Music & Culture

Tom Petty's recorded legacy spans nearly 50 years — from classic-rock standards to deep cuts that hit hard. Hear a crowd-sourced playlist and read reminiscences from the NPR Music staff.

Petty, who died Monday night, spoke with Terry Gross in 2006 about the seeds of his Hall Of Fame career: "We always wanted very much to create our own sound."

Listen back to an interview and performance from the late rocker, plus a conversation about his influences.

In the first song from Mimicking Birds' forthcoming Layers of Us, the band unleashes an irresistibly spaced-out stunner.

Caleb Keeter, a guitarist for the Josh Abbott Band, says, "my biggest regret is that I stubbornly didn't realize it until my brothers on the road and myself were threatened by it."

The track is a blurt of jolting joy that opens with a welcome exclamation — "Good morning!" — before rumbling through two minutes of sunny menace.

Unhinged love is manifested in bright colors and plastic surgery in a video for St. Vincent's thumping electro-rock track.

Tei Shi's red thigh-highs weren't a deliberate reference to Britney Spears' iconic jumpsuit but, she admits, it may have been a subconscious one.

In the new animated video, the emcee critiques how society socializes us from innocent adolescents to lost, even monstrous adults.

As investigators examine several crime scenes, they still have not determined the shooter's motive.