Music Features

Music & Culture

Encore: New wave icons The B-52s are on the road for their last tour

7:59am December 31, 2022

Everyone knows that "love rules at the love shack." From October, NPR's Scott Simon speaks to The B-52s, the new wave icons out of Athens, Ga., about being on the road for their farewell tour.

All Songs Considered counts down the top songs of 2022

4:47pm December 30, 2022

NPR Music's All Songs Considered counts down the top songs of 2022.

Joey DeFrancesco arrives for the 60th Grammy Awards on January 28, 2018, in New York. (Photo by ANGELA WEISS / AFP) (Photo by ANGELA WEISS/AFP via Getty Images)

Music & Culture

Jazz Night In America remembers the artists we've lost

5:38pm December 29, 2022

Jazz Night In America's video tribute to the artists lost in 2022.

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Encore: NPR shares its favorite musical moments from 2022

3:58pm December 29, 2022

NPR is pulling together some of its favorite stories from 2022 that may have been easy to miss among the year's major news but hard to forget. Thursday, NPR shares its favorite musical moments.

Ray Benson, longtime leader of the Western swing group Asleep at the Wheel, in concert at the Palace Theatre in Corsicana, Texas, on Dec. 9, 2022. He says he steers clear of politics on stage because "now it's totally toxic."

Musicians use rhythm and harmony to heal America's toxic divide

7:57am December 28, 2022

by John Burnett

These days, as polarization reaches deep into American life, some musicians are trying to stay out of the fray and use their music to bridge divides.

"When people think of Indigenous music, they think of some elder pounding a drum. That's important too, but young Indigenous people have their own way of living and their own community and they want to be able to mix their culture with what they like," says Abao, seen here at the National Theatre in Taipei on Nov. 10.

One of Taiwan's biggest pop stars sings in an Indigenous language

7:44am December 28, 2022

by Emily Feng

Abao sings in the Paiwan language — not Chinese, which dominates Taiwan's pop music industry. Her popularity reflects the island's overdue recognition and awareness of Indigenous culture.

Angelo Badalamenti in a portrait taken Feb. 9, 1990. The composer, best known for his work with director David Lynch, died Dec. 11, 2022.

The fantasia of Angelo Badalamenti, veil-piercing composer

4:36pm December 19, 2022

by Meaghan Garvey

Among other things Badalamenti's music, soft and bizarre and surging, was an emotional compass for the uncanny creations of director David Lynch.

YoungBoy Never Broke Again (aka NBA Youngboy) is among a handful of rappers who achieved massive streaming numbers in 2022 while remaining nearly invisible to the pop establishment.

Music & Culture

How niche rap stars quietly conquered 2022

5:00am December 17, 2022

by Sheldon Pearce

Artists like NBA YoungBoy, Rod Wave and a resurgent Kodak Black pulled in massive streaming numbers this year (and, at times, outran controversy) while barely registering on mainstream pop's radar.

Manuel Göttsching, an influential German musician best known for his work on modular synths, died Dec. 4.

Music & Culture

Remembering musical astronaut Manuel Göttsching

10:59am December 16, 2022

by Ruth Saxelby

After founding the quietly influential band Ash Ra Tempel at 17 years old, Göttsching would go on to have an enormous influence on the trajectory of electronic and dance music.

Charles Mingus, photographed at a party in New York on Aug. 4, 1976. For poet and critic Harmony Holiday, the complexities that underpin legacies like Mingus' were a constant puzzle this year.

Music & Culture

The importance of remembering everything but the music

9:43am December 16, 2022

by Harmony Holiday

Poet and critic Harmony Holiday spent her year interviewing descendants and torchbearers, finding that the soul of jazz needs preserving offstage and outside of the booth.