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Zach Bryan's fifth album in five years, The Great American Bar Scene, features love songs, thorny anthems, autobiographical lore and even a mini-arc that directly invokes classic Bruce Springsteen songs.

Zach Bryan's fifth album in five years, The Great American Bar Scene, features love songs, thorny anthems, autobiographical lore and even a mini-arc that directly invokes classic Bruce Springsteen songs. Keith Griner/Getty Images hide caption

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Keith Griner/Getty Images

Review

Music

Zach Bryan makes — and breaks — his own myth on 'The Great American Bar Scene'

Bruce Springsteen, 40 years on from Born in the U.S.A., shows up on Bryan’s new album to offer the wisdom and regret of a lifetime of telling truths and spinning yarns.

Wednesday

Megan Thee Stallion onstage in June at the Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles, a stop on her Hot Girl Summer Tour.

Megan Thee Stallion onstage in June at the Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles, a stop on her Hot Girl Summer Tour. Kevin Winter/Getty Images for Live Nation hide caption

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Kevin Winter/Getty Images for Live Nation

Review

Unpacking hip-hop's sprawl in 2024's most eclectic release date

Megan Thee Stallion's post-traumatic reset, a left-field Lil Yachty collab, the raunchy return of cupcaKKe: June 28 delivered a truckload of major albums, and a portrait of modern rap's main tension.

Tuesday

In 1984, Born in the U.S.A. made Bruce Springsteen the biggest rock star in the world. Along the way, one chapter of the album's legacy has nearly vanished from official history: club remixes of three of the album's biggest singles.

In 1984, Born in the U.S.A. made Bruce Springsteen the biggest rock star in the world. Along the way, one chapter of the album's legacy has nearly vanished from official history: club remixes of three of the album's biggest singles. Illustration by Jackie Lay. Photos by Aaron Rapoport/Corbis and SGranitz/WireImage (Getty Images) hide caption

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Illustration by Jackie Lay. Photos by Aaron Rapoport/Corbis and SGranitz/WireImage (Getty Images)

Music

The nearly forgotten story of the 'Born in the U.S.A.' remixes

In 1984, on the cusp of superstardom, Bruce Springsteen agreed to let a producer rework three songs from his upcoming album, Born in the U.S.A. 40 years later, those remixes have nearly vanished.

Thursday

Oran Ektin by José De Holanda

Oran Ektin by José De Holanda hide caption

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Jazz Night In America

Oran Etkin's global jazz journeys and the magic of Timbalooloo

WBGO

Oran Etkin creates musical connections around the globe. He also makes instruments come to life in his Timbalooloo program for children.

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Pop Music's First Black Stars
Perry Bradford Music/New York Public Library

Throughline

Pop Music's First Black Stars

Today, the U.S. popular music industry is worth billions of dollars. And some of its deepest roots are in blackface minstrelsy and other racist genres. You may not have heard their names, but Black musicians like George Johnson, Ernest Hogan, and Mamie Smith were some of the country's first viral sensations, working within and pushing back against racist systems and tropes. Their work made a lasting imprint on American music — including some of the songs you might have on repeat right now.

Pop Music's First Black Stars

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Wednesday

Super-producer Edgar Barrera on turning old-school genres into pop hits
Natalia Aguilera

Alt.Latino

Super-producer Edgar Barrera on turning old-school genres into pop hits

Even if you don't know Edgar Barrera's name, you know his work. The multiple Grammy-winning writer and producer has worked with dozens of the biggest names in Latin music — Bad Bunny, Maluma, Karol G, Camilo — the list goes on. But he's also one of the main forces pushing regional Mexican into the mainstream over the past few years, and turning Pan-Latin sounds into pop perfection.

Super-producer Edgar Barrera on turning old-school genres into pop hits

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Tuesday

"Do I truly feel like hip-hop is dead? No, I don't," Questlove tells NPR. "However, I do believe that the landscape and the rules have changed. And some of its participants don't know it." Christian Germoso hide caption

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Christian Germoso

Music

In an industry of conformity, Questlove remains a hip-hop iconoclast

In a new interview, Questlove reveals why Drake vs. Kendrick was so triggering, how he regained his passion for hip-hop and what to expect from the new Roots album.

Questlove reflects on changes in culture and music with his book 'Hip-Hop Is History'

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Thursday

Kendrick Lamar performs during

Kendrick Lamar performs during "The Pop Out — Ken & Friends," his June 19 concert event at the Kia Forum in Inglewood, Calif. Timothy Norris/Getty Images for pgLang, Amazon/Getty Images North America hide caption

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Timothy Norris/Getty Images for pgLang, Amazon/Getty Images North America

Review

Kendrick Lamar takes the West Coast off standby

Lamar's blowout Juneteenth concert, held at the Forum in Los Angeles and live-streamed on Amazon Music, planted flags for the future of LA rap, while uniting in hate for a certain Toronto titan.

Thursday

Kendrick Lamar performs at a Spotify event in Cannes, France, during the Cannes Lions media festival in June 2022.

Kendrick Lamar performs at a Spotify event in Cannes, France, during the Cannes Lions media festival in June 2022. Getty Images for Spotify/Getty Images Europe hide caption

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Getty Images for Spotify/Getty Images Europe

Analysis

GOAT debates are a hip-hop tradition. Spotify is here to spoil the fun

Canon-making is a core part of rap fandom, the subject of endless barbershop parleys and message-board battles. But something curdles when the companies that control the music business enter the chat.

Wednesday