Music

Music & Culture

Remembering Oscar-winning lyricist Marilyn Bergman

1:04pm January 14, 2022

by Terry Gross

Bergman and her husband Alan worked together for more than 60 years, writing songs for Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennett, Barbra Streisand and others. Marilyn died Jan. 8. Originally broadcast in 2007.

Music & Culture

FKA twigs (feat. Shygirl), 'papi bones'

12:32pm January 14, 2022

by LaTesha Harris

A highlight of the British singer-songwriter's first major-label mixtape, "papi bones" is addictive and cathartic in its physicality.

Cordae performs a Tiny Desk (home) concert.

Music & Culture

Cordae: Tiny Desk (Home) Concert

11:45am January 14, 2022

by Bobby Carter

The DMV-bred emcee's Tiny Desk home concert is a charismatic combo of fan favorites and cuts from his new album, From a Birds Eye View.

On Dawn FM, The Weeknd lets us consider whether we would like to age into the shape of our fears or the shape of our most heroic dreams.

Music & Culture

On 'Dawn FM,' The Weeknd is both suffering and saved

7:00am January 14, 2022

by Harmony Holiday

On his new album, The Weeknd lets us consider whether we would like to age into the shape of our fears or the shape of our most heroic dreams.

Music & Culture

RuPaul, 'Smile'

5:06pm January 13, 2022

by Reanna Cruz

"Smile," like many tracks on RuPaul's latest album, mimics the sounds of early bubblegum hyperpop but waters them down in an act of bleak corporate reappropriation.

Lionel Richie, shown performing at a benefit concert in 2019, is the recipient of this year's Gershwin Prize for Popular Song.

The Gershwin Prize for Popular Song is going to pop star Lionel Richie

3:07pm January 13, 2022

by Neda Ulaby

Richie, responsible for a seemingly endless catalog of hits, will be awarded the songwriting prize this spring by the Library of Congress.

How Ronnie Spector and 'Be My Baby' became a pop-culture sound of sex in 1987

11:40am January 13, 2022

by Linda Holmes

Twice in the same year, the song "Be My Baby" — featuring the voice of Ronnie Spector, who died this week — became the sound that signaled something memorably, indelibly sexy.

Music & Culture

Boy Harsher (feat. Mariana Saldaña), 'Machina'

11:00am January 13, 2022

by Hazel Cills

Boy Harsher teams up with fellow darkwaver Mariana Saldaña of BOAN for a pulsing, '80s-inspired synth-pop track that single-handedly demands a fog machine for your listening pleasure.

Robert Glasper (feat. Killer Mike, BJ The Chicago Kid & Big K.R.I.T.), 'Black Superhero'

Music & Culture

Robert Glasper, 'Black Superhero'

9:30am January 13, 2022

by Nate Chinen

Glasper's piano sets a chiming gospel loop, over which Killer Mike and Big K.R.I.T. rap verses about perseverance and positivity.

Tony Malaby, photographed in the fall of 2021, underneath the New Jersey Turnpike.

Saxophonist Tony Malaby's unlikely pandemic practice space: the New Jersey Turnpike

9:10am January 13, 2022

by Nate Chinen

Saxophonist Tony Malaby, unlucky at the beginning of the pandemic after catching a very early case of the virus — the subsequent isolation imposed on his playing led him to a unique solution.

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