This year's Tiny Desk Contest attracted plenty of talent, including standout entrant Mama Haze, aka California songwriter Meaghan Maples. Her song "On Your Side" was written during a time of healing.
In 1965, two young fans heard the jazz giant play at a San Francisco club and had a religious epiphany. Their church is an idiosyncratic and joyful blend of devotion to the divine — and to jazz.
As jazz experienced an awakening in the late '60s and early '70s , a record label from Oakland was at the forefront of capturing it. Now, those records are finally returning.
Ahead of the release of their debut album, Giver Taker, the Boston singer-songwriter talks to NPR Music about singing in choirs, healing through songwriting and being inspired by The Lion King.
The 2019 game presents a world where shiny synth-pop is the key to unbreaking your own heart. One unthinkable year later, its comforts are more welcome than ever.
Freeman Vines is an African American luthier who creates what have been called "contemporary art sculptures hidden as guitars" out of old wood, some of it from a tree used for a lynching.
Black life is more than crisis. Black women are more than slogans. Listen close to Detroit gospel greats The Clark Sisters and their singular leader, and you'll hear the lessons this moment demands.
Since Tony Hawk's Pro Skater was first released in 1999, kids who played – and listened to – the game have grown into successful artists in their own right.
The rapper Drakeo the Ruler titled his latest album after the prison phone service provider GTL, whose lines he used to record it, leaving a trail to follow the money through a controversial industry.
Independent music venues continue to be among the businesses hardest hit by the global pandemic. The corporate behemoths of concert promotion, however, can weather the storm.
New bands still sound like Pylon and beloved bands still like them better than themselves. Ahead of a catalog reissue, its three remaining members discuss how it feels to last forever.
This Heat lasted for less than seven years, but helped shape the future of music, from noise rock to experimental electronica. Today, its groundbreaking catalog is finally available to stream.
The two country-leaning singer-songwriters on their time in Nashville, addressing the darkness of life while staying in the light and the difficulties of thinking forward in the South.
There's Bandcamp, beloved by artists. There's Spotify, very well-liked by listeners. And then there's that big question mark. The artist Damon Krukowski takes a look.
The damage done to independent live music by the pandemic has been catastrophic – and a future where it thrives will, regardless and inevitably, arrive.
America's biggest arts complex hasn't been able to present its regular programming due to the pandemic. Watch one of the private outdoor concerts organized for healthcare professionals and teachers.
Esther Ngumbi, a professor from Kenya, and Ifeanyi Nsofor, a doctor in Nigeria, react to the megastar's movie-length music video — and to criticism from other Africans.
NPR
The South Got Something To Say: A Celebration Of Southern Rap
In the early 1990s, you might not think rappers from Atlanta had much in common with rappers from New Orleans or Miami. So when and how did "Southern hip-hop" get to be recognized as an entity?
Microphones in 2020 is a single 45-minute track written to "unburden myself from the weight of all this memory," says Phil Elverum, "even though I also think it has so much value."
NPR
The South Got Something To Say: A Celebration Of Southern Rap
Everyone wants to make the sound that makes the girls dance. Twerking reminds us that women's contributions to Southern rap and culture, while often devalued, can create space for liberation.
The Go-Go's proved that pop and punk could mingle to land at the top of the charts. "You can take the girl out of punk, but you can't take punk out of the girl," says Charlotte Caffey, lead guitarist.
