(Photo by Raven B. Varona) Raven B. Varona/Courtesy of Epic Records hide caption
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Music Features
Super-producer Edgar Barrera on turning old-school genres into pop hits
Janelle Monáe gives a commencement speech at Loyola Marymount University's 2024 Graduate ceremony. JC Olivera/Getty Images hide caption
Advice for graduates: Listeners share songs, lessons from high school
The retro-pop artist Cindy Lee doesn't sit for interviews, use social media and rejects the streaming era's demands on independent artists. Photo by Meaghan Garvey/Illustration by Jackie Lay/NPR hide caption
A new album by pianist Inna Faliks features world premiere recordings of works by five composers. Rosalind Wong/Inna Faliks hide caption
Pianist Inna Faliks traces musical odyssey from Soviet Ukraine via Faustian fantasy
Gunna performs during the event "A Grammy Salute to 50 Years of Hip-Hop" on Nov. 08, 2023, at YouTube Theater in Inglewood, Calif. Frazer Harrison/Getty Images for The Recording Academy hide caption
'I Saw the TV Glow' dives deep into the pop cultural obsession of two outcast suburban teenagers, with a curated soundtrack that matches their malaise. Photo by A24/Illustration by Jackie Lay/NPR hide caption
Ukrainian composer Valentin Silvestrov fled his hometown of Kyiv for Berlin in early 2022. Dmitri Matveyev/Naxos hide caption
After a whirlwind rise, Dallas singer 4batz has released his debut mixtape, u made me a st4r. Courtesy of the artist hide caption
Speranza Scappucci conducts singers on stage and the orchestra in the pit for the Washington National Opera's production of Turandot. Keren Carrión/NPR hide caption
One of opera's greatest hits gets a new and happy ending in Washington
Kendrick Lamar performs during the Rolling Loud hip-hop festival in Rotterdam, Netherlands, in 2023 and Drake performs during Day 2 of Lollapalooza Chile 2023. Last week, the two rappers' long-running feud exploded in a flurry of diss tracks. Jesse Wensing/ANP/AFP and Marcelo Hernandez/Getty Images hide caption
Mystery manifests on Pratt's albums as the texture of dreams. But Here in the Pitch, her best album, feels completely lucid. Samuel Hess hide caption
A crowd of White House press looks on as Kanye West and then-President Donald Trump meet in the Oval Office on Oct. 11, 2018. Ron Sachs/Consolidated News Pictures/Getty Images hide caption
Cookie in the Kitchen's cookie collection riffing on Taylor Swift's relationship with football player Travis Kelce. Cookie in the Kitchen hide caption
On G Perico's new album, G Slim's Revenge, a certain rap archetype that has faded since its '90s ubiquity appears to be alive and well. Estevan Oriol/Courtesy of the artist hide caption
American actress and singer Liza Minnelli with her mother, American actress and singer Judy Garland, backstage at the Alvin Theatre in New York City in 1965. Express/Getty Images hide caption
The anonymous producer Ghostwriter, seen here in February at a Grammy party at the Waldorf Astoria Beverly Hills, created a stir in 2023 with the single "Heart on My Sleeve," which used deepfake technology to recreate the voices and styles of Drake and The Weeknd without either artist's involvement or permission. JC Olivera/Getty Images hide caption
AI music isn't going away. Here are 4 big questions about what's next
Writer T.S. Eliot takes a reflective puff at a cigarette before starting work. Keystone Features/Getty Images hide caption
To help the group feel like a band, Will Butler had them open for him in Brooklyn. Julieta Cervantes/Stereophonic hide caption
On Taylor Swift's 11th album, The Tortured Poets Department, her artistry is tangled up in the details of her private life and her deployment of celebrity. But Swift's lack of concern about whether these songs speak to and for anyone but herself is audible throughout the album. Beth Garrabrant /Courtesy of the artist hide caption