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PBS / Elliott Landy / The Image Works Why Woodstock Can Never Happen Again
A new documentary explores the original organizers’ ingenuity and naïveté, revealing the exact reason the concert is unreproducible.
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Mario Anzuoni / Reuters Chance the Rapper Wants You to Get Married
The Big Day, the artist’s latest album, doesn’t just describe his happily-ever-after life: It evangelizes it.
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Vivien Killilea / Getty Drake’s Troubling Reunion With Chris Brown
The viral music video for “No Guidance” signals the end of a beef between the two men, even as it papers over past misbehavior.
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Andrew Burton / Reuters Why Trump Cares About A$AP Rocky’s Sweden Arrest
The rapper’s supporters see a story of racism. The president sees a story about immigration.
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Meron Menghistab The ‘African Giant’ Challenging Musical Boundaries
With a new album, a solo track on Beyoncé’s Lion King compilation, and a global fan base, Burna Boy is pushing the limits imposed on artists from the continent.
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Joel C Ryan / AP Beyoncé Remixed the Meaning of The Lion King
The Gift, a companion album for the rebooted Disney film, sees the superstar connecting to “something way bigger.” What is it?
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Michael Putland / Getty The Moon Landing Inspired Pink Floyd’s Most Overlooked Song
A bluesy, atmospheric piece that the band improvised live on the air during the Apollo 11 mission deserves to be more than a footnote of musical history.
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Disney The Blind Spot of Beyoncé’s Lion King Soundtrack
The singer’s musical accompaniment for the new CGI remake neglects to include any artists from the region that inspired the film—a curious lapse in narrative fidelity.
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Ethan Miller / Getty / Thanh Do / … I Wasn’t a Fan of BTS. And Then I Was.
The Korean pop superstars’ devoted following and chart-topping success have won them comparisons to the Beatles. Why was I surprised to get swept up in their magic?
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Fabrizio Bensch / Reuters The Puzzling Ubiquity of Ed Sheeran
The strummer’s No. 6 Collaborations Project reveals the blend of sentimentality, humblebragging, and hip-hop swiping that has powered his success.
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Keith Bedford / Reuters The Murky Ethics of Posthumous Music
With a new version of “Higher Love,” the EDM star Kygo reworks a 1990 Whitney Houston vocal into a pool-party jam both of its time and out of it.
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Jeenah Moon / Reuters The Paradox of Madonna’s Gun-Control Music Video
A graphic depiction of violence has served mostly to offend survivors of such violence.
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Steve Marcus / Reuters The Shocking Falling-Out Between Taylor Swift and a Longtime Ally
The artist’s open letter about the sale of her former record label portrays a business matter as a story of bullying and virtue—and others involved have used similarly moralizing rhetoric.
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Darius Khondji / Netflix Thom Yorke’s Beautiful New Nightmare
The subconscious is an overdone subject, but the Radiohead singer’s sleep-focused solo album, Anima, is packed with fresh, freaky ideas.
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Universal Pictures If the Beatles Had Been One Man
In the fantastical Yesterday, the only person in the world who remembers the Fab Four takes the band’s music as his own. How the film reimagines an iconic oeuvre through a single voice.
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Ronald Dick Hot Chip Hones the Meaning of ‘Ecstasy’
The great dance band’s seventh album, A Bath Full of Ecstasy, delivers pleasure while questioning it.
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Merge Records Political Punk Rock That Protests Its Own Singer
Titus Andronicus’s An Obelisk roars against society, but the front man Patrick Stickles explains that it also represents a journey of self-understanding.
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Universal Media Group The Queasy Double Message of Taylor Swift’s ‘You Need to Calm Down’
The singer’s pro-gay single strangely compares her struggles with fame to more dangerous kinds of persecution.
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Jonathan Bachman / Reuters Dr. John’s Reverent Subversion of New Orleans Cliché
The pianist, singer, and songwriter—who died Thursday, at 77—straddled camp and tradition, authenticity and commercialism.
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Netflix Black Mirror’s Miley Cyrus Episode Isn’t That Far-Fetched
“Rachel, Jack and Ashley Too” simplifies thorny questions about fandom and taste with a familiar story of rebellion.
