From “Fortnight” to “The Manuscript,” the latest episodes of Rolling Stone Music Now dive into every single track of Taylor Swift’s longest album ever, The Tortured Poets Department: The Anthology. Along the way, we debate larger issues, including whether Swift intends all 31 tracks to be seen as the album proper, or if the latter half — added by surprise on the night of release — is actually more of a collection of bonus songs.
Brittany Spanos and Rob Sheffield join host Brian Hiatt for the discussions, which also place every song...
Brittany Spanos and Rob Sheffield join host Brian Hiatt for the discussions, which also place every song...
- 5/5/2024
- by Brian Hiatt
- Rollingstone.com
At the very moment Taylormania was hitting preposterous heights, threatening to turn the artist at its center into an untouchable icon, it turns out that the real Taylor Swift was spending her time between glittery three-hour concerts making some of her most fearless art. The Tortured Poets Department: The Anthology is stuffed with the rawest, angriest, and most unguarded songs of Swift’s career – quite the opposite of the ingratiating, focus-grouped inoffensiveness that a skeptic might expect from an artist at her current level of visibility.
On the new episode...
On the new episode...
- 4/25/2024
- by Brian Hiatt
- Rollingstone.com
With a few lines in a guest verse on Future and Metro Boomin’s chart-topping hit “Like That,” Kendrick Lamar ignited his long-simmering cold war with Drake into what’s become the widest-reaching rap beef in years. Since then, it’s all gotten incredibly messy, starting with J. Cole recording an entire diss track about his erstwhile friend Lamar and then deciding to retract it and apologize — a fairly unprecedented move in hip-hop. We trace the whole saga on the latest episode of our Rolling Stone Music Now podcast — go...
- 4/19/2024
- by Brian Hiatt
- Rollingstone.com
Taylor Swift knows a thing or two about swerving when people least expect it. Still, nothing could have prepared listeners for the way she totally abandoned country music on her 2014 album, 1989. Sure, she had teased some Max Martin-assisted pop hits on her previous album, Red, but 1989 was a total 180 from the country starlet’s past, one that saw her teardrop-soaked guitar for sassier synths instead.
The crown jewel of the album is “Blank Space.” While lead single “Shake It Off” was an empowering kiss-off to the haters, the follow-up...
The crown jewel of the album is “Blank Space.” While lead single “Shake It Off” was an empowering kiss-off to the haters, the follow-up...
- 4/17/2024
- by Brittany Spanos
- Rollingstone.com
On Cowboy Carter, Beyoncé mixes R&b, country, and some hard-hitting guitars, among many other elements, and as the artist herself is well aware, there used to be a name for that kind of American melange: rock & roll. She slyly acknowledges that fact with two Chuck Berry moments on the album, including a segment of “Maybellene,” his first hit, in which a Black genius helped invent rock & roll via revved-up country.
So, there’s an argument that Cowboy Carter — which the artist has made clear is a “Beyoncé album” rather...
So, there’s an argument that Cowboy Carter — which the artist has made clear is a “Beyoncé album” rather...
- 4/7/2024
- by Brian Hiatt
- Rollingstone.com
Modest Mouse’s Isaac Brock has been known to take as long as eight years between albums, but nearly three decades into his band’s career, he’s ready to pick up the pace. Three years after the release of the well-received The Golden Casket, he’s already recorded enough songs for a new Modest Mouse album with producers including Jacknife Lee and Dave Sardy, and intends to put one out by next spring. “In my early days of putting out records, I wrote music every fucking day,” he tells...
- 4/6/2024
- by Brian Hiatt
- Rollingstone.com
Swifties have known since early February that Taylor Swift has a new album, Tortured Poets Department, due April 19, with some notably provocative song titles (“So Long London,” “But Daddy I Love Him”) and big-name guest stars (Post Malone, Florence Welsh). But since then, information on the album has been scarce, so fans have more than filled the void, passing around possibly fake leaked snippets of songs while pranking each other with both ChatGPT-generated lyrics and a ridiculous viral parody where an AI-generated Taylor sings lines like, “I’m so happy...
