In 1990, there was no star bigger than the man born Robert Van Winkle. But just as quickly as he became the bestselling rapper the world had ever seen, he became a pariah.

The Puerto Rican reggaetonero has come to dominate global pop on his own terms.

On Glenn Gould.

A profile of the singer.

A visit to the Christian rock Cross-Over Festival in Lake of the Ozarks, Missouri.

Wendy Carlos’s music of the spheres.

A profile of Mariah Carey.

I don’t want my part to get skipped over, but I still don’t know how to write directly about what went down between me and M. All I can do is worry a detail like an R&B singer worries a line.

From 1968-1973, the three teenage Wiggin sisters, guided by a domineering father, played their strange music at New Hampshire ballrooms and recorded a single album. The Philosophy of the World LP goes for over $500 today, but the intervening decades have not been kind to the Wiggins.

A look at Chicago’s DJ culture in the ’90s.

One day in 1997, Sneak promised his friend and fellow Chicago DJ Derrick Carter a new 12-inch for Carter's label Classic, then spent hours fruitlessly laboring over a basic, bustling four-four beat. Finally, Sneak gave in and smoked the J he'd had stashed for later in the day. When he came back inside, he carelessly dropped the needle onto a Teddy Pendergrass LP, heard the word "Well . . . ," and realized, "That's the sample, right there." He threaded Pendergrass's 20-year-old disco hit "You Can't Hide From Yourself" through a low-pass filter to give it the effect of going in and out of aural focus, creating one of the definitive Chicago house singles.

An interview with the singer.

Four years ago, Dominique Jones got out of prison and learned to rap. Today he is, by many metrics, the most popular rapper in the world.

A profile of the rapper and activist.

The producer behind nearly everything Drake does and the multiple sclerosis that has claimed significant portions of his brain.

How does a Latin-pop superstar spend lockdown? Hanging out with his girlfriend, watching ‘Toy Story’ and surprising the world.

A profile of Little Richard in the last years of his life, confined to a wheelchair and living in the penthouse suite at the Hilton in downtown Nashville.

One man’s quest to save the music of the Holocaust.

Three nights with 311 in the waning moments of free American life.

A singer keeps getting close to stardom. And then something falls apart.

The life of Fountains of Wayne’s Adam Schlesinger, who died from COVID at age 52.

National economies collapse; species go extinct; political movements rise and fizzle. But—somehow, for some reason—Weird Al keeps rocking.

A profile of Bill Withers at 76.

She tore up a picture of the pope. Then her life came apart. These days, she just wants to make music.

For years, the elusive singer-songwriter has been working, at home, on an album with a strikingly raw and percussive sound. But is she prepared to release it into the world?

Three days in the creative wilderness with Francis Farewell Starlite, the reclusive muse to Kanye West, Bon Iver and Drake.