Music Features

Not too long ago, Taylor Swift was the girl you didn’t want to write a song about you. Her albums are filled with easily decipherable references to the men she’s dated, and the most obvious were always on break-up songs. No one wants to be on the receiving end of …

Every blue moon, you can actuallyhear a pop superstar be born. “Motivation” is that song, and Normani is that superstar in the making (but already well ahead in her development). Prior to “Motivation,” Normani had quite a successful incubation period, first as a member of Fifth Harmony and then with …

Fifty years ago, the Beatles walked across a street in London for a photo shoot that would become the cover of their next album, Abbey Road — an anniversary that was commemorated on Thursday with crowds and news crews. But for John Kosh, the Apple Records art director who had …

I had never performed in front of so many people in my life. I was just thrown into it, and I had my first out-of-body experience. I was terrified, I had to leave. I started walking across that bridge to the stage, and I just left my body, going to …

It was a bit scary to go out there and plug into this ocean of hair, teeth, eyes, and arms. It was incredible. I’ll never forget the way the music sounded bouncing up against a field of bodies. You never forget that sound. For the band as a whole, it …

In early May, Stef Chura was hosting a karaoke night at a Detroit bar when someone tried to steal her tip jar. “I almost lost my mind,” she says angrily. Karaoke is a way for the 30-year-old indie rocker to perfect her singing, but it’s also her day job. “I’m …

In a locker room converted into a makeshift dressing room in North Augusta, South Carolina, the members of Hootie and the Blowfish are gathered in front of a TV, watching Tiger Woods tee off. It’s the beginning of Woods’ Masters comeback, and the band is invested — it played his …

On the morning of September 5th, Patrick Carney and Dan Auerbach walked into Auerbach’s Nashville studio, picked up their instruments and became the Black Keys again. By season’s end, they had finished their ninth album, the self-produced “Let’s Rock” (yes, that’s really the title). As usual, they created the entire …

Birdman doesn’t like lettuce wraps. He’s appalled by the watery leaves and aromatic meats sitting on the table in front of him. He keeps repeating the same phrase: “We Southern.” According to Birdman, people below the Mason-Dixon line won’t find joy in such a delicacy. He’s sitting in a private …

Juice WRLD‘s “Lucid Dreams” was fraught and wounded, a stinging narrative of betrayal softened, slightly, by a sample of the actual Sting. Streamers gobbled it up — “Lucid Dreams” became the most-streamed single of 2018 not made by Drake — and commuters stuck in traffic enjoyed it too: “Lucid Dreams” …