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Music Features

Friday

Sheryl Crow changed her mind about releasing a new album. The change did her good

Sheryl Crow, 2024 Dove Shore/Big Machine/Full Coverage hide caption

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Dove Shore/Big Machine/Full Coverage

Music

Sheryl Crow changed her mind about releasing a new album. The change did her good

Sheryl Crow announced her final album in 2019. She has since reconsidered her position. Her 2024 album is called Evolution.

Sheryl Crow changed her mind about releasing a new album. The change did her good

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Thursday

Jay-Z and Beyoncé's blank space: The endless social climb of pop's royal couple

Beyoncé and Jay-Z attend the 66th Grammy Awards at Los Angeles' Crypto.com Arena on Feb. 4, 2024. Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for The Recording Academy hide caption

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Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for The Recording Academy

Analysis

Jay-Z and Beyoncé's blank space: The endless social climb of pop's royal couple

The Carters have it all: wealth, influence, critical cred, fanatic fandoms. So what drives their quest for approval from institutions like the Grammys, who may never truly see them?

Tyla is the new face of African pop. She's aiming to take over the whole world

Besides charting the course of her own pop stardom, Tyla's goals are to spread the pride of her country and keep the people who created amapiano at the forefront of the movement. Jeremy Soma/Epic Records hide caption

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Jeremy Soma/Epic Records

Music

Tyla is the new face of African pop. She's aiming to take over the whole world

The South African singer brought a homegrown genre, amapiano, to new ears with a viral hit and a Grammy. With her debut album, she wants to prove the world is ready for a full-blown African pop star.

Tyla is the new face of African pop. She's aiming to take over the whole world

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Wednesday

Composer Anna Clyne, a radical melodist with a painter's eye

Composer Anna Clyne — one of the most performed living composers — embraces melody in her music as a vehicle to connect with listeners. Christina Kernohan/Courtesy of the artist hide caption

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Christina Kernohan/Courtesy of the artist

Music Interviews

Composer Anna Clyne, a radical melodist with a painter's eye

One of the most performed living composers unpacks the power of melody in her music, her unconventional path to success and how visual art guides her process.

Saturday

Thursday

How Chief Keef and MIKE, former rap prodigies, escaped the attention economy

Chief Keef's new album with Mike WiLL Made-It, Dirty Nachos, shows just how far he's grown beyond the Chicago teen who stormed YouTube in 2012. Tyler Shields/Courtesy of the artist hide caption

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Tyler Shields/Courtesy of the artist

How Chief Keef and MIKE, former rap prodigies, escaped the attention economy

On their eclectic new albums, two artists who emerged in the 2010s as hip-hop's next big things flaunt a creative freedom only found in rejecting the spotlight.

Friday

Just because your favorite singer is dead doesn't mean you can't see them 'live'

Elvis Presley pictured circa 1966. Hulton Archive/Getty Images hide caption

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Hulton Archive/Getty Images

Pop Culture

Just because your favorite singer is dead doesn't mean you can't see them 'live'

The upcoming immersive "Elvis Evolution" experience in London employs everything from cutting edge AI to a 200-year-old magic trick.

Just because your favorite singer is dead doesn't mean you can't see them 'live'

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Thursday

Friday

Tuesday

Sunday

The Apollo Chamber Players create concerts in response to book banning, the refugee crisis, the war in Gaza and other world events. The members of the Houston based ensemble are Matthew Dudzik, left, Aria Cheregosha, Matthew J. Detrick and Anabel Ramírez.

The Apollo Chamber Players create concerts in response to book banning, the refugee crisis, the war in Gaza and other world events. The members of the Houston based ensemble are Matthew Dudzik, left, Aria Cheregosha, Matthew J. Detrick and Anabel Ramírez. Lynn Lane/Apollo Chamber Players hide caption

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Lynn Lane/Apollo Chamber Players

Music

Classical ensemble Apollo Chamber Players is tuned in to today's headlines

The Apollo Chamber Players in Houston, Texas, create concerts in response to book banning, the refugee crisis, the war in Gaza and other world events. Thousands of people attend their performances.

Classical ensemble Apollo Chamber Players is tuned in to today's headlines

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Friday

Rediscovering the rigor of composers Julia Perry and Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson

Composer Julia Perry, photographed in Florence, Italy, in 1957 after she won her second Guggenheim fellowship. David Lees/Getty Images hide caption

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David Lees/Getty Images

Review

Music Reviews

Rediscovering the rigor of composers Julia Perry and Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson

A new album, American Counterpoints, reasserts the importance of two 20th century Black composers whose work has been neglected.

Rediscovering the rigor of composers Julia Perry and Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson

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How Daymé Arocena left Cuba and found a freeing new sound in Afro-Caribbean pop

"I remember any time I traveled to Mexico and other countries in the continent, I felt like, 'I'm Latina, but I'm not exactly like the people here,' Arocena tells NPR. "When I came to Puerto Rico, it was like, 'okay, now I understand.' " Alex Alaya/Brownswood Recordings hide caption

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Alex Alaya/Brownswood Recordings

Music

How Daymé Arocena left Cuba and found a freeing new sound in Afro-Caribbean pop

The Cuban jazz artist says she's never felt welcome in Latin pop. That is, until she came to Puerto Rico to record her new album, Alkemi, which expands her sound into R&B, bossa nova and neo-soul.

How Daymé Arocena left Cuba and found a freeing new sound in Afro-Caribbean pop

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Thursday

McLean's Scene: How Jackie McLean made Hartford a destination for jazz

Portrait of American jazz musician, composer and band leader Jackie McLean, Hartford, Conn., 1979. Deborah Feingold/Corbis via Getty Images hide caption

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Deborah Feingold/Corbis via Getty Images

Jazz Night In America: The Radio Program

McLean's Scene: How Jackie McLean made Hartford a destination for jazz

WBGO and Jazz at Lincoln Center

At a time when jazz was not widely seen in higher education, the alto saxophonist brought the wisdom learned on the bandstand to the classroom.

McLean's Scene: How Jackie McLean made Hartford a destination for jazz