Accessibility links
Music Features In-depth storytelling from the NPR Music team.

Music Features

Friday

Rhiannon Giddens, Patty Griffin And Shakey Graves—A Musical Conversation

(L-R) Patty Griffin, Rhiannon Giddens, Roy Taylor (a member of Patty's road crew), Shakey Graves, and NPR Music's Ann Powers Joshua Shoemaker for NPR hide caption

toggle caption
Joshua Shoemaker for NPR

The Record

Rhiannon Giddens, Patty Griffin And Shakey Graves—A Musical Conversation

Listen to NPR Music's Ann Powers host a "Songs We Love" panel at Nashville's Americana Fest, where three of Americana's finest songwriters discussed and performed their favorite songs

Rhiannon Giddens, Patty Griffin And Shakey Graves—A Musical Conversation

  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/443209089/443230032" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">

Thursday

No Blank Space, Baby: Taylor Swift Is The Soul Of Ryan Adams

Ryan Adams' latest release is a song-for-song cover of Taylor Swift's 1989 album. Left: Julia Brokaw /Courtesy of the artist. Right: Jason Merritt/Getty Images hide caption

toggle caption
Left: Julia Brokaw /Courtesy of the artist. Right: Jason Merritt/Getty Images

The Record

No Blank Space, Baby: Taylor Swift Is The Soul Of Ryan Adams

Adams' 1989 recognizes a rock lineage born of a woman. He's not legitimizing Swift's work – he's figuring out how her voice can validate and include his.

No Blank Space, Baby: Taylor Swift Is The Soul Of Ryan Adams

Listen · 3:50
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/442580677/443053773" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

Tuesday

Wednesday

Tuesday

Monday

Sunday

Thursday

Wednesday

Does Anybody Even Have Time For An 80-Minute Album?

Kendrick Lamar performs onstage in June. His most recent album, To Pimp A Butterfly, runs nearly 80 minutes over 16 songs. Earl Gibson/Getty Images for BET hide caption

toggle caption
Earl Gibson/Getty Images for BET

The Record

Does Anybody Even Have Time For An 80-Minute Album?

In a musical environment that prizes economy and the listener's ability to shuffle, skip and create playlists, is there still a place for ambitious, sprawling albums meant to be consumed all at once?

Tuesday

'Is It Rolling, Bob?': Remembering Producer Bob Johnston

Bob Dylan in the studio in the summer of 1965, while recording Highway 61 Revisited, which was mostly produced by Bob Johnston. Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images hide caption

toggle caption
Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images

The Record

'Is It Rolling, Bob?': Remembering Producer Bob Johnston

Producing albums for Johnny Cash, Leonard Cohen and most crucially, Bob Dylan, Johnston helped give shape, heft and durability to some of the most transformative music of the past five decades.

Wednesday

Stakes Is High: Drake Ghostwriting Accusations Matter More Than You Think

Drake performs at Finsbury Park in London, England in June. Philadelphia rapper Meek Mill recently accused Drake of using ghostwriters, spurring the two to release diss tracks aimed at each other. John Phillips/Getty Images hide caption

toggle caption
John Phillips/Getty Images

The Record

Stakes Is High: Drake Ghostwriting Accusations Matter More Than You Think

With the notion of authorship dispatched as silly and inconsequential, the way has been paved for even greater corporate influence over hip-hop.

Stakes Is High: Drake Ghostwriting Accusations Matter More Than You Think

Listen · 4:58
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/429721703/429774023" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

Monday

Friday

Monday