Police. He was 32 years old.

Lil Baby performs during a Juneteenth voter registration rally on June 19, 2020 at Murphy Park Fairgrounds in Atlanta, Ga. One week earlier, he released "The Bigger Picture," a song protesting police brutality.

Music & Culture

We Insist: A Century Of Black Music Against State Violence

11:40am June 26, 2020

These songs take on some of the ugliest stories in our history and reflect the commitment of Black musicians to telling the truth of how Black people have been wronged, and survived, and fought back.