What's making us happy: A guide for your weekend listening and viewing
Each week, the guests and hosts on NPR's Pop Culture Happy Hour share what's bringing them joy. This week: game shows and album recommendations.
Music & Culture
New Orleans rescinds a long-ignored rule prohibiting jazz and dancing in schools
A 100-year-old ban on jazz music and dancing in New Orleans' public schools has finally been lifted — though it was never really enforced.
Afrobeats harmonize with British electronica on the latest from Ibibio Sound Machine
Ibibio Sound Machine is an Anglo-African band from London, and they've teamed up with Hot Chip to create the album Electricity. Together, they balance African funk with British electronica.
Entries We Love: Yah Yah, 'All Bad'
This soulful, guitar-filled R&B Tiny Desk Contest entry reminds us of how the best is ahead, even when the grind of everyday has us reaching our breaking point.
George Floyd remembered in new choral work
In "A Knee on the Neck," composer Adolphus Hailstork and librettist Herbert Martin pay tribute to Floyd's memory and offer hope for the future – while wrestling with the realities of the present day.
With 'Humble Quest,' Maren Morris is closely following her compass
After a global dance hit, the country star returns from lockdown with an intimate new album — and a new son, who helped inspire it.
On 'flora + fana,' Fana Hues creates an ecosystem of self-sufficiency
The R&B singer's new project comes after she was featured on Tyler, the Creator's last release. Across 11 tracks, she demonstrates her acute sense of compassion, even as she sings about heartbreak.
Ted Leo, 'The Clearing of the Land'
Ted Leo wrote the song for a new compilation benefiting a Ukraine non-profit organization.
Entries We Love: Wallace Tallman, 'You Are (Cecilia June)'
The lyrics of this lullaby-like Tiny Desk Contest entry are sung like a mantra of affirmations.
Richard Thompson, 'Treadwell No More'
The track from the Music from Grizzly Man reissue is an opportunity to hear Thompson's spindly, tremolo shudder gaze into the gaping maw with equal parts fear and wonder.