- 3/29/2024
- by Brian Hiatt
- Rollingstone.com
For nearly forty years, SXSW has been the premier festival destination for showcasing the greatest talent in music, film, tech and art. Each year, spectators, fans and industry professionals travel far-and-wide to get a glimpse at some of the many concerts, activations, panels and experiences, which all take place in the city of Austin, TX.
This year, BACARDÍ brought a truly unique experience to those who attended their Changing Tunes: The Role of AI in Music Creation panel. The panel was hosted in Austin’s Thompson Hotel on March 13th,...
This year, BACARDÍ brought a truly unique experience to those who attended their Changing Tunes: The Role of AI in Music Creation panel. The panel was hosted in Austin’s Thompson Hotel on March 13th,...
- 3/25/2024
- by Matt Tighe
- Rollingstone.com
Just last summer, experts on the intersection of AI and music told Rolling Stone that it would be years before a tool emerged that could conjure up fully produced songs from a simple text description, given the endless complexities of the finished product. But Suno, a two-year-old start-up based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, has already pulled it off, vocals included — and their latest model, v3, which is available to the general public as of today, is capable of some truly startling results.
In Rolling Stone‘s feature on Suno, part of...
In Rolling Stone‘s feature on Suno, part of...
- 3/22/2024
- by Brian Hiatt
- Rollingstone.com
You probably don’t know his face or his voice. But you definitely know his music. Max Martin, the Swedish genius behind so many hits from the past 25 years, has always been an elusive figure, remaining behind the scenes. He refuses to become any kind of celebrity. Yet he has helped create so many classics, including some on Rolling Stone’s 500 Greatest Songs list: Taylor Swift’s “Blank Space” (which comes in at 357) and the Backstreet Boys’ “I Want It That Way” (240). He’s written or co-written 26 Number One hits,...
- 3/20/2024
- by Rob Sheffield
- Rollingstone.com
One of the biggest influences on Ariana Grande’s new album, Eternal Sunshine, turns out be the Beatles’ Rubber Soul. That inspiration isn’t exactly instantly evident within the album’s sleek production and Max Martin-assisted songwriting, but Grande said in an advance listening session for journalists that she had John, Paul, George, and Ringo in mind as she stuffed it full of unexpected melodic twists and half-buried ear candy.
In the new episode of Rolling Stone Music Now, we discuss Grande’s newfound Beatlemania and much more, going...
In the new episode of Rolling Stone Music Now, we discuss Grande’s newfound Beatlemania and much more, going...
- 3/13/2024
- by Brian Hiatt
- Rollingstone.com
Welcome to the Beatles Cinematic Universe. Continuing the current wave of music biopics — which just saw its most recent box-office triumph with Bob Marley: One Love — director Sam Mendes (Skyfall) has signed on to helm not one, but four separate Beatles biopics, all due in 2027. The movies, set to begin production next year, will each focus a single Beatle’s perspective, so John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and even Ringo Starr each get a turn in the spotlight.
It might seem like overkill, but as we discuss on the...
It might seem like overkill, but as we discuss on the...
- 3/4/2024
- by Brian Hiatt
- Rollingstone.com
From J Noa’s speed-rapping to Gale’s polished pop-rock songwriting to Ralph Choo’s electronic experiments, 2023 was packed with incredible Spanish-language music from artists who aren’t superstars — at least not yet. In the last of our four Rolling Stone Music Now podcast episodes on under-the-radar albums from last year, we dig through multiple nations and genres to find the best lesser-known gems.
Rolling Stone‘s Julyssa Lopez joins host Brian Hiatt for the discussion, picking her favorites from our recent comprehensive list of the year’s top Spanish-language albums,...
Rolling Stone‘s Julyssa Lopez joins host Brian Hiatt for the discussion, picking her favorites from our recent comprehensive list of the year’s top Spanish-language albums,...
- 2/28/2024
- by Brian Hiatt
- Rollingstone.com
Anyone complaining about the state of hip-hop needs only to look beyond the top of the charts, as the latest episode of our Rolling Stone Music Now podcast makes clear. In the episode, Andre Gee breaks down some of his under-the-radar 2023 hip-hop picks, from Zelooperz’ experimental Microphone Fiend to B. Cool Aid’s ultra-vibey Leather Blvd to Nappy Nina’s introspective Mourning Due. To hear the full episode, go here for the podcast provider of your choice, listen on Apple Podcasts or Spotify, or just press play below.
