Pop Music

Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix Critics' Picks: The genius of Phoenix

Winsome, accessible pop songs from a band so cool they're willing to be ridiculous
By Stephanie Zacharek Jul 23, 2009

  • The King is dead

    From death photos to celebrity sound bites, the three-ring circus of mourning Michael Jackson has just begun
    By Heather Havrilesky June 26, 2009

  • Let's get Michael Jackson to tour the U.S.!

    We can't afford to go to London to see the creator of "Thriller." How can we persuade him to tour here?
    By Cary Tennis June 5, 2009

  • Lily Allen doesn't want to grow up

    On her gleeful new album, the British pop star defends her right to have good sex and be just a girl -- in the best possible way.
    By Stephanie Zacharek February 26, 2009

  • David Brooks takes on pop music

    And its "emotionally self-sufficient and unforgiving" heroines.
    By Tracy Clark-Flory July 11, 2007

  • Song of the Day: "Tonight I Have to Leave It," Shout Out Louds

    Up there with Volvos and tennis players as Sweden's best exports.
    June 21, 2007

  • Music makes you have sex and be sexist

    The question we keep on asking: What is music doing to kids today?
    By Rebecca Traister August 8, 2006

  • Meet the Beatles (again)

    At the 25th anniversary of John Lennon's death, a handful of writers attempt to tell us something we don't already know about the Fab Four.
    By David Amsden November 8, 2005

  • Soul man

    In a vast new biography, Peter Guralnick takes on the late, great, silky-smooth crooner Sam Cooke.
    By Charles Taylor October 27, 2005

  • Love is red, death is blue

    Greil Marcus and Sean Wilentz discuss their amazing new anthology of writing about the American ballad -- and wonder whether Republicans sing better songs of passion and murder than Democrats do.
    By Charles Taylor November 17, 2004

  • He is trying to break our hearts

    With a new album out and an intriguing new biography spinning the tale of his tormented career, Wilco's Jeff Tweedy looks like the leading American rocker of his generation. Which may tell you something about the state of American rock.
    By Eric Boehlert June 29, 2004

  • Music 2003: Rock is dead (once more with feeling)

    Forget those boring white boys with guitars. Thanks to Missy, OutKast and Timbaland, for the first time since the Beatles, the most vital forms of pop are found at the top of the charts.
    By Thomas Bartlett January 2, 2004

  • Songs of the flesh

    As Tori Amos' new greatest-hits collection demonstrates, the ultimate tortured '90s alt-girl has always used her solipsistic body-obsessions as a way to find the world.
    By Laura Sinagra December 22, 2003

  • A pop princess, unspoiled

    Alicia Keys beats the odds, avoiding a Lauryn Hill flameout (or a Britney travesty) with the simple and joyous retro-soul of her new album.
    By Baz Dreisinger December 9, 2003

  • Burning down the house

    A definitive new box set will proclaim the eclectic greatness of Talking Heads when the ugliness between David Byrne and Tina Weymouth has long been forgotten.
    By David Bowman December 3, 2003

  • Dirty white girl

    On "In the Zone," Britney Spears gets in touch with her inner perv for fun and profit. But mostly, of course, for profit.
    By Shannon Zimmerman December 2, 2003

  • Not quite the end of the world as we know it

    R.E.M.'s new career retrospective reminds you of the extraordinary cultural moment the band forged in the '80s -- and leaves you hungry for more.
    By Shannon Zimmerman November 25, 2003

  • Soul survivor

    Al Green has never matched the nuanced, whispered restraint of his early-'70s classics. But a long-awaited reunion album with producer Willie Mitchell reminds us of his greatness.
    By Thomas Bartlett November 17, 2003

  • Don't try to take him to a disco

    In a new greatest-hits time capsule, Michigan's monumentally unhip Bob Seger stays true to his vision of a now-extinct America -- and makes you nostalgic for nostalgia.
    By Andrew Beaujon November 11, 2003

  • The soccer mom's sex symbol

    It's encouraging that Sting seems to have chugged a Red Bull-Viagra smoothie on some tracks of his new "Sacred Love" LP, but his didactic, smugly penitent music still seems designed to be played by an adulterer returning to Westchester in his Jag.
    By Laura Sinagra October 16, 2003

  • All this useless beauty

    Thanks to the pristine, prettified and precious new album "North," a longtime Elvis Costello die-hard finally dies. Hard.
    By Shannon Zimmerman October 11, 2003

  • Will the real Feminem please stand up

    Is Sarai the music industry's eagerly awaited lady Slim Shady?
    By Baz Dreisinger September 20, 2003

  • All hail the ice queen

    As Bjork releases an extraordinary career retrospective, it's time to crown her as the most important pop musician of her generation.
    By Thomas Bartlett September 6, 2003

  • A love song to bastard pop

    In the bizarre and wonderful world of mash-ups, bootlegs and remixes, racial and musical boundaries disappear -- and the joy that's missing from so much of today's pop is back.
    By Charles Taylor August 9, 2003

  • Dylan in darkest America

    In "Masked and Anonymous," this summer's strange and brilliant must-see film, an aging troubadour is the last gleam of hope in a corrupt and dictatorial nation.
    By Stephanie Zacharek July 24, 2003
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