Music

When she first heard Fiona Apple's album 1996 Tidal, writer Lindsay Zoladz says the record stood out to her for how it "validated [her] experience of pain."

Music & Culture

Fiona Apple's 'Tidal' Promised Me The Unknown

6:00am July 23, 2021

by Lindsay Zoladz

When writer Lindsay Zoladz first heard 'Tidal' as a teen, it validated her pain in an uncertain time. Returning to the album decades later, it reminds her of how much our past selves can teach us.

In "Side Street," a promotional video for his new album Call Me If You Get Lost, Tyler, The Creator plays out a fantasy version of a narrative that appears on the album's climactic song, "Wilshire," in which he engages in a deep but doomed emotional affai

Music & Culture

This Song Is About You

4:03pm July 22, 2021

by Ann Powers

Confessional songs are all over the pop charts, from Tyler, The Creator's Call Me If You Get Lost to Olivia Rodrigo's Sour. What do musicians who blend fact and fiction owe their real life subjects?

Music & Culture

Low, 'Disappearing'

3:52pm July 22, 2021

by Lars Gotrich

On "Disappearing," Alan Sparhawk and Mimi Parker of Low sing in harmonies that quell the deepest doubts and soothe the savage heart.

Music & Culture

illuminati hotties, 'u v v p'

3:37pm July 22, 2021

by Lyndsey McKenna

On "u v v p," Sarah Tudzin dials down the energy and seeks inspiration in surf rock sounds. Featuring Buck Meek on the outro, it paints a cowpoke portrait of a Western rambler.

Music & Culture

Leo Sun, 'When You Wake Up'

3:29pm July 22, 2021

by Matthew Shaw

If summers are made for stories of fleeting love, "When You Wake Up" is a commentary on the resilience needed to soak it all in, the good and the bad.

Shemekia Copeland performs at the Exit Zero Jazz Festival in Cape May, NJ.

Music & Culture

Shemekia Copeland, Modern Guardian Of The Blues

2:07pm July 22, 2021

Watch Shemekia Copeland play the 2021 Exit Zero Jazz Festival and, on our radio episode, get inside her eclectic sound and topical lyrics, connecting her to blues icons from Ruth Brown to Ma Rainey.

Eric Clapton performs in London in March 2020, shortly before the coronavirus lockdown.

Eric Clapton Says He Won't Play Venues That Require COVID Vaccines

11:55am July 22, 2021

by Anastasia Tsioulcas

On social media late Wednesday, the musician wrote: "I wish to say that I will not perform on any stage where there is a discriminated audience present."

Music & Culture

Buckwheat Zydeco On Mountain Stage

11:08am July 22, 2021

by Dave Lavender

Listen to this 2015 concert from the dearly departed Stanley Dural, Jr., recorded just a year before his death.

"I want to give girls like me that confidence and that feeling of power and beauty," WILLOW tells NPR Music. "And that's the only reason why I do anything."

Music & Culture

WILLOW's New Pop-Punk Album Comes From Her Mom's Wicked Wisdom

10:06am July 22, 2021

by LaTesha Harris

Willow Smith has gone pop punk. Smith speaks with NPR about unpacking racism and sexism, alternative rock's Black origins and creating her new album, lately I feel EVERYTHING.

Funkadelic is the result of George Clinton flirting with psychedelic music, a style he describes as "loud R&B."

Music & Culture

Funkadelic's 'Maggot Brain' At 50: R&B, Psychedelic Rock And A Black Guitarist's Cry

8:14am July 22, 2021

by Eric Deggans

Aiming to make a record that fans would still listen to decades later, George Clinton and Funkadelic mixed R&B, psychedelic rock and a Black guitar hero's cry.