Music Features

Beyoncé's Cowboy Carter has ignited discourse about the place of Black musicians in country music. But it's also evidence of its creator's desire to break genre walls by following her most eccentric impulses.

Music & Culture

Beyoncé's 'Cowboy Carter' is a portrait of the artist getting joyously weird

5:33pm April 10, 2024

by Ann Powers

Cowboy Carter has spurred plenty of discussion for being a groundbreaking country album. But for one critic, it calls to mind is a cult favorite '70s psych-rock concept album.

Members of the Mark de Lisser Singers perform the iconic ABBA song 'Waterloo' at Waterloo Station in London on Saturday, April 6, 2024.

ABBA fans celebrate 'Waterloo' Eurovision victory, 50 years on

6:17pm April 06, 2024

by Chloe Veltman

The song's win at Eurovision Song Contest on April 6, 1974 launched the Swedish supergroup on its path to success.

Beyoncé accepts the Innovator Award at the 2024 iHeartRadio Music Awards on April 1. Her new album is "Carter Country" and it features a banjo on the hit song "Texas Hold 'Em." At right: a gourd banjo was an early American incarnation of an instrument that originated in Africa and was played by African Americans.

The banjo is a star of Beyoncé's new album. Turns out it has African roots

11:55am April 05, 2024

by Aaron Cohen

In "Texas Hold 'Em," the singer is accompanied by a banjo. It's often thought of as a quintessential Americana instrument. But the history of the banjo tells a different story.

Dead fish washed ashore in a red tide in 2018 in Sanibel, Fla.

A professor worried no one would read an algae study. So she had it put to music

5:39pm April 04, 2024

by Neda Ulaby

Professors and students at the University of South Florida mapped pitch, rhythm and duration to data about algae blooms and depletion of coral reefs to create an original composition.

Queue Listen Now

MGK (Machine Gun Kelly) and Trippie Redd at the March 21 listening party for their collaborative EP, genre : sadboy, at Harriet's Rooftop in West Hollywood.

Music & Culture

Emo rap at its limits

2:12pm April 04, 2024

by Sheldon Pearce

Embedded in genre : sadboy, a collaborative release by rappers MGK and Trippie Redd, is an accidental lesson in what once made the collision of rap and pop-punk so electrifying.

Finnish conductor Klaus Mäkelä has just been announced as the next music director of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.

Music & Culture

28-year-old conductor Klaus Mäkelä will lead the Chicago Symphony Orchestra

4:53pm April 03, 2024

When he takes over, in the fall of 2027, he will be the youngest music director in the orchestra's 133-year history.

Beyoncé's voice is the real star of Cowboy Carter as she sets out to prove, once and for all, that she can hold it down in any genre she damn well pleases.

Music & Culture

On 'Cowboy Carter,' Beyoncé's country is as broad as the public she serves

4:16pm April 03, 2024

by Santi Elijah Holley

The Houston-bred artist's new album uses country as a trapdoor into a sweeping genre expression. By adopting the role of the outlaw, she's free to toss all rules into the trash heap.

Sheryl Crow changed her mind about releasing a new album. The change did her good

9:09am March 29, 2024

Sheryl Crow announced her final album in 2019. She has since reconsidered her position. Her 2024 album is called Evolution.

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Beyoncé and Jay-Z attend the 66th Grammy Awards at Los Angeles' Crypto.com Arena on Feb. 4, 2024.

Music & Culture

Jay-Z and Beyoncé's blank space

5:00pm March 28, 2024

by Sheldon Pearce

The Carters have it all — wealth, influence, critical cred — but they've never stopped chasing the approval of exclusive institutions like the Grammys. At this point, who are they fighting for?

Besides charting the course of her own pop stardom, Tyla's goals are to spread the pride of her country and keep the people who created amapiano at the forefront of the movement.

Music & Culture

Tyla is the new face of African pop. She's aiming to take over the whole world

5:08am March 28, 2024

by Sidney Madden

The South African singer brought a homegrown genre, amapiano, to new ears with a viral hit and a Grammy. With her debut album, she wants to prove the world is ready for a full-blown African pop star.