Also in the episode,...
Also in the episode,...
- 2/13/2024
- by Brian Hiatt
- Rollingstone.com
Joni Mitchell will have a lot of company when she takes the stage on Sunday for her first-ever Grammy Awards performance. Her friend and collaborator Brandi Carlile will be performing alongside her, as will Jacob Collier, Allison Russell, SistaStrings, Lucius, and Blake Mills, according to executive producer Raj Kapoor. As for what they’ll be performing? “It will be a song that I think everybody knows,” Kapoor tells our Rolling Stone Music Now podcast, “and if you are a Joni Mitchell fan, it’s the song that you want to hear.
- 2/4/2024
- by Brian Hiatt
- Rollingstone.com
Burna Boy will be the first Afrobeats performer ever to play the Grammys at Sunday night’s ceremony — and he’ll be joined onstage by Brandy and 21 Savage, executive producer Raj Kapoor tells Rolling Stone Music Now. The collaboration will also mark 21 Savage’s Grammy performance debut, while Brandy hasn’t sung on the show since the Nineties. “It’s gonna be huge,” says Kapoor. “It’s gonna get everybody on their feet.”
In the new episode of Rolling Stone Music Now, Kapoor breaks down what to expect from...
In the new episode of Rolling Stone Music Now, Kapoor breaks down what to expect from...
- 2/2/2024
- by Brian Hiatt
- Rollingstone.com
The sessions started at Hollywood, California’s A&m Studios the night of Jan. 28, 1985, and didn’t end until well after sunrise the morning of Jan. 29. By that point, it was clear that nothing quite like “We Are the World” could ever happen again. The Greatest Night in Pop, a new documentary on Netflix, brings it all back to vivid life: co-writers Michael Jackson and Lionel Richie joined by Stevie Wonder, Tina Turner, Ray Charles, Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, and an improbably long list of other superstars, all crammed in...
- 1/29/2024
- by Brian Hiatt
- Rollingstone.com
One of last year’s most unexpected musical twists was the ascent of Zach Bryan, the rootsy singer-songwriter who sounds not unlike Bruce Springsteen or Jason Isbell — and went all the way to Number One on the Hot 100 with the ballad “I Remember Everything,” assisted by Kacey Musgraves. His self-titled fourth album was one of the best country/Americana releases of the year, but it’s only one of the unmissable 2023 releases in that category, from Jason Isbell’s own Weathervanes to Megan Maroney’s Lucky.
In the new episode of Rolling Stone Music Now,...
In the new episode of Rolling Stone Music Now,...
- 1/25/2024
- by Brian Hiatt
- Rollingstone.com
Boygenius-mania was only the most visible sign of the fantastic year indie rock had in 2023, with strong albums from newcomers (Blondshell, Kara Jackson), established stars (Mitski) and veterans (Wilco, the National). In the new episode of Rolling Stone Music Now, we go through some highlights of the year in indie albums.
Jon Dolan, Angie Martoccio, and Simon Vozick-Levinson join host Brian Hiatt for the discussion. Among many other topics, we touch on Mitski’s surprise hit “My Love Mine All Mine,” which our panelists agree isn’t even the...
Jon Dolan, Angie Martoccio, and Simon Vozick-Levinson join host Brian Hiatt for the discussion. Among many other topics, we touch on Mitski’s surprise hit “My Love Mine All Mine,” which our panelists agree isn’t even the...
- 1/22/2024
- by Brian Hiatt
- Rollingstone.com
Kali Uchis’ genre-jumping career has so far been evenly divided between Spanish- and English-language albums, which feels about right for an artist who was born in Virginia but spent chunks of her childhood in her father’s native Colombia. “When you aren’t just one thing and you are as multidimensional of an artist as I am,” she says, “I think it’s a lot harder for people to figure out how to sell me as a product. But I think they don’t realize that being multidimensional is a...
