NPR’s latest on the music scene

The last show of the pop icon's "Celebration" retrospective tour brought over a million and a half fans to Rio de Janeiro's famed Copacabana Beach on Saturday night.
Author: Anastasia Tsioulcas
Posted: May 6, 2024, 6:24 pm
Madlib's music feels like a magic trick. On this edition of 8 Tracks, we bow down to Madlib's mastery, plus check out new music by Charly Bliss, Fana Hues and reminisce on an old Ted Leo record.
Author: Lars Gotrich
Posted: May 6, 2024, 4:57 pm
Lou Reed's Metal Machine Music was more than an hour of feedback and noise with no noticeable structure. A new tribute album called Metal Machine Muzak interprets the spirit behind that work.
Author: Phil Harrell
Posted: May 6, 2024, 9:12 am
With decades clocked behind the piano and a strong catalog, Kiefer Shackelford is primed for this moment.
Author: Bobby Carter
Posted: May 6, 2024, 9:00 am
NPR's Scott Simon talks with composer Jeff Beal about his new collection of solo piano works, "The New York Etudes," and about living and working with multiple sclerosis.
Author: Scott Simon
Posted: May 4, 2024, 12:07 pm
Over a million fans are expected to turn up on Rio's famous Copacabana beach Saturday for Madonna's end-of-tour mega concert.
Author: Julia Carneiro
Posted: May 4, 2024, 12:07 pm
The former Dire Straits frontman talks about his latest solo album, "One Deep River."
Author: Raina Douris
Posted: May 3, 2024, 4:28 pm
The singer-songwriter's fourth album is her best yet, with crisp, commanding songwriting, shades of '60s baroque pop and melodies that seem to have existed forever.
Author: Jenn Pelly
Posted: May 3, 2024, 4:27 pm
Pro-Palestinian protests have been popping up at universities around the world, and in the last few days things have escalated at a number of those campuses. Columbia University called on police to shutdown the encampment on their university lawn and 300 people were arrested. At University of California Los Angeles, about 200 pro-Israel counter-protestors raided a pro-Palestinian encampment. To get first hand accounts of the protests, Brittany talks to two student journalists: Shaanth Nanguneri, an undergraduate reporter at UCLA, and Claire Davenport, a graduate reporter at Columbia University in New York.

Then, Eurovision may seem like a quaint, quirky event to Americans but it's a huge cultural event that easily surpasses the Super Bowl in terms of global viewership. And for an apolitical event, Eurovision can teach us a lot about geopolitics. This year, all eyes are on Israel, which is not European but has been a competitor since the 70s. With Israel's ongoing conflict in Gaza, there's a lot of politicking for and against its inclusion at the song contest. Brittany chats with Eurovision scholar Paul David Flood about Israel's controversial song and dance at Eurovision... and why Americans might want to pay attention.
Author: Barton Girdwood
Posted: May 3, 2024, 1:48 pm
The outrageously fun Japanese punk band speeds and screams through its catalog.
Author: Lars Gotrich
Posted: May 3, 2024, 9:00 am