Music Features

For fans of original music in Cambodia, the movement is about more than just the songwriters. "People see original music as this living proof that we are moving forward," Laura Mam says.

Music & Culture

Across Languages And Generations, One Family Is Reviving Cambodian Original Music

8:21am February 29, 2020

by Quinn Libson

Laura Mam is Cambodian American, and her mother, Thida Buth, is a Khmer Rouge survivor. They're fostering the pop music movement in Cambodia that was wiped out almost 40 years ago.

Shakira onstage during her MTV Unplugged performance, recorded in New York in 1999 and released as a live album in early 2000.

Music & Culture

20 Years After She Unplugged For MTV, Shakira Taught Me To See Myself

8:14am February 27, 2020

by Isabella Gomez Sarmiento

Dancing to the mariachi horns of "Ciega, Sordomuda," one young Latina found a deep, unwavering love staring her in the face. It just took a song about being blinded by emotion to see it clearly.

"This story isn't unique to us. There's a lot of parents and kids going through this same thing," Katie Pruitt says of confronting her sexuality and her mother on her debut album, Expectations.

Music & Culture

A Debut Album That Confronts Ingrained 'Expectations' With Emotional Clarity

5:41pm February 24, 2020

by Jewly Hight

Singer-songwriter Katie Pruitt grew up in a conservative Catholic family in Georgia. On her debut album, she sings about the pressure she felt growing up to hide her sexuality from her family.

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An aspiring K-pop group performs in the Hongdae district of Seoul on Jan. 5, 2020.

Inside Sajaegi, K-Pop's Open Secret

12:28pm February 21, 2020

by Haeryun Kang

In the digital era, accusations of surreptitious chart manipulation are common throughout the world — in South Korea, it's called sajaegi.

What could you possibly have to learn from a houseplant?

The Lessons To Be Learned From Forcing Plants To Play Music

6:00am February 21, 2020

by Sophie Haigney

It's not as mean as it might sound (though it does involve a little electrocution) and the results can be both beautiful and, well, eye-opening.

It's National Marimba Day In Guatemala — And For Guatemalans In The U.S.

4:09pm February 20, 2020

by Neda Ulaby

Feb. 20 is Día Nacional de la Marimba in Guatemala. The instrument's importance as a symbol of resistance and cultural pride has taken on new meaning among refugees and immigrants in the U.S.

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Distortion is familiar to most of us — a 'staticky noise,' a 'noisy static.' But in the right hands, its uses can bloom and its rigid contours soften.

Music & Culture

All Ears: Some New Ways To Hear Distortion

11:33am February 20, 2020

by Ruth Saxelby

Distortion is familiar to most of us — a 'staticky noise,' a 'noisy static.' But in the right hands, its uses can bloom and its rigid contours soften.

In Colombian City Of Cali, A Legacy Of Salsa Music — And A Tangled History To Match

4:11pm February 19, 2020

by Alice Fordham

The city of Cali, Colombia, is known for great salsa music — and, in the past, deadly drug cartels. The two are not entirely separate.

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Balloons are a central feature of every Loft party.

Music & Culture

Still Saving The Day: The Most Influential Dance Party In History Turns 50

2:10pm February 19, 2020

by Piotr Orlov

The Loft, a party that David Mancuso first threw at his Manhattan home 50 years ago, seeded a community — and cemented a belief system that continues to reverberate.

Justin Bieber, photographed with fans at the premiere of his self-produced YouTube documentary series Seasons, on Jan. 27, 2020 in Los Angeles. The pop star released his first album in five years, Changes, on Feb. 14.

Music & Culture

Justin Bieber Finds His Bliss

1:21pm February 18, 2020

by Lindsay Zoladz

On Changes, his first studio album in five years — after a trying decade-plus of growing up in the digital spotlight — Justin Bieber sounds reinvigorated.