- 1/15/2024
- by Brian Hiatt and Julyssa Lopez
- Rollingstone.com
Lainey Wilson has recorded a new song with the Black Crowes that’s set to appear on Happiness Bastards, the rock group’s first album in 15 years. Wilson harmonizes with vocalist Chris Robinson on “Wilted Rose,” a gospel-tinged number.
According to Rich Robinson, the group’s guitarist, the seed for Wilson’s guest appearance was planted backstage at last year’s CMT Awards in Austin, where Wilson told the Robinson brothers that she was a longtime fan. The Crowes appeared on the CMTs to perform their hit 1990 ballad “She Talks...
According to Rich Robinson, the group’s guitarist, the seed for Wilson’s guest appearance was planted backstage at last year’s CMT Awards in Austin, where Wilson told the Robinson brothers that she was a longtime fan. The Crowes appeared on the CMTs to perform their hit 1990 ballad “She Talks...
- 1/12/2024
- by Joseph Hudak
- Rollingstone.com
On New Year’s Eve, we learned the improbable fact that a trio of middle-aged, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame-inducted punks in notably well-tailored suits can somehow still shock and offend the masses. For Green Day, all it took was changing the “American Idiot” lyric “I’m not part of a redneck agenda” to “I’m not part of the Maga agenda” during their performance on Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rocking Eve with Ryan Seacrest — a lyric tweak they’ve been using for years.
The ensuing freakout...
The ensuing freakout...
- 1/4/2024
- by Brian Hiatt
- Rollingstone.com
“I found a piece of my peace right here in Georgia,” says Chaka Khan, who just started a new life in the big rural property she purchased in that state. She recently sat in her bedroom there, gazing at the trees outside, and looked back at her life and career for our new interview with her, which you can hear on the latest episode of Rolling Stone Music Now. Some highlights follow; to hear the full interview, go here for the podcast provider of your choice, listen on Apple Podcasts or Spotify,...
- 12/31/2023
- by Brian Hiatt
- Rollingstone.com
“One of my secrets,” Snoop Dogg tells Latto in their recent Musicians on Musicians conversation, “is that I remain the biggest kid in the room at all times.” The new episode of Rolling Stone Music Now includes highlights of that interview (moderated by Rolling Stone staff writer Andre Gee) along with the two interviews from our first-ever live Musicians on Musicians event: Lil Yachty’s conversation with Tierra Whack (moderated by Rolling Stone’s supervising producer of news video, Delisa Shannon), and a meeting of the minds between Jon Batiste and Gucci Mane.
- 12/30/2023
- by Brian Hiatt
- Rollingstone.com
“We didn’t know what we were doing,” says Josh Schwartz, creator of The O.C. For the show’s first few episodes, the music choices were simply plucked from his own iPod. But once the now-legendary music supervisor Alexandra Patsavas came aboard, the show turned into a weekly showcase for some of the best music of the ’00s — and a key force behind the mainstream rise of a certain brand of indie-leaning rock in that decade, from Death Cab for Cutie to the Killers. It didn’t hurt that...
- 12/25/2023
- by Brian Hiatt
- Rollingstone.com
The Los Angeles Press Club held its annual National Arts & Entertainment Journalism Awards on Sunday, where Rolling Stone took home five top awards.
Cheyenne Roundtree and Jason Newman won Celebrity News – print for “Inside Kanye West’s Yeezy: Abrupt Firings, Alleged Nazi Inspiration and ‘Pure Chaos,” with judges commenting, “Roundtree and Newman’s article provides a timely, yet thoroughly reported, look at one of the biggest controversies in the entertainment industry in 2022.” The duo also received the top prize for Celebrity News — online for “What the Hell Is Going on...
Cheyenne Roundtree and Jason Newman won Celebrity News – print for “Inside Kanye West’s Yeezy: Abrupt Firings, Alleged Nazi Inspiration and ‘Pure Chaos,” with judges commenting, “Roundtree and Newman’s article provides a timely, yet thoroughly reported, look at one of the biggest controversies in the entertainment industry in 2022.” The duo also received the top prize for Celebrity News — online for “What the Hell Is Going on...
