Music Features

People used to try to dismiss Selena Gomez as a mere Disney moppet who stumbled into the pop-star racket. But nobody makes this many brilliant records by accident. Her 2020 single “Rare” is her best ever: She hiccups in her breathy ASMR whisper, a shy girl riding a bass line …

It’s an election year, which means that artists hitting the road in the coming months will either be weighing in on the presidential candidates’ policies or providing a sweet escape from the slings and arrows of politics. This spring will see the launch of the first Rage Against the Machine …

A very small number of babies each year are born en-caul — that is, born completely inside an intact membrane, surrounded by amniotic fluid. For Ella O’Connor Williams, who performs under the name Squirrel Flower, her rare birth has become a metaphor for her life. It’s also the subject of …

Life After Pop is a tricky proposition, especially for those who are thrown into Top 40’s tornado at a young age. But in some cases, an early, disenchanting brush with the commercial mainstream can be galvanizing, providing a source of direction — even if it’s just away from what came …

Last December, former Red Hot Chili Peppers guitarist Josh Klinghoffer got a text from Flea, asking him to come over to his Los Angeles home to “discuss the state of things.” Right away, he had a feeling something was wrong. The band had been deep into writing the follow-up to …

It rarely happens, but a few hours before he’s set to walk onstage at New York’s Beacon Theatre in early December, Nathaniel Rateliff is getting a little nervous. He’s not rattled by the Christmas-themed benefit or the starry bill, which includes Mavis Staples, Mumford and Sons, and Yola. But it …

In the new book 1973: Rock at the Crossroads, writer Andrew Grant Jackson gives a comprehensive account of the year of 1973 and its legendary music and momentous social change. He breaks down the iconic year chronologically, from the release of Led Zeppelin’s Houses of the Holy in March to …

You might not know the name Gregg Rolie, but you definitely know his music. Not only did he sing “Black Magic Woman,” “Evil Ways,” “Oye Como Va,” and all the other early Santana classics as the group’s original lead vocalist, but he went on to form Journey with Santana guitarist …

In 1979, Motörhead became the one band headbangers and punks could agree upon. The two records they put out that year, Overkill and Bomber, smacked of gritty, unpredictable, throbbing riffs and frontman Lemmy Kilmister sounded as if he had been huffing macadam and was coughing it up kernel by kernel. …

I have genuinely lost count of the number of high-ranking Sony Music executives over the past decade who have sold me the “One Sony” dream. If that phrase is news to you, allow me to enlighten: In a bid to differentiate itself from its key competition (Universal Music Group and …