Music Features

Kelly Clarkson performs during the KISS 108 FM Jingle Ball in Lowell, Mass. in 2004 — the year her second album, Breakaway, cemented her status as a pop superstar.

Music & Culture

'Since U Been Gone': The Crossover Pop Needed, The Anthem Rock Deserved

2:35pm August 30, 2018

by Maura Johnston

The Kelly Clarkson smash wasn't just a great pop song: In 2004 it was a cultural bellwether, a sign that the walls between mainstream and underground were starting to crack.

Wisin y Yandel wave the flag of Puerto Rico during a performance in Central Park on August 13, 2011.

Reggaetón And The Search For Identity After Hurricane María

7:02am August 30, 2018

by Coral Murphy

It's no question that the streaming percentage of songs in Spanish has skyrocketed over the last year. But what does this increase in visibility mean to Puerto Ricans, post-María?

An impromptu memorial for Aretha Franklin outside New Bethel Baptist Church in Detroit — the same church where Franklin's father Rev. C.L. Franklin was a minister and where she began her singing career. Taken Aug. 19, 2018 in Detroit, Michigan.

Mourning From The Ground Up: Aretha's Funeral Is Part Of A Joyful American Tradition

4:40pm August 29, 2018

by Ann Powers

While it's not wrong to observe decorum and sombre reflection in the wake of such a loss, there's no reason that honoring a life as monumental as Aretha's can't be joyful — and yes, entertaining.

Esperanza Spalding performs at the 2011 Montreux Jazz festival in Switzerland.

Music & Culture

Esperanza Spalding Is The 21st Century's Jazz Genius

7:00am August 28, 2018

by Lara Pellegrinelli

The ways in which Spalding's music is the most radical are perhaps the most easily overlooked: how, through her singing and playing, she challenges gender norms across styles.

Dee Snider (center) with the rest of Twisted Sister in 1984.

Music & Culture

Don't Get It Twisted: 'We're Not Gonna Take It' Can Be Anyone's Protest Song

12:31pm August 27, 2018

by Rachel Martin

Talk about ironic: Twisted Sister's 1984 anthem to bucking authority has since been adopted by religious entities, teachers and even politicians, each bending it to their own definition.

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KT Tunstall album WAX comes out Oct. 5 via Rostrum Records.

Music & Culture

Listen To KT Tunstall's Anthemic 'The River' From Her Forthcoming Album, 'WAX'

11:46am August 23, 2018

by Bruce Warren

Inspirational and emotionally charged, this song puts KT Tunstall's immediately recognizable voice at center stage.

Christian McBride performs with The Time Jumpers.

Music & Culture

Nashville: Not Just A Country Scene But A Place To Go For Jazz

10:20am August 23, 2018

Nashville has always nurtured a small but serious jazz culture. Meet up with some of its enterprising artists and get a crash course in Nashville's hidden jazz history.

Robyn performs at Radio City Music Hall in 2011.

Music & Culture

Robyn Is The 21st Century's Pop Oracle

9:31am August 23, 2018

by Jessica Hopper

An artist in control of her work, Robyn serves us a dreamy possibility beyond the rigid binaries and adapts pop's dance floor language into something that serves her own dreams.

Wayne Kramer, Rock Legend And Failed Outlaw, Assembles A Supergroup In The Rearview

9:38am August 22, 2018

by Alex Pappademas

Now 70 years old, Wayne Kramer — co-founder of the short-lived, influential Detroit rock band The MC5 — reflects on life as an artist, near-revolutionary, bumbling outlaw and prison reform advocate.

Madonna at the 1984 MTV Video Music Awards, where her racy performance of "Like a Virgin" caused an uproar.

Music & Culture

'Like A Virgin' Lives On, A Winking Anthem For Women Getting Married

7:30pm August 20, 2018

by Neda Ulaby

The unofficial anthem of bachelorette parties, Madonna's 1984 hit can be seen as a wink at virginity's ongoing place in the theater of weddings — even today, when most brides are sexually experienced.

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