It’s brutal out there, and that’s why, more than ever, we needed the consoling and prodding pleasures of popular music to help everything make sense in here. [Stage direction: taps chest, knowingly.] ...

However culture-shifting history proves Beyoncé’s new album, Cowboy Carter, to be, it’s not unprecedented. For generations, artists have blurred the supposed lines between country music, R&B, soul, ...

Documentaries brought us closer to musicians this year, and it wasn’t always pretty. By Jon Pareles The pandemic, it seems, sent certain enterprising music lovers into editing rooms. For those still ...