Music Features

Bandits on the Run, composed of members Adrian Enscoe, Sydney Shepherd and Regina Strayhorn, submitted a stand-out video to the 2019 Tiny Desk Contest.

Music & Culture

These Tiny Desk Contest Entrants Bring Mini-Symphonies To The NYC Subway

10:29am June 29, 2019

NPR's Sarah McCammon speaks with Adrian Enscoe, Sydney Shepherd and Regina Strayhorn, members of the band Bandits on the Run and stand-out entrants in this year's Tiny Desk Contest.

Queue Listen Now

Paul and Joe DeGeorge (left and right, respectively) of Harry and the Potters, photographed in 2005. That same year, the brothers founded the Harry Potter Alliance, which encourages young readers of the eponymous book series to become active in their comm

Music & Culture

Harry And The Potters Return To Find, And Help Heal, A World Full Of Dark Magic

8:01am June 27, 2019

by Amanda Silberling

The punk-ish duo, made up of brothers Paul and Joe DeGeorge, helped pioneer the micro-genre of "wizard rock" in 2002. Now, much like You-Know-Who (but benevolent), they've returned.

Thom Yorke and Dajana Roncione in a scene from the video for Yorke's ANIMA, directed by Paul Thomas Anderson.

Music & Culture

Thom Yorke's 'ANIMA' Is An Emotional Love Story For Dark Times

7:00am June 27, 2019

by Stephen Thompson

ANIMA's brief visual counterpart, available now on Netflix, feels artful, warm and uncharacteristically revealing. Plus, it's got some of the Radiohead singer's wildest dance moves yet.

Lesley Gore and producer Quincy Jones at work in the studio. The two collaborated on "You Don't Own Me" and a handful of other 1960s hits.

Music & Culture

'You Don't Own Me,' A Feminist Anthem With Civil Rights Roots, Is All About Empathy

11:50am June 26, 2019

by Neda Ulaby

Ever since a 17-year-old Lesley Gore sang it in 1963, the coolly mutinous song has moved women to reject passive femininity. Its writers, though, say there are layers of resistance in its words.

Queue Listen Now

March 1950: Louis Armstrong plays trumpet in his dressing room before a show in New York.

Satchmo In His Adolescence: 1915 Film Clip May Show Young Louis Armstrong

1:38pm June 22, 2019

Music historian James Karst explains his recent research into the early life of the legendary Louis Armstrong.

Queue Listen Now

"We Bangles hovered around the cassette machine... and we were smitten with the song," Bangle Susanna Hoffs says of first hearing Prince's demo of "Manic Monday."

Music & Culture

How Prince Worked His Magic On The Bangles' 'Manic Monday'

10:46am June 21, 2019

by Samantha Balaban

In the 1980s, Prince wrote one of the Bangles' biggest hits, "Manic Monday." Now, The Prince Estate has released the demo version of the track as part of the artist's posthumous album, Originals.

Lil Nas X, photographed on May 17, 2019 in Los Angeles.

Music & Culture

Lil Nas X Is More Than Just A Meme Lord, Apparently

8:35am June 21, 2019

by Meaghan Garvey

The internet native parlayed his brilliance for virality into a breakout career via the year's most indelible single, and its most unlikely cultural flashpoint. But that was then.

Detail from the cover art of Mort Garson's cult electronic album, Mother Earth's Plantasia.

Music & Culture

Music For Plants Is Real (Even If The Science Isn't)

7:00am June 21, 2019

by Eric Ducker

The bestselling 1970s book The Secret Life of Plants has been effectively debunked — but that hasn't stopped Stevie Wonder, Solange and scores of ambient musicians from chasing its leafy muse.

Breakdown on 20th Ave. South is Buddy & Julie Miller's first album together in nearly a decade.

Music & Culture

Missed For A Decade, Roots Icons Buddy And Julie Miller Return To A Shared Spotlight

5:08am June 21, 2019

by Jewly Hight

A prolific force in Americana, beloved and emulated by Nashville royalty, the couple is back with its first album together in a decade — guided, as always, by a powerful but adaptable partnership.

Queue Listen Now

A woman walks through La Perla, a neighborhood on the edge of Old San Juan, in 2017.

Music & Culture

For Those Missing Puerto Rico, A Song About Dreaming Of Home

10:10pm June 20, 2019

by Adrian Florido

The official anthem of the capital city, "En Mi Viejo San Juan" also serves as a nostalgic lament, evoking memories of the island for the many forced to leave it behind.

Queue Listen Now