- 12/4/2023
- by Althea Legaspi
- Rollingstone.com
Shane MacGowan’s passing has led to an outpouring of tributes from fellow musicians.
“Every time I heard him sing I heard the truth, and my heart filled up with humanity,” wrote Flea of Red Hot Chili Peppers. He proceeded to share an anecdote about the time he met the Pogues singer: “I once saw him sing with the Pogues at a festival in the late 80’s. It was so beautiful and I was reduced to tears. I approached him, and gushed “Man that was so beautiful, thank you etc…” He looked at me and burst into laughter, accidentally spitting beer in my face, and it was not thoughtless or mean at all, he was just so humble and being a dude singing it seemed absurd to him to be elevated, like I was doing to him. I have never been a church going man or a religious man, but if I ever felt baptised,...
“Every time I heard him sing I heard the truth, and my heart filled up with humanity,” wrote Flea of Red Hot Chili Peppers. He proceeded to share an anecdote about the time he met the Pogues singer: “I once saw him sing with the Pogues at a festival in the late 80’s. It was so beautiful and I was reduced to tears. I approached him, and gushed “Man that was so beautiful, thank you etc…” He looked at me and burst into laughter, accidentally spitting beer in my face, and it was not thoughtless or mean at all, he was just so humble and being a dude singing it seemed absurd to him to be elevated, like I was doing to him. I have never been a church going man or a religious man, but if I ever felt baptised,...
- 11/30/2023
- by Alex Young
- Consequence - Music
The further we get from the Nineties, the more it looks like a series of musical golden ages all stacked atop one another, a kaleidoscopic moment when grimy hip-hop and future-shock R&b hit artistic and commercial peaks at the same time as a procession of fuzz-pedal-toting rock bands found themselves at the center of pop culture.
It was the best-ever era for one-hit wonders, even as major labels — suddenly uncertain in era when Nirvana or Wu-Tang Clan could beat out manicured product — also threw money at career artists from Fiona Apple to Outkast.
It was the best-ever era for one-hit wonders, even as major labels — suddenly uncertain in era when Nirvana or Wu-Tang Clan could beat out manicured product — also threw money at career artists from Fiona Apple to Outkast.
- 11/29/2023
- by Brian Hiatt
- Rollingstone.com
My Effin’ Life, the new memoir from Rush’s frontman and bassist, Geddy Lee, tells a tale that’s almost as epic in scale as his band’s largest-scale songs, from his upbringing as the child of two Holocaust survivors, to the rise of Rush, to the loss of drummer Neil Peart in 2020, and everything in between. In this exclusive excerpt, Lee takes us back to 1969, when an early, as-yet-unsigned lineup of Rush consisted of “Alex Lifeson, keyboardist Lindy Young, drummer John Rutsey, and me … until I am dumped.” (Lee...
- 11/14/2023
- by Geddy Lee
- Rollingstone.com
In the Peter Jackson-directed video for the just-released “Now and Then” — touted as the “final Beatles song” — present-day Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr are pleasantly haunted by the ghosts of John Lennon and George Harrison, and even their own younger selves. It’s hard not to think that life inside McCartney and Starr’s heads is a little bit like that on a daily basis, burdened as they are by the weight of history. And they may not be alone: “I walk the city at midnight/With the past strapped to my back,...
- 11/13/2023
- by Brian Hiatt
- Rollingstone.com
Wu-Tang Clan’s debut, Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers), was more than an album — it was a universe unto itself. The album, which dropped Nov. 9, 1993, introduced the world to nine wildly talented rappers at once, along with the crackly genius of RZA’s soul-and-kung-fu-movie-inflected production and an entire cosmology of lyrical references. 30 years later, there’s still plenty to unpack, which we attempt to do on the latest episode of Rolling Stone Music Now.
Andre Gee joins host Brian Hiatt for a discussion of the album’s greatness and influence, and...
Andre Gee joins host Brian Hiatt for a discussion of the album’s greatness and influence, and...
- 11/10/2023
- by Brian Hiatt
- Rollingstone.com
The Los Angeles Press Club revealed the list of nominees for their annual National Arts & Entertainment Journalism Awards, and Rolling Stone has earned 15 nominations across works of reporting and criticism.
