Music Features

Like every other form of information, music reached people in 2020 through static-filled channels, distorted, muffled, feeding back.

Diary Of A Fugue Year

by Ann Powers

Is it possible to hear the music of 2020 without getting lost in the noise? NPR Music's critic Ann Powers studies a year during which nearly everything about loving music was turned upside down.
Charley Pride left behind a complex legacy and rich body of work that deserves closer listening.

There's Only One Charley Pride

by Jewly Hight

Charley Pride was a symbol, ancestor and influence. But the country singer was also a master interpreter of song, his warm baritone attuned to deep emotion.
Nipsey Hussle is part of a mural featuring other local notable people on the wall of a bank in the rapper's Hyde Park neighborhood. In the wake of Hussle's March 2019 death, many murals of the beloved Los Angeles musician were painted in the Hyde Park nei

Caught In The System

When rapper Nipsey Hussle was killed in 2019, he was known as an advocate for the people in the neighborhood where he grew up and made his name. But the LAPD couldn't let his gang affiliation go.

The 100 Best Songs Of 2020

The great songs of 2020 were as abundant as the rest of the year was a drag. Think of these 100 jams as a silver linings playlist for the worst year of our collective lives.