Music

June 29, 2022 - 4:15pm

We hear from the first Native American to win a Pulitzer Prize for music, and a leader from the organization who helped commission him to compose the winning piece for the Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist in Milwaukee.

R. Kelly is sentenced to 30 years in prison

June 29, 2022 - 2:15pm

Updated June 29, 2022 at 4:49 PM ET

The disgraced R&B star R. Kelly was sentenced Wednesday to 30 years in prison.

He was sentenced in New York by federal Judge Ann Donnelly, who spoke at length before issuing the sentence. At one point, she quoted...

MUNA, 'What I Want'

June 29, 2022 - 1:30pm

"There's nothing wrong with what I want," MUNA's Katie Gavin sings on the second track of the band's confetti cannon of a self-titled album, a Moroder-worthy disco beat pulsing behind her. And what does she want? Too many shots. Really good drugs. An instant crush forming on the dance...

Jimetta Rose, 'Let The Sunshine In'

June 29, 2022 - 1:27pm

LA-based producer/singer/arranger Jimetta Rose recently put out a call for singers, looking to form a community choir that focused less on ability and more on singing as a form of healing. It's how The Voices of Creation began — and the project's first single with Rose, "Let The Sunshine In,"...

The Thistle & Shamrock: Yeats in Song

June 29, 2022 - 1:00pm

Host Fiona Ritchie features some unique music set to William Butler Yeats' poetry, recorded across three continents during the pandemic. Featured artists include: Cathy Jordan, Mick McAuley, Karan Casey, and Kim Robertson.

GIVĒON's favorite Tiny Desk concerts

June 29, 2022 - 11:02am

For Tiny Desk Playlists, we ask musicians, creators and folks we admire to choose the Tiny Desk concerts they've come to love. For this edition and as part of our Black Music Month celebration, we asked GIVĒON to make us a playlist.

GIVĒON has made quite the impression...

strongboi ft. Salami Rose Joe Louis, 'unconditional'

June 29, 2022 - 10:18am

It's like strongboi, the Berlin-based duo of Alice Phoebe Lou and Ziv Yamin, had a premonition about how outright depressing and hard-fought this summer would end up being. This track is nothing if not real: you might see a shadow of yourself when Lou sighs, "I've seen that you're...

Denzel Curry: Tiny Desk Concert

June 29, 2022 - 6:08am

This year, NPR Music is celebrating Black Music Month with an array of brand new Tiny Desk concerts — both from home and from behind our beloved Desk. Together, these artists represent the past, present and future of Black music. This month of carefully curated shows is a celebration of...

How Elizabeth Cotten's music fueled the folk revival

June 29, 2022 - 4:00am

As a Black woman playing fingerstyle guitar, Yasmin Williams has been hailed as a "hero for a new generation." She says she often felt like an anomaly- until she discovered a YouTube video of Elizabeth Cotten.

"I knew about Sister Rosetta Tharpe and other kind of...

Hatis Noit, 'Aura'

June 28, 2022 - 10:58am

The manipulation of those two little folds of tissue in our throats known as vocal cords never ceases to amaze — they can conjure every emotion, every color. The Japanese singer Hatis Noit has full command of those cords, thrillingly on display in "Aura," the title track of her...

Hear a live mini-concert from Lido Pimienta

June 28, 2022 - 10:35am

Today, we welcome back Lido Pimienta to the show in celebration of World Cafe's 30th anniversary. Her 2016 album, La Papessa, won her the Polaris Prize for Canadian Album of the Year, and her 2020 album, Miss Colombia, was nominated for Best Latin Rock or Alternative Album at The...

Rainbow Girls, 'Compassion to the Nth Degree'

June 28, 2022 - 10:11am

I first heard this Sour Patch Kids candy of a song not long after Brett Kavanaugh became a Supreme Court justice; Erin Chapin, one-third of the Northern California folk trio Rainbow Girls, wrote it to process some rage by coating it in sarcasm and the group's trademark shiny harmonies. Listing...

Musicians react to Supreme Court decision on right to abortion

June 28, 2022 - 8:49am

When the Supreme Court issued its decision on Dobbs vs. Jackson Women's Health Organization on Friday, effectively overturning the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision that codified the right to abortion, social media predictably exploded with myriad responses.

Musicians were among those who immediately spoke up, and their reactions...

NPR Music's 36 Favorite Albums of 2022 (So Far)

June 28, 2022 - 7:00am

Is it possible that in the streaming era, the album has not died — as some speculated it would — but become something more precious? A gift that takes on the weight of a personal connection when shared? Well, probably not every album that comes out in a given half-year,...

J'Nai Bridges: Tiny Desk (Home) Concert

June 27, 2022 - 11:45am

NPR Music's 36 Favorite Songs of 2022 (So Far)

June 27, 2022 - 7:30am

This week we reach the actual halfway point of the year, which means it's finally the perfect moment to look back on the great music released in 2022 so far. The list of songs on this page isn't the result of consensus. There was no voting or petitioning or arguing...

Street Symphony plays in harmony with Skid Row's 'sacred spaces'

June 27, 2022 - 4:00am

Some of the most beautiful music being performed in Los Angeles right now is happening on Skid Row. Street Symphony is an organization bringing professional musicians to clinics, homeless shelters and jails clustered in and around one of the most devastating concentrations of urban poverty in the United States....

'Artists anticipate things because they work in the realm of the imagination': Creating in a pandemic time loop

June 25, 2022 - 11:00am

Critic Alissa Wilkinson has found that artists have been responding to the pandemic by doing what they do best: creating and making things that — for at least some people — help them feel like they are still alive even as they face grief and trauma.

When Lil Nas X calls out BET, it means something

June 25, 2022 - 7:00am

The BET Awards air on Sunday night, and at least one notable person is highly unlikely to be in attendance: Lil Nas X. In case you missed it, the pop star is presently incensed with the network because his name was nowhere to be found when nominations were announced...

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How a Native American composer's mass for a Milwaukee cathedral earned a music Pulitzer

R. Kelly is sentenced to 30 years in prison

MUNA, 'What I Want'

Jimetta Rose, 'Let The Sunshine In'

The Thistle & Shamrock: Yeats in Song

GIVĒON's favorite Tiny Desk concerts

strongboi ft. Salami Rose Joe Louis, 'unconditional'

Denzel Curry: Tiny Desk Concert

How Elizabeth Cotten's music fueled the folk revival

Hatis Noit, 'Aura'

Hear a live mini-concert from Lido Pimienta

Rainbow Girls, 'Compassion to the Nth Degree'

Musicians react to Supreme Court decision on right to abortion

NPR Music's 36 Favorite Albums of 2022 (So Far)

J'Nai Bridges: Tiny Desk (Home) Concert

NPR Music's 36 Favorite Songs of 2022 (So Far)

Street Symphony plays in harmony with Skid Row's 'sacred spaces'

'Artists anticipate things because they work in the realm of the imagination': Creating in a pandemic time loop

When Lil Nas X calls out BET, it means something

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