Music Features

A s the Taliban entered Kabul, Afghanistan, on Aug. 15, 2021, Qudrat Wasefi, a resolute 22-year-old trumpeter, flung open the windows of his music school’s empty wood-paneled studio and started to play as loudly as he could. “I thought it was my last time,” he tells me, crammed into a …

Welcome to our weekly rundown of the best new music — featuring big singles, key tracks from our favorite albums, and more.This week, Megan Thee Stallion enters her lover girl era, Hayley Williams throws it back to Paramore’s After Laughter heyday with a funky love song, and Demi Lovato hits …

When news hit that Bad Bunny would headline the 2026 Super Bowl halftime show, his fans rejoiced. The choice made sense given that the Puerto Rican superstar is among the most streamed artists on the planet, and the performance is also set to make history: Because Bad Bunny doesn’t sing …

Generative artificial intelligence is seeping deeper into our cultural fabric by the day. In just two years, AI videos of Will Smith eating spaghetti have evolved from poorly developed nightmare fuel to genuinely deceptive clips. And in the music industry, “AI artists” are garnering multimillion-dollar deals, charting, and being co-signed …

“Why can’t you love me, like a woman can?” Lzzy Hale sings in Halestorm’s forthcoming single, “Like a Woman Can,” a highlight of the Nashville-based rock band’s new album, Everest. Hale, who came out as bisexual in 2022, has never been shy about her sexuality. She’s written and sung about …

The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony is less than three weeks away, and there’s still much we don’t know about the event: Is there a chance that OutKast will show up and perform for the first time in 11 years? Is there even a minuscule possibility that …

Over the last few weeks, a peculiar remix of 4 Non Blondes’ “What’s Up?” and Nicki Minaj’s “Beez in the Trap” has taken TikTok by storm, with everyone from Sabrina Carpenter and Demi Lovato to Malala Yousafzai and Simone Biles joining in on the trend. The videos start with Linda …

“Oh, come on,” Brandi Carlile says, motioning me into a booth and pointing to three pizzas on the table between her and her wife, Catherine. “You can’t not have a slice. It’s so good.” It’s midafternoon in Nashville at the Urban Cowboy Bed and Breakfast, where Carlile is hosting a …

There’s a scene in the beginning of Practical Magic, where a young Sally Owens (Sandra Bullock’s character, played by Camilla Belle) casts a spell on herself to ensure she’ll never fall in love. She retrieves herbs and white flower petals, putting them into a wooden bowl that she holds up …

Last year, Joan Baez published her first-ever collection of poetry, When You See My Mother, Ask Her to Dance, expressing her thoughts on personal and family life and some of her music peers. But a few months ago, different types of verse began flowing out of her. “I saw two …