Spencer Kornhaber
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Suffo Monclao The Rising French Star Creating Subversive Synth-Pop
On her new album, Christine and the Queens makes the gender revolution hummable.
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Jim Bourg / Reuters Brett Kavanaugh, Mark Judge, and the Romanticizing of Teenage Indiscretion
An alleged witness to the rape attempt the Supreme Court nominee stands accused of has opined about rowdy-young-male behavior for years.
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Mario Anzuoni / Reuters The Much-Needed Shock of That Emmys Marriage Proposal
The director of a famously chaotic Oscars injected some surprise into an otherwise dull awards show.
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FX American Horror Story Is at the End of Its Wits
The eighth season, Apocalypse, looks to be a dull feat of recycling.
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Mario Anzuoni / Reuters The Silent Victims of the Media Baron
From the doctor’s office to the pop charts, the CBS chief Les Moonves’s desires and grudges reportedly took a variety of less obvious tolls.
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Gene Ambo / AP The Light and Dark in Mac Miller
The 26-year-old rapper had a relatable voice, adventuresome sound, and an interest in life’s hardest struggles.
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Juliette Larthe The Ecstatic Sound of Midlife Melancholy
Spiritualized’s And Nothing Hurt sees the venerated space-rock act inflate weariness into something gorgeous.
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Stephane Mahe / Reuters Asia Argento’s Confusing Call for #MeToo ‘Phase Two’
The actress has responded to allegations against her by trying to proclaim a new era of the movement to stop sexual misconduct. But a more productive evolution would decenter celebrities like her.
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Mark Makela / Reuters Eminem Makes a Vicious Strike in the War of Generations
The rapper’s surprise new album, Kamikaze, insults those who’ve leached away his buzz—but also reiterates what their appeal is.
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Charles Sykes / Invision / AP Troye Sivan’s Oh-So-Gentle Rebellion
Bloom, the second album from the aspiring pop star, puts a modest, queer twist on familiar formulas.
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Charlotte Rutherford Dr. Luke’s Queasy Two-Front Comeback Effort
As the once-ubiquitous pop producer accused of abuse by Kesha continues his court battle against her, the appealing new voice of Kim Petras sells his songs.
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Universal Pictures Cher’s Glorious Cyborgification of ABBA
When one legend of pop camp covers another, the results are preposterous—and weirdly moving.
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Lucas Jackson / Reuters Ariana Grande’s Weird Take on Love
The singer’s new album Sweetener semi-successfully upends pop’s usual approach to scale and tension.
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Lucas Jackson / Reuters Madonna’s Tone-Deaf Tribute to Aretha Franklin
At the MTV VMAs, the big memorial for the Queen of Soul came in the form of lengthy self-mythologizing by the Queen of Pop.
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Mario Anzuoni / Reuters How the Song of the Summer Is Changing
2018’s race for the song of the summer makes clear just how profoundly the center of popular music has shifted.
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Bao Ngo The Dangerous Desires in Mitski’s Songs
The indie singer’s new album, Be the Cowboy, smartly considers what happens when emotions take over.
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Gilles Petard / Redferns / Getty Remembering the Incomparable Aretha Franklin
The legendary soul singer, who died at 76, leaves behind the definitive testament to the capabilities of the human voice.
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Mario Anzuoni / Reuters Nicki Minaj Guards a Shrinking Kingdom
The rapper emphasizes her smarts and ferocity on her fourth album, Queen, but to what end?
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Anne Marie Fox / HBO ‘The Music Is All About Surviving’: Inside the Sonic World of Sharp Objects
Susan Jacobs, the music supervisor of the HBO series, explains why Led Zeppelin became the protagonist’s voice of escape.
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Andrew Stuart What Seven Dave Grohls Have to Say
The Foo Fighters frontman positions himself as the inspirer of a new generation of rockers by playing all the instruments on his new project “Play.”
