STANDING IN THE kitchen at a house party in Rome not long ago, Caroline Polachek heard a song that struck her deeply. “Ti Sento” (“I Hear You”), the 1985 single by Italian pop group Matia Bazar, is peak Eighties Europop kitsch: sparkling synth-pop paired with big, operatic vocals. Polachek thinks …
Read More »Inside the Worst Music Decisions of All Time
Any truly exhaustive list of bad decisions made by musicians would stretch into the thousands, with many duplicate entries for “tried heroin for the first time.” So Rolling Stone‘s recent list of the top 50 worst choices, created by senior writer Andy Greene, narrowed it down by keeping it mostly …
Read More »The Future of Classic Rock Tours: One or Two Surviving Members…or None?
In the last few years, CJ Strock,a talent agent who worked with the later incarnation of the Allman Brothers Band, faced an unusual dilemma. As seen in catalog and merch sales, a market still existed for the Allmans, their quintessentially Southern rock & roll, and their improvisational live shows, but …
Read More »New York Drill's Complicated Relationship With YouTube
Last weekend, YouTube took down the video for Bronx rapper Sha Gz’s song “New Opp.” The original upload surged as high as #11 on YouTube’s worldwide trending list before it was removed over an alleged community guidelines violation. In a since-expired Instagram story post, Gz posted a screenshot of YouTube …
Read More »Coi Leray, RM, Metallica and All the Songs You Need to Know This Week
Welcome to our weekly rundown of the best new music — featuring big new singles, key tracks from our favorite albums, and more.This week we’ve got a highlight from the debut album by RM of BTS, as well as new singles from Coi Leroy, 100 Gecs, and Metallica. Check out …
Read More »Sisters of the Moon: Christine McVie and Stevie Nicks' Unbreakable Bond
The creation of Fleetwood Mac’s most notable line-up hinged on Christine McVie liking Stevie Nicks. By 1974, McVie had been in the band for several years, joining soon after she married founding member John McVie. She was the only girl in the band of men, a dynamic she was used …
Read More »Farewell, Christine McVie, the Songbird Who Knew the Score
Christine McVie always came on like the grown-up in the room, which admittedly might not be hard to do when the room is Fleetwood Mac. But McVie was the emotional glue in a band that has spent the past 50 years breaking up over and over, the most stable, sensible, …
Read More »'She Sings to Me Every Night': Christine McVie on Her Friendship with Stevie Nicks
When Stevie Nicks posed solo for a January 2015 cover of Rolling Stone, in the middle of a Fleetwood Mac tour, it wasn’t a particularly popular move among her bandmates. But one member of Fleetwood Mac did agree to give a secondary interview for my cover story on Nicks — …
Read More »'It's Hyphy Pop!' Lolo Zouaï Logs Into a Cyber Dream World on 'Playgirl'
The last time Lolo Zouaï made an album, she was “super-hardcore dreaming” from behind the host stand during her shifts at Bareburger in New York City. She wanted a future when she could fully focus on her craft instead of making milkshakes for customers. “I remember I wrote a note …
Read More »How Jorge Drexler Beat Writer's Block to Make His Most Free-Wheeling Album Yet
Even critically acclaimed icons have bouts of insecurity. For Uruguayan singer-songwriter Jorge Drexler, Tinta y Tiempo was an album that “almost didn’t happen.” In the past, the Oscar-winning veteran had stepped out in the world and shared bits and pieces of unfinished tunes with fellow artists — something that had …
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