Music

National

R.E.M.'s hometown of Athens, Ga., still welcomes fans 45 years after the band started there

Melanie Peeples

R.E.M. played its first concert there in 1980 and still draws fans to its hometown. A visit to Athens can be like a pilgrimage of the band's music.
Jason Isbell confronts the pain of divorce, and the possibility of new love

Terry Gross

Jason Isbell sings about his split from musician Amanda Shires on his latest album Foxes in the Snow. "What I was attempting to do is document a very specific time where I was going through a lot of changes," he says.
Hardcore has never been more visible. For Scowl, it's an opportunity to keep expanding it

Paula Mejía

Over the last few years, hardcore has transformed from an underground subculture into a mainstream phenomenon. Scowl is one of the unwitting torchbearers for this paradigm shift, but their success hasn't come without tension.
Playboi Carti and Kendrick Lamar top the charts, but Morgan Wallen looms

Stephen Thompson

Playboi Carti's supersized blockbuster MUSIC holds at No. 1 in its second week of release. Elsewhere, Kendrick Lamar's "Luther (feat. SZA)" holds at No. 1and Morgan Wallen charts a fifth top 10 hit from an album that isn't even out yet.
Why would a musician join OnlyFans? Because making a living is only getting harder

Isabella Gomez Sarmiento

In a volatile music industry, some musicians are gravitating towards OnlyFans, a social media platform that has garnered a reputation for hosting sexual content.
The best new albums out March 28

Stephen Thompson

Alisha Sweeney

Lucy Dacus headlines a stacked week for new releases. NPR Music's Stephen Thompson welcomes Indie 102.3's Alisha Sweeney to share their favorites of the bunch.
National

The woman who killed Tejano music icon Selena in 1995 has been denied parole

The Associated Press

Yolanda Saldívar, the woman convicted of killing Selena Quintanilla-Perez, has been denied parole after spending decades behind bars for fatally shooting the young singer at a Texas motel in 1995.
Why Lucy Dacus had to destroy her old life to create the album 'Forever Is a Feeling'

Michel Martin

Singer/songwriter Lucy Dacus's new album Forever Is a Feeling features music written about "falling in love, falling out of love." She adds, "You have to destroy things in order to create things. And I did destroy a really beautiful life."
Cleo Sol will see you now

Sidney Madden

The New York City debut from the British soul singer counters the prevailing narrative around her. As she guided fans in spiritual healing, she did it as she has her whole career: on her own terms.
Playboi Carti has the biggest streaming week since Taylor Swift — plus, Chappell Roan goes country

Hazel Cills

The rapper Playboi Carti's much-hyped MUSIC leads this week in albums. Plus, the rapper Doechii continues to make gains with her recently released "Anxiety" and Chappell Roan finds minor country chart success with "The Giver."