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With strong albums from veterans Alex G, Japanese Breakfast, and Car Seat Headrest, and killer debuts from newcomers like Lifeguard, 2025 has been packed with great indie rock. In the latest episode of our Rolling Stone Music Now podcast, we look back at the year in indie so far, with Simon Vozick-Levinson joining host Brian Hiatt for the discussion. (To hear the whole episode, go here for the podcast provider of your choice, listen on Apple Podcasts or Spotify, or just press play below.)

Alex G technically just departed the world...

In between standing on business in paparazzi clashes and dodging endless rumors about his personal life, it turns out Justin Bieber was busy in the studio, making a genuinely interesting album. Swag is full of well-chosen collaborators — Gunna, Sexyy Red, Cash Cobain, Lil B, Dijon — confessional lyrics, and even surprisingly self-aware skits recorded with Druski.

In the new episode of our Rolling Stone Music Now podcast, we break down the last few years of Bieber’s life and career, with Jeff Ihaza (who wrote a smart piece on Bieber’s...

Sabrina Carpenter is as good as any current pop star at cultivating controversy and attention — the latest evidence was the now-subsided furor over her absurd Man’s Best Friend album cover, which seems to take cues from Spinal Tap’s Smell the Glove. “She’s leaning into it and laughing about it at the same time,” says Angie Martoccio, who profiled Carpenter for her recent Rolling Stone cover story — which revealed that image aside, the singer’s true obsession is music.

“I wasn’t aware that she was a full-on music nerd,...

There was an odd symmetry to the near-simultaneous deaths of Sly Stone and Brian Wilson at age 82 last week. “Both of them poets of summer,” Rob Sheffield says in the new episode of Rolling Stone Music Now. “Both chroniclers of the American dream in California. Both from pretty much the same era. Both of them also started out very young as musical prodigies, who figured out early that they needed to be in charge of their music.”

As a Bay Area DJ, Sly Stone slipped Bob Dylan and the Beatles into R&b playlists,...

Long before Gary Clark Jr. jammed with Eric Clapton, the Rolling Stones, and Foo Fighters, and headlined festivals all across the globe, he was an unknown, unsigned blues guitarist in his hometown of Austin, Texas, desperate to make a name for himself. On Sept. 24, 2004, when he was just 20, Clark found himself onstage at Antone’s Nightclub playing the blues standard “Catfish Blues” on a bill that also included Double Trouble, James Cotton, and Jimmie Vaughan.

A tape of his blazing performance from that night has been tucked away for the past 21 years,...

Swedish pop star Zara Larsson’s next album, Midnight Sun, due Sept. 26, will include the confessional track “Ambition,” which she describes as her most honest song — complete with lyrics about comparing herself to other performers as she stares at her phone late at night. “That’s the thing with ambition,” she sings. “Everything’s a competition.”

“ When you’re super-ambitious, I think that’s the blessing and the curse,” she says in the new episode of Rolling Stone Music Now. “You can have so many amazing things happening to you,...

To get her music back, first Taylor Swift had to re-record it. After a consortium led by Scooter Braun bought the rights to the masters for her first six albums in 2019, much to Swift’s displeasure, she hatched a simple, if wildly labor-intensive plan: Make new Taylor’s Versions of her catalog available, and then ask her massive fanbase to stream them instead of the originals.

No one had ever tried anything like it before, but fans complied by the millions. The strategy worked exactly as intended, devaluing the masters...

“The America I love, the America I’ve written about, that has been a beacon of hope and liberty for 250 years, is currently in the hands of a corrupt, incompetent, and treasonous administration,” Bruce Springsteen declared from a Manchester, U.K. stage May 14. At the kick-off show of his newly rechristened Land of Hope and Dreams Tour with the E Street Band, Springsteen framed his criticism of Donald Trump in patriotism: “The America that I’ve sung to you about for 50 years is real, and regardless of its faults, is...

The odds were stacked high against Adam David. In The Voice’s Season 27 Semifinals, he had to sing for the Wildcard Instant Save — not a great omen moving into the Top 5. But Team Michael Bublé’s Mvp just kept doing what he does — performing with as much feeling as consistency — and gave his coach a second consecutive win. (Read the recap.) How does it feel? TVLine asked David exactly that and lots more.

Tvline | I can’t tell you how happy I am to be talking to you, because for the longest time watching the show, I thought, “Oh, this guy is terrific.

This year, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame will induct acts including Soundgarden, Outkast, and the White Stripes — but some huge names from the ballot didn’t make it, most notably Mariah Carey (for the third time!), Oasis, and Phish.

Carey is an undisputed pop legend; Oasis recorded some of the greatest songs of the Nineties and are about to embark on the most-anticipated reunion tour in years; Phish are, well, Phish, a band that’s created a universe of its own, playing arenas decades into their career. So what happened?...

Hardcore Wicked fans have a lot of unshakable opinions, including the widespread belief that the Wizard’s big moment in the first act, the talky “A Sentimental Man,” is the Broadway show’s single worst song. But when Jeff Goldblum stepped in as the Wizard for director Jon M. Chu’s blockbuster film version, he managed to salvage the song in fans’ eyes, playing up the character’s toxic blend of smarm and charisma. “I’ve had a lot of positive anecdotal response like that,” Goldblum says in the new...

