Music Features

"We check in with each other all the time," says Michael Trotter Jr. of The War and Treaty. "I believe that what you hear with the record is a deeper understanding of who we are becoming to each other."

Music & Culture

The War and Treaty's songs of ardent commitment find deeper clarity on 'Lover's Game'

1:35pm April 04, 2023

by Jewly Hight

On the duo's latest album, its first full-length released on a major country label, Tanya and Michael Trotter Jr. sing piano-driven originals with a grown-up sense of devotion.

Rapper Doechii planned for the song "Crazy" to be her industry coming-out party — but the music video, with its focus on Black femme bodies, ran afoul of an unspoken rule.

Music & Culture

'I'm coming to y'all with no armor'

5:00am March 30, 2023

Rapper Doechii hoped her video "Crazy" would make a statement by presenting her nude body as a vessel of power, not sex. YouTube saw things differently.

Love In Exile is (from left) Arooj Aftab, Vijay Iyer and Shahzad Ismaily. The Trio just released its self-titled debut album.

Music & Culture

New trio Love In Exile is a manifestation of musical telepathy

1:01pm March 27, 2023

by Nate Chinen

On their debut album, the improvisational supergroup — singer Arooj Aftab, pianist Vijay Iyer and bassist Shahzad Ismaily — try to answer a musical riddle: What does listening sound like?

"Hate on me," Jake Wesley Rogers sang on stage at the Love Rising benefit concert in Nashville's Bridgestone Arena on March 20. "You might as well hate the sun."

Music & Culture

Visibility, with the volume up loud, in Tennessee

10:27am March 26, 2023

by Ann Powers

A pop critic looks at two benefit shows in Nashville that put a rainbow-hued spotlight on the way a buzzword like "visibility" can become more than symbolic, especially in moments of crisis.

Sean Watkins, Chris Thile and Sara Watkins sequenced Nickel Creek's Celebrants as a way to write the album. "We wanted the songs to relate to each other," says Sara Watkins.

Music & Culture

For the beloved trio's return, Nickel Creek created its own world

5:00am March 24, 2023

by Brittney McKenna

"We had basically farmed every nutrient we could out of the potential of this band's soil and we needed to let it rest," Sara Watkins says of the nine-year break between Nickel Creek albums.

MC Sha-Rock was the first woman to rap on national television in 1981, but hip-hop's double standards have left her legacy as the first female MC buried.

Music & Culture

'You gotta fight and fight and fight for your legacy'

5:59am March 23, 2023

Not everyone who was part of rap's ascent gets included in its story. MC Sha-Rock, of the original Funky 4 and the Funky 4 + 1, reaffirms her role in hip-hop's formative years as the first woman MC.

After allegations against Win Butler, an existential crisis lingers for Montréal

10:10am March 22, 2023

by Yara El-Soueidi

Ever since frontman Win Butler was accused of sexual misconduct by several people in 2022, Arcade Fire's hometown scene has struggled with how to respond.

At Monday night's Love Rising event in Nashville, Tenn., artists including Allison Russell, Jason Isbell, Maren Morris, Joy Oladokun and Amanda Shires, along with drag artists, united against new legislation targeting drag performances and transgender people.

Music & Culture

'Where am I going to be free to be who I am?'

3:24pm March 21, 2023

by Jewly Hight

Due to a new Tennessee law limiting drag performances, many drag artists, as well as trans, nonbinary and gender-nonconforming musicians, worry about their prospects in Nashville and beyond.

In the controlled stillness of a theater stage-managed to match her songs' swirling moods, Adele seems to have found her place at last.

Music & Culture

At Adele's Vegas residency, intimacy is the ultimate luxury

3:34pm March 20, 2023

by Bilal Qureshi

The pop star has always been an uneasy match for the demands of touring. In the controlled stillness of a Las Vegas theater, she may have finally found her place.

Art school students in Mumbai finish up a painting of Indian actors N.T. Rama Rao Jr. (left) and Ram Charan of the movie RRR, whose dance song "Naatu Naatu" became the first song from an Indian film to win an Oscar.

The Oscar for 'Naatu Naatu' fans the impossible dreams of India's musicians

4:52pm March 13, 2023

by Kamala Thiagarajan

A song from the blockbuster Indian film RRR won the Oscar for best song and is now the talk of India's music biz. But will it lift other musicians to — well, not fame but at least financial security?