Among the highest honors of the awards, Rolling Stone‘s Cheyenne Roundtree has been nominated for Journalist of the Year in the Online category; Alan Sepinwall nominated for T.V. Critic of the Year; David Fear for Film Critic of the Year; and Julyssa Lopez has received a nod in the Diversity in the Entertainment Industry category for her stunning piece,...
Among the highest honors of the awards, Rolling Stone‘s Cheyenne Roundtree has been nominated for Journalist of the Year in the Online category; Alan Sepinwall nominated for T.V. Critic of the Year; David Fear for Film Critic of the Year; and Julyssa Lopez has received a nod in the Diversity in the Entertainment Industry category for her stunning piece,...
- 11/3/2023
- by Charisma Madarang
- Rollingstone.com
Britney Spears’ wrenching new memoir, The Woman in Me, is a classic celebrity tell-all — but she doesn’t quite tell all. There’s not a word in there about the recording her classic second album, Oops!… I Did It Again. Later, she mentions one of her greatest songs, “Toxic,” but again, there’s nothing about the process behind the track.
In the section about Spears’ lip-locked 2003 VMAs appearance with Madonna, Christina Aguilera — who, lest we forget, was also there — is written out of the performance altogether. And Spears never says...
In the section about Spears’ lip-locked 2003 VMAs appearance with Madonna, Christina Aguilera — who, lest we forget, was also there — is written out of the performance altogether. And Spears never says...
- 10/31/2023
- by Brian Hiatt
- Rollingstone.com
Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour is so dominant in theaters across the country that screenings of the Killers of the Flower Moon have had “Love Story” leaking in from next door during quiet moments. But the nearly three-hour-long Swift concert documentary is an intense theatrical experience in its own right, complete with singalongs, applause, and in some cases, young Swifties leaving their seats to stand, or dance, directly in front of the screen.
In the new episode of Rolling Stone Music Now, we share many thoughts on the tour and...
In the new episode of Rolling Stone Music Now, we share many thoughts on the tour and...
- 10/22/2023
- by Brian Hiatt
- Rollingstone.com
What kind of music should the world expect from a 36-year-old Drake? “I want to hear adult Drake rapping for adult people,” rapper-turned-podcaster Joe Budden said after hearing his new album, For All the Dogs. In lieu of any newfound maturity, the album is instead full of very Drake moments, including lyrics about a ruined Bahamas trip, the difficulties of dating 25-year-olds, Esperanza Spalding’s 2011 Grammy wins, and people thinking he’s still hung up on Rihanna. Meanwhile, critics noticed what they described as a growing misogyny in Drake’s work,...
- 10/17/2023
- by Brian Hiatt
- Rollingstone.com
For Teezo Touchdown, his sound started with his look. When the Beaumont, Texas singer/rapper went into the studio in 2019 to record what became the Panic at the Disco-sampling track “100 Drums,” he surprised himself by leaning hard towards rock influences — an approach that would become the template for his recent debut, How Do You Sleep at Night? “I already had made the change aesthetically of going to rock before I even did it sonically,” he says in the new episode of Rolling Stone Music Now. “I was already painting my [face], I had the hair.
- 10/8/2023
- by Brian Hiatt
- Rollingstone.com
Thirty years after the release of Nirvana’s final studio album, In Utero, there are somehow still new things to learn about the band, as original biographer Michael Azerrad proves in his upcoming expanded edition of his classic 1993 book, Come As You Are: The Story of Nirvana. The new book, The Amplified Come As You Are (due Oct. 24) more than doubles the length of the original version, with new information from Azerrad’s original interviews, corrections (no, Kurt Cobain never actually lived under a bridge), and reflections on the initial text.
- 9/25/2023
- by Brian Hiatt
- Rollingstone.com
Olivia Rodrigo paved her own way for her excellent, guitar-drenched second album, Guts. It’s impossible to imagine a major pop artist pushing this hard into rock if she hadn’t already opened the door with the hardest-hitting moments of her 2021 debut, Sour. (That said, she doesn’t see herself as a pop star, anyway.)
