W hen Ray Johnson finally woke up, he had no idea why he was in the ICU. “Tell me I didn’t crash my car I just bought,” Johnson, now 22, remembers telling his dad. But the next day, Johnson’s parents gathered their son with his friend Kurtis Stitt and told …
Read More »Why Is Drake Dropping So Many Albums?
“I know it’s summertime, I gotta give you shit,” Drake told a throng of Chicago concertgoers at the opening stop of his It’s All a Blur Tour with 21 Savage. “I don’t know about these guys that go away for three, four, five years, [and] wanna chill out and all …
Read More »Wham! Documentary: Sometimes the Clothes Do Not Make the Man
The first time Rolling Stone profiled Wham!, the shiniest, prettiest UK pop duo of their day, in 1985, the boys bristled when the reporter asked a common question: What exactly did Andrew Ridgeley do? George Michael said, “He just plays the guitar and has a good time.” Since Wham! records …
Read More »Taylor Swift's 'Speak Now' Vault Tracks Show Clear Path to Rest of Her Career
Taylor Swift learned quickly that being on top meant a rougher landing at the bottom. The year after she released sophomore album Fearless should have been joyful: The album helped begin her transition from country wunderkind to veritable pop star thanks to the five Top 10 hits it birthed. She …
Read More »'Fast Car' and the Roadblocks Black Female Songwriters Face in Country Music
Last week, Tracy Chapman made country music history by becoming the first Black woman to be the sole songwriter of a Number One country hit when Luke Combs’ cover of her 1988 song “Fast Car” topped the charts. While celebratory — “I never expected to find myself on the country …
Read More »Taylor Swift, Rauw Alejandro with Junior H, and All the Songs You Need to Know
Welcome to our weeklyrundownofthe best new music — featuring big singles, key tracks from our favorite albums, and more.This week, a funky pop-country gem from Taylor Swift‘s vault, a surprise drop from Rauw Alejandro, a perfectly paired collaboration between Cardi B and drill rapper FendiDa Rappa, and a master interpolation …
Read More »Your Favorite Romance Author Is Probably a Swiftie
The protagonists in K.L. Walther’s 2021 romance novel The Summer of Broken Rules have two hard stops: Wit doesn’t want to be called “kid,” and Meredith doesn’t want to be called “baby.” If you’re a Swiftie, these traits jump off the page. Specifically, they call to mind the narration of …
Read More »Blake Mills Has Played Tasteful Guitar for Joni Mitchell and Bob Dylan. He's Ready to Shred
Blake Mills has the kind of CV, and accompanying reputation, that leaves little to quibble with. The 36-year-old Los Angeles musician is an ace producer (Perfume Genius, Feist, Marcus Mumford); an in-demand sideman and session player (Joni Mitchell, Bob Dylan, Phoebe Bridgers); and an exceptional singer-songwriter in his own right. …
Read More »Bad Bunny's Favorite Songs from His Albums and 9 More Things We Learned Hanging Out
Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio, better known as Bad Bunny, was in the middle of a hectic period in his career when Rolling Stone asked him to be on the cover of its July/August double issue. He was getting ready to perform at Coachella (and to become the first Latino solo …
Read More »Drake's Pettiness Has Reached New Heights
The music industry’s petty poet, Drake, kicked off his It’s All a Blur tour Wednesday night in Chicago with a genuinely dazzling spectacle of stagecraft, including a statue of the late designer Virgil Abloh, a hologram projection of Drizzy handing him his newly released book of poetry, and a set …
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