Music Reviews & Criticism

Gospel music evolved in often surprising directions during the post-Civil Rights era. Claudrena N. Harold's in-depth look at late-century gospel fo...

Russian music today has a firm hold around the world in the repertoire of opera houses, ballet companies, and orchestras. The music of Pyotr Tchaik...

In this generous collection of book reviews and literary essays, legendary Village Voice rock critic Robert Christgau showcases the passion that ma...

The enduring achievement and legacy of a rock movementThe Allman Brothers Band and Lynyrd Skynyrd helped usher in a new kind of southern music from...

Innovative sounds in pop, rock and soul in the 1960s and 1970s meant that music appealed to more people than ever before. While some songs appea...

Counting Down is a unique series of titles designed to select the best songs or musical works from major performance artists and composers in an ag...

With Stanley Crouchs untimely death in 2020, American literature lost a critic without peer (Ta-Nehisi Coates). Born in Los Angeles in 1945, Crouch...

Drumsville! The Evolution of the New Orleans Beat traces the history of drums and drumming in the Crescent City, exploring more than three centurie...

Whether it was Patti Smith's angry moan, Nina Simone's guttural growl, or Dolly Parton's towering hair and sweet voice, women have been a musical f...

Pinkards account... brings to light the ambition and artistry, the stress and frustration, and ultimately the joy of making this very special album...

In a bar called The Bucket of Blood, a man shoots the bartender four times in the head. In the small town of Millhaven, a teenage girl secretly and...

Selected as one of the Best Jazz Books of the Year (2021) by The New York City Jazz Record The New Yorker recently referred to Pat Metheny as possi...

The 1970s saw a wave of singer-songwriters flood the airwaves and concert halls across the United States. This book organizes the stories of approx...

After years of studying piano as a young woman in her family home in Amherst, Massachusetts, Emily Dickinson curated her music book, a common pract...

Bob Boilens book gets at something real and rare about the power of music.New York Times Book ReviewFrom the beloved host and creator of NPRs All S...