In the new episode of Rolling Stone Music Now, Angie Martoccio, who wrote our revealing new cover story on Rodrigo, joins host Brian Hiatt to break down every track of Guts, from the biting sarcasm of the opening track,...
In the new episode of Rolling Stone Music Now, Angie Martoccio, who wrote our revealing new cover story on Rodrigo, joins host Brian Hiatt to break down every track of Guts, from the biting sarcasm of the opening track,...
- 9/15/2023
- by Brian Hiatt
- Rollingstone.com
Just two weeks ago, almost no one had ever heard of Oliver Anthony. Then, the Virginia-based country singer-songwriter, whose real name is Christopher Anthony Lunsford, went wildly viral with the instant Number One hit “Rich Men North of Richmond,” a raw, solo-acoustic, undeniably catchy track that combined righteous populist complaints about inflation and taxes with nasty swipes at welfare recipients. (He later clarified that he didn’t intend to attack the poor.)
As Rolling Stone pointed out early on, his initial rise was buoyed by heavy, curiously simultaneous support from conservative politicians and media figures.
As Rolling Stone pointed out early on, his initial rise was buoyed by heavy, curiously simultaneous support from conservative politicians and media figures.
- 8/25/2023
- by Brian Hiatt
- Rollingstone.com
Travis Scott’s Utopia has only been out for two and a half weeks, but it’s already spawned numerous strands of discourse, from the apparent debt its production owes to various scrapped Kanye West songs to the debate over whether its lyrics should have more extensively addressed Scott’s reaction to the fatal crowd crush at his 2021 Astroworld Festival.
But the overwhelming reaction from critics, including Rolling Stone‘s own Andre Gee, was that the album’s biggest weakness is Scott himself, who continues to seem like he’s...
But the overwhelming reaction from critics, including Rolling Stone‘s own Andre Gee, was that the album’s biggest weakness is Scott himself, who continues to seem like he’s...
- 8/16/2023
- by Brian Hiatt
- Rollingstone.com
If you really want to understand where Jason Aldean’s “Try That in a Small Town” comes from, you have to go all the way back to Richard Nixon — and before that, George Wallace. Wallace, a former Alabama governor and segregationist independent candidate for president in 1968, got significant support from the country world, even holding fundraisers at Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium. After defeating Wallace that fall, Nixon saw the right-wing potential of country music, and invited Johnny Cash to the White House a couple of years later for a concert,...
- 8/7/2023
- by Brian Hiatt
- Rollingstone.com
The late Sinéad O’Connor was “one of the most incredible women of modern times,” Garbage frontwoman Shirley Manson says in the new episode of Rolling Stone Music Now, praising her as a “monster musician” who was a major influence on her own work — and on the entire Nineties. “Up until that point, aside from Madonna, there were no really outspoken women in music, because you couldn’t afford to be outspoken,” adds Manson. “You would get squashed. And Sinéad kind of heralded in this amazing decade of rebellion.”
In the episode,...
In the episode,...
- 7/31/2023
- by Brian Hiatt
- Rollingstone.com
“At the end of the day, we all do what we’ve learned,” hit-making DJ/producer David Guetta says on the new episode of the Rolling Stone Music Now podcast. “The difference is that AI is gonna be able to learn everything. So of course AI is gonna win at the end because you’ll be able to say to say, ‘I wanna make, a soul record. And AI will have all the soul chord progressions in history, with the exact percentage of the ones that have been the most successful,...
- 7/21/2023
- by Brian Hiatt
- Rollingstone.com
Producer/engineer Glyn Johns recorded the whole of the Let It Be sessions for the Beatles in 1969, and mixed a raw version of the album that wouldn’t be released for another 52 years — so he’s far from a fan of the Phil Spector-embellished album that came out in 1970. “He did a terrible job,” Johns says on the new episode of Rolling Stone Music Now. “Don’t misunderstand me — I respect Phil Spector for his early work tremendously. But somebody like Phil Spector shouldn’t ever be allowed near a band like the Beatles,...
