Music

The best bands we saw at SXSW 2025

The NPR Network

Public radio stations were on the ground in Austin for this year's SXSW Music festival.
Playboi Carti, a rap superstar who's never acted like one

Sheldon Pearce

MUSIC is the elusive rapper's first album in five years, but his presence has loomed heavy over hip-hop — and the fanbase whose ears he retuned for extremity.
National

Jesse Colin Young, singer of The Youngbloods' 'Get Together,' dies at 83

Annie Zaleski

Prolific musician Jesse Colin Young, best known for being the voice of the '60s folk-rock anthem "Get Together," died on Sunday at age 83.
How the pandemic changed music

Isabella Gomez Sarmiento

Hazel Cills

Ann Powers

Sidney Madden

Lars Gotrich

In some ways, COVID shrank the distance between musicians and listeners. But then, it also threw nearly everything about the industry into disarray, and for many, things have never been the same.
Vice President Vance gets booed at the Kennedy Center

Elizabeth Blair

Symphony orchestra audiences aren't known for their rowdiness, but the vice president and second lady Usha Vance were loudly booed by the crowd as they entered the Concert Hall on Thursday night.
Steve Reich has always been able to hear the pulse

Tom Huizenga

The 88-year-old composer, who talks as fast as the interlocking phrases of his music, looks back on crucial moments in a career that moved minimalism into the mainstream.
The best new albums out March 14

Stephen Thompson

Matt Reilly

NPR Music's Stephen Thompson welcomes Matt Reilly, of Austin public radio station KUTX, to discuss the best albums released on March 14.
100 years, 100 moments: How women shaped a century of music

Miguel Perez

For Women's History Month, World Cafe is exploring 100 years of music history with a timeline of 100 moments.
National

Sofia Gubaidulina, the composer who fused sound and spirituality, has died at age 93

Tom Huizenga

One of the first modern women composers to reach international acclaim, Gubaidulina wrote bold music, inspired by Eastern and Western philosophies, and the joy of sound itself.
When music provokes utter silence

Ann Powers

Critic Ann Powers considers musical performances that have left audiences stunned in utter silence, and what you can hear when sound falls away.