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AP / Chris Pizzello The Classic Queer Paradox of Tyler, the Creator
On Flower Boy the rapper suggests he’s not straight—and struggles with a stigma he helped propagate.
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John Shearer / Invision / AP Remembering Chester Bennington
The Linkin Park singer, dead at 41, may have been the purest voice of angst on the radio this millennium.
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The Atlantic How Jon Batiste Made 'Battle Hymn' Bittersweet
The jazz musician talks about putting the “pain and struggle” of American history into the patriotic classic published by The Atlantic in 1862.
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Mario Anzuoni / Reuters R. Kelly's Alleged Sex 'Cult' and the Shield of Fame
A chilling BuzzFeed report says the R&B star has at least six women living under his near-total control.
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Helen Sloan / HBO Game of Thrones Gears Up for the Wars Still to Come
Three Atlantic staffers discuss “Dragonstone,” the first episode of the seventh season.
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Grant Pollard / AP The Familiar Novelty of Haim's New Album
Something to Tell You cheerfully broadens, but doesn’t deepen, the retro, bustling sound that made the California trio famous.
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Kemosabe Records Kesha's Comeback Message: Love Your Enemy
Her new ballad announces she’s moving on after alleging abuse by her producer—but it is also, inevitably, tied to that producer.
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Mario Anzuoni / Reuters The Summer of Cornball Superproducers
New albums from DJ Khaled and Calvin Harris represent the industrial consolidation of hitmaking—and suggest that kitsch is in.
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AP / Gerald Herbert Jay-Z's Pitch for Generational Wealth
His new album 4:44 has a confessional thread, but it pushes a deeper message about commerce and racial progress.
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Wilson Webb / TriStar Pictures Baby Driver Is a Tribute to the Magic of the Earbud
Edgar Wright’s car-chase caper explores the wonders—and the dangers—of everyone having their own soundtrack.
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Logo TV Sasha Velour and Drag's Permanent Revolution
The latest winner of RuPaul’s Drag Race is a politically engaged oddball—which is, in its way, pretty traditional.
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Amy Harris / AP What Jeff Tweedy Has Been Trying to Say
The acoustic album Together at Last spotlights the Wilco singer’s knack for communicating about communication.
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Amy Harris / AP Vince Staples, Enemy of Groupthink
The talented young rapper overhauls his sound on Big Fish Theory to criticize both the rap world and racism.
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XL Recordings The Underrated Humor of Radiohead's OK Computer
The band’s masterpiece of 20 years ago communicated panic with a strangely charming smirk.
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Michele K. Short / AMC Better Call Saul Finally, Tragically, Ignites Change
The dark ending to Season 3 may force transformation on Jimmy.
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Chris Pizzello / AP Lorde Is Older but Somehow Less Jaded
With Melodrama, the singer who once attacked convention takes on familiar pop themes—but keeps her fresh musical sensibility.
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Miles Donovan; HBO The Dizzying, Surreal Journey of ‘The Leftovers’
A pioneer among recent surreal shows, HBO’s series brilliantly balanced the ordinary and the bizarre.
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Lucy Nicholson / Reuters Will Online Democracy Fix the Grammys?
New rules changes may lead more young Recording Academy members to vote—and shift trends in the winners.
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Pierre Godot / AP Bob Dylan Cheats Again?
His Nobel lecture may have lifted from SparkNotes—possibly the latest of his artistic thefts, and one of the most fascinating.
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YouTube Katy Perry’s Panopticon of Fun and Tears
On camera for 96 hours, the pop star takes reality TV’s uncanny appeal to a hypnotic extreme.
