Music Features

For anyone growing up in the 1970s or Eighties, the ensemble funk of Kool & the Gang — whose co-founder and chief songwriter Ronald “Khalis” Bell died on Wednesday at age 68 — was irresistible and inescapable. The group released a platinum- or gold-certified album every year between 1979 and …

Last year’s release of The Lion King and Aladdin reboots brought on a wave of disappointment and criticism — a collective realization that Disney‘s strategy of releasing live-action versions of classic animated movies was a creatively bankrupt cash-grab. In Los Angeles, this sentiment spurred Salem Ilese, Bendik Møller, and Jason …

It took two years of phone calls and confusing negotiations to get myself invited to visit Toots Hibbert at his fortress-like pink stucco compound in the Red Hills section of Kingston, Jamaica. When I finally arrived, he wasn’t home. No one around seemed to know the whereabouts of the world’s …

This story was originally published in a Fleetwood Mac special collector’s edition in May 2017. One night in the summer of 1967, a new band with no name and an unsettled lineup entered Decca Records’ London studios to make a demo tape. This was not an official booking. Producer Mike …

He knew the right people, worked with the right collaborators, and looked and dressed better than many in his circle. But as even his friends acknowledged, timing was never one of David Blue’s strong suits — and if anyone needed a reminder, it arrived at his funeral. For much of …

This decade may not be that similar to the Sixties, but the eras are now intersecting in at least one clearcut way. In the aftermath of George Floyd’s death, the marches, demonstrations, arrests and violent pushback from police are reminiscent of that moment over 50 years ago when civil rights …

For almost two weeks now, a debate around the term “urban” has roiled the music industry. Some believe it’s a barely veiled synonym for black that actually ends up harming and limiting the black artists and executives it’s supposed to protect. Others argue the term is a part of an …

Cable Ties address misogyny, racism, gender issues, and climate change on their new album, Far Enough, but they’re under no illusions that a loud, noisy rock band by itself is likely to save the world. “Sometimes I think playing in a band is the most egotistical, selfish thing you can …

Cal Wayne’s words come fast, toppling over one another. “I ain’t gon’ lie it’s devastating,” the Houston rapper says. “I idolized him.” Then Cal describes the morning he received a text from a friend that changed his life, about an event that would lead to millions of Americans taking to …

The first time you hear Treats is a shock to the system. From that initial pow-pow airhorn on “Tell ‘Em,” the 2010 debut from indie duo Sleigh Bells is a cause for concern — so abrasive in its mix of heavy-metal guitars, trap hi-hats, punk sneer, and pop enthusiasm that, …