- 7/11/2023
- by Brian Hiatt
- Rollingstone.com
When a “fan” threw a phone at Bebe Rexha onstage last month, it was just one of many bizarre and unsettling recent instances of misbehavior at shows. Concertgoers have pelted GloRilla with bottles, invaded Ava Max’s stage, and forced Pink to become part of a stranger’s grieving process by apparently tossing the ashes of a dead relative onstage. But those incidents are just the most visible signs of a depressing trend: Particularly since the pandemic, people seem to have completely forgotten how to behave at shows.
In the...
In the...
- 7/2/2023
- by Brian Hiatt
- Rollingstone.com
There’s been so much good music in the first half of this year so far that Rolling Stone included no fewer than 85 albums in our recent best-of list. In the latest episode of the Rolling Stone Music Now podcast, we spotlight some of the most notable albums, from Paramore to Davido to Amanda Shires.
Mankaprr Conteh and Maura Johnston join host Brian Hiatt for the discussion. To hear the whole episode, go here to find the podcast provider of your choice, listen on Apple Podcasts or Spotify, or just press play below.
Mankaprr Conteh and Maura Johnston join host Brian Hiatt for the discussion. To hear the whole episode, go here to find the podcast provider of your choice, listen on Apple Podcasts or Spotify, or just press play below.
- 6/30/2023
- by Brian Hiatt
- Rollingstone.com
If you have not seen Andy Muschietti’s superhero extravaganza The Flash, starring Ezra Miller as the time-stopping/time-hopping superhero, you might want to stop reading now because we’re about to spoil one of its major cameos.
Toward the end of the film, Barry Allen/The Flash uses Speed Force to travel back in time, giving us a glimpse of numerous DC multiverses. In one, we’re treated to Superman, played by Nicolas Cage, squaring off against a giant spider. This Cage-as-Superman sequence is a nod to...
Toward the end of the film, Barry Allen/The Flash uses Speed Force to travel back in time, giving us a glimpse of numerous DC multiverses. In one, we’re treated to Superman, played by Nicolas Cage, squaring off against a giant spider. This Cage-as-Superman sequence is a nod to...
- 6/20/2023
- by Marlow Stern
- Rollingstone.com
When 20,000 people start showing up outside Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour stadium shows, it should become clear that something unique is happening. Streaming numbers make it clear as well: Seventeen years into Swift’s career, she’s managed to hit a new height of popularity. Call it Taylormania.
In the new episode of Rolling Stone Music Now, Brittany Spanos and Rob Sheffield join host Brian Hiatt to discuss how Swift re-conquered the world after the 2019 release of Lover. (To hear the whole episode, go here to the podcast provider of your choice,...
In the new episode of Rolling Stone Music Now, Brittany Spanos and Rob Sheffield join host Brian Hiatt to discuss how Swift re-conquered the world after the 2019 release of Lover. (To hear the whole episode, go here to the podcast provider of your choice,...
- 6/19/2023
- by Brian Hiatt
- Rollingstone.com
Ask Noel Gallagher how the material from his excellent new album, Council Skies, is going over live so far on his U.S. tour with Garbage, and you’ll get an answer only he would dare to give: “Terrible,” he says, blaming crowds who haven’t absorbed the album yet (like all of his post-Oasis work, it’s credited to Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds). “I’m starting off with five new ones. People should have bought the fucking album, then, shouldn’t they? So they’re gonna...
- 6/11/2023
- by Brian Hiatt
- Rollingstone.com
Tina Turner died today at age 83, and the new episode of our Rolling Stone Music Now podcast tells the story of her one-of-a-kind musical journey. Rob Sheffield and Brittany Spanos join host Brian Hiatt for the discussion, which delves into HBO’s acclaimed 2021 documentary Tina (which reveals the lasting trauma inflicted by her late ex-husband Ike Turner’s abuse) and her two autobiographies.
The episode explores the remarkable story of her ’80s comeback, while also making the case for Turner as a rock artist, a label she’s also long chosen for herself,...
The episode explores the remarkable story of her ’80s comeback, while also making the case for Turner as a rock artist, a label she’s also long chosen for herself,...
- 5/24/2023
- by Brian Hiatt
- Rollingstone.com
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