Music Features

Music & Culture

Beyond The Summer Of Love, 'Get Together' Is An Anthem For Every Season

9:57am April 10, 2019

by Tom Cole

The song was everywhere during the 1967 gatherings in San Francisco. After it was used in a public service announcement, it became an anthem for the rest of the world.

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Viewers find their seats inside The New Temple Missionary Baptist Church for the LA screening of Amazing Grace.

Music & Culture

Aretha Franklin's 'Amazing Grace' Gets LA Premiere In The Church Where It Took Place

5:20pm April 07, 2019

by Tim Greiving

In 1972, the Queen of Soul recorded a live album at the New Temple Missionary Baptist Church in LA. After her death, the film has been released and was screened at the same church it was filmed.

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A view of Pikes Peak from the Carroll Lakes, circa 1925. Katharine Lee Bates' trip up the Colorado mountain inspired her poem "America," later to become the song "America the Beautiful."

Music & Culture

Greatness Is Not A Given: 'America The Beautiful' Asks How We Can Do Better

8:06pm April 04, 2019

by Eric Westervelt

Written by a feminist poet who struggled with bouts of depression, the song is an aspirational counterpoint to "The Star-Spangled Banner" — calling on America to use its riches for the common good.

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After facing a calamitous scandal that cast doubt on its very future, the New Orleans Jazz Orchestra has returned with new leadership and a new album, featuring songs by its city's patron saint of rebirth, Allen Toussaint.

Music & Culture

A Band Rebuilds In New Orleans After A Man-Made Catastrophe

4:23pm April 04, 2019

by Nate Chinen

In 2016, the New Orleans Jazz Orchestra faced a scandal that cast doubt on its very future. The road to recovery has been, in the words of the group's new CEO, "a tightrope walk."

Music & Culture

Tiny Tech Tips: Microphones

4:05pm April 02, 2019

by Josh Rogosin

Everything you need to know about which mic you need. Take a peek inside the Tiny Desk mic closet with our in-house audio engineer, Josh Rogosin.

Mardi Gras Indian Big Chief Monk Boudreaux (right) and members of his Golden Eagles tribe in March 2019 in New Orleans.

Music & Culture

In New Orleans, 'Indian Red' Is The Anthemic Sound Of Tradition

11:40am March 31, 2019

by Gwen Thompkins

African-Americans in the city have paraded in spectacular regalia inspired by Native American motifs for more than a century. The song of the Mardi Gras Indians exudes joy, defiance — and mystery.

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Ranveer Singh, one of the stars of the recent film Gully Boy, at a publicity event in Mumbai on Jan. 9, 2019. The film has put a spotlight on Indian hip-hop, to the chagrin of some working in it.

Music & Culture

As 'Gully Boy' Inches Indian Hip-Hop Into The Mainstream, Its Underground Soldiers On

10:01am March 29, 2019

by Dhruva Balram

A new Bollywood hit may have been based on their lives, but the rappers and producers of India's hip-hop underground saw no money, and little exposure, from it. And they don't seem to care.

Bruce Springsteen onstage during the Born in the U.S.A. Tour in 1984.

Music & Culture

What Does 'Born In The U.S.A.' Really Mean?

4:50pm March 26, 2019

It's not enough to say the Bruce Springsteen hit is misunderstood. Its contrasts — between grim verses and a joyous chorus, damning facts and fierce pride — are what give it its anthemic power.

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Jenny Lewis returns with On The Line, out now.

Music & Culture

Jenny Lewis Puts Her Emotions 'On The Line': 'It Can Get Ugly Sometimes'

1:05pm March 22, 2019

Lewis speaks with NPR's Scott Simon about the catharsis of making her latest album, On the Line, and grappling with accusations made against her album collaborator, Ryan Adams.

Duster was one of hundreds of bands in the late 1990s who made music that was loved by a small audience, then disbanded and assumed its story was over. Then a new generation of fans discovered the band.

Music & Culture

The Old Disappearing-Reappearing Band Trick

11:10am March 22, 2019

by Marissa Lorusso

Duster released a few space-rock records at the turn of the millennium then nearly disappeared. Then, somehow, a small, devoted group of fans from an entirely different generation found the band.