Remembering Mac Miller, a young rapper who never stopped growing up
Mac Miller was undeniably a child of the internet. As a teenager in the early 2000s, he went online to study the hip-hop stars working hundreds or thousands of miles...
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Paul McCartney and Paul Simon are rethinking the idea of the 76-year-old pop star
When he was 24 years old, Paul McCartney famously looked a few decades into the future to record “When I’m Sixty-Four,” the Beatles tune about growing infirm by the fireside....
Nicki Minaj review: She still cares about the old way of doing things on ‘Queen.’ Does anybody else?
Uneasy lies the head that wears Nicki Minaj’s crown. That’s the prime takeaway (whether or not she intended it to be) from “Queen,” on which the most commercially successful female...
On ‘Scorpion’ Drake is tired and tiring — but as beautiful an artist as ever
When Drake tells us approximately 10 minutes into his new album that he’s “exhausted and drained,” it’s clear we’re supposed to sympathize with him. The revelation comes in the song...
In today’s divisive political climate pop artists are shaping the new sound of protest music
One of the most effective protest songs of 2018 doesn’t mention Donald Trump by name. It doesn’t push back directly against one of his controversial policies, nor does it question...
BTS just took K-pop to No. 1 — and not by diluting its adventurous music
Clearly, some members of BTS were more interested in the puppies than others. In a fifth-floor meeting room at the sleek InterContinental hotel in downtown Los Angeles, the seven young...
The Velvet Underground, Aretha Franklin, Tiny Tim: An alternate history of music in 1968
"Beggars Banquet." "Electric Ladyland." "Wheels of Fire." Rock fans know the important albums from 1968 that helped set the table — along with the opening that year of the Forum...
Billy Corgan was in a ‘low place’ before Smashing Pumpkins reunited
Any longtime Smashing Pumpkins fan knows it: When the veteran alt-rock band launches its long-awaited reunion tour in July, the shows will hardly mark the first time that frontman Billy...
Which ‘Star Trek’ captain Jack White is like in the studio and why hip-hop feeds his bold new sound
Jack White has been obsessed with the number three for as long as he can remember. It famously animated his platinum-selling blues-punk band, the White Stripes, which he built around...
Watch: Kendrick Lamar opens the Grammys with a searing ‘XXX’
And that is how you start an awards show. Ripping through a medley centering on his song "XXX" with help from U2's Bono and the Edge, not to mention Dave...