Music

Susan Alcorn, an experimental composer and musician who pushed the pedal steel guitar, an instrument more often associated with the country music roadhouse, into the avant-garde, died on Friday in Baltimore. She...

Kendrick Lamar performs like someone parceling out a secret. On the 2015 single “King Kunta,” he stage-whispers, “I swore I wouldn’t tell,” and then proceeds to flaunt industry gossip without naming names....

Paul Plishka, an American singer acclaimed for his sonorous, liquid bass tones and near-perfect diction during a career at the Metropolitan Opera that spanned a half-century, died on Monday in Wilmington, N.C....

▶ Listen on Spotify, Apple Music or YouTube4. “Sister Morphine”Though most people associate this song with the Rolling Stones since it appears on their 1971 classic “Sticky Fingers,” most of the lyrics...

In the golden vastness of St. Mark’s Basilica after night had fallen, the voices seemed to hover in an endless haze. It was the closing concert of the Venice Music Biennale in...

The Super Bowl halftime show was at a low point in 2019. Despite an unrivaled television audience, Rihanna turned down the National Football League’s invitation to perform, keeping solidarity with Colin Kaepernick,...

Rachelle Ferrell reaches beyond what singing intended. In 1995, Blue Note released her debut album, “First Instrument,” and it was appropriately named, calling attention to the voice as an inseparable figure in...

Gene Barge, one of the last surviving saxophonists of the golden age of R&B, whose career ran the gamut of 20th-century Black popular music, died on Sunday at his home in Chicago....

Subscribe to Popcast!Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Amazon MusicAs Grammy nights go, this year’s ceremony was a pleasant surprise. Beyoncé took home the top album prize, ending a decades-long shutout. Kendrick Lamar...

Kendrick Lamar’s smash “Not Like Us” has been a lot of things since its release less than a year ago: a Drake-slaying diss track, a No. 1 single, a West Coast unity...