How did Jeff Goldblum get one of the world’s biggest pop stars to sing on his new jazz album? As he explains on the new episode of Rolling Stone Music Now, Ariana Grande’s lovely take on “I Don’t Know Why (I Just Do)” on Goldblum’s Still Blooming, recorded with his band, the Mildred Snitzer Orchestra, came down to sheer proximity and an unexpected musical kinship. (To hear the whole episode, go here for the podcast provider of your choice, listen on Apple Podcasts or Spotify, or press play below.

Kirk Hammett is one of the most celebrated guitarists of all time, the architect of iconic riffs and guitar solos on Metallica classics like “Master of Puppets,” “One” and “The Unforgiven.”

Now Hammett has made the book of every guitar lover’s dreams, partnering with Gibson on The Collection series, a gorgeous, 400-page coffee table book detailing the guitarist’s enviable collection of six-strings he’s amassed over his decades-long career. Hammett worked with famed rock photographer and longtime metallica Ross Halfin for two and a half years on the project, showcasing everything from “Greeny,” his 1959 Les Paul Standard once owned by Fleetwood Mac’s Peter Green, to his 1985 Jackson Randy Rhoads Flying V.

“There’s a lot more to making a book than just slapping pictures on a page. I learned that the hard way,” Hammett says, referencing his 2012 horror memorabilia book Too Much Horror Business.

The images set his guitars against vivid,...

Chappell Roan has taken the title of “The Giver” to heart, gracing fans with album-level promo (Billboards! A secret phone number! An instantly controversial Call Her Daddy interview!) for the Shania-esque stand-alone single. In the new episode of Rolling Stone Music Now, Brittany Spanos and Rob Sheffield join host Brian Hiatt to break down Roan’s strategy, even as they try to figure out whether a new album will be out this year — and if the fan-favorite ballad “The Subway” will be her next single. Spanos points out that...

Metallica’s members are all in their 60s, and their music is way more physically demanding than anything their classic-rock forebears have had to tackle onstage — but lead guitarist Kirk Hammett tells our Rolling Stone Music Now podcast that he doesn’t see retirement on the horizon.

“As long as we have our health and our mind, I think we can just keep on going,” says Hammett, whose new coffee-table book, The Collection: Kirk Hammett, dives into his world-class arsenal of vintage guitars. “Sometimes I forget how old I am,...

The Black Keys have announced a summer US leg of their 2025 “No Rain, No Flowers Tour.”

Kicking off on August 9th in New Jersey, the new set of dates also features stops in Atlantic City, Boston, Toronto, Chicago, Milwaukee, Minneapolis, and more. Gary Clark Jr. and The Heavy Heavy will rotate as supporting acts. See The Black Keys’ full touring schedule below.

An artist pre-sale begins on Tuesday, March 18th (sign up here) at 12:00 p.m. local time, with a Live Nation pre-sale launching on Wednesday, March 19th (use access code Funky) at 10:00 a.m. local time. General on-sale tickets will then be available on Friday, March 21st at 10:00 a.m. local time via Ticketmaster.

The summer tour follows The Black Keys’ previously announced dates in the US and UK/Europe, kicking off in May. Look for deals and sold-out tickets for those shows here.

The Black...

How does a truly terrible song end up an otherwise flawless album? Blame ego-appeasing band-politics concessions, drug-fueled studio experiments, songwriters working through a few too many personal demons, and artists who just ran out of songwriting steam a little too soon. Or maybe it all comes down to bad judgment.

In any case, Rolling Stone‘s Andy Greene recently found 50 examples of classic albums with at least one bad song, and he goes through his entire list with host Brian Hiatt on the new episode of Rolling Stone Music Now.

Milwaukee music festival Summerfest has revealed its 2025 lineup, which boasts collaborative headlining performances from Hozier with Gigi Perez and Megan Thee Stallion with Flo Milli. The Killers will also headline the three-weekend event, where additional appearances will be made by Benson Boone, Lainey Wilson with Lukas Nelson, Japanese Breakfast, Jack’s Mannequin, Offset, Porter Robinson, and more.

Weekend one of Summerfest will be held from June 19 through 21. The festival returns for weekends two and three from June 26 through 28 and July 3 through 5. The final night of the event will also feature...

Kendrick Lamar’s halftime performance at Sunday’s Super Bowl was the most-watched in history, with more than 133 million people tuning in — and it also may have been the most uncompromising. In a slot that every previous artist has reserved mostly for greatest hits, Lamar only played bits of two older songs, focusing instead on his excellent new album, Gnx, and his Drake-eviscerating smash, “Not Like Us.”

On the latest episode of Rolling Stone Music Now, Brittany Spanos and Rob Sheffield join host Brian Hiatt to break down the...

Now that the box-office success of A Complete Unknown has achieved the seemingly impossible feat of turning at least a few Gen-z viewers into Bob Dylan stans, Hollywood’s biopic wave is about to turn into a tsunami. Next up is the Bruce Springsteen movie Deliver Me From Nowhere, starring Jeremy Allen White, and four separate Beatles movies from director Sam Mendes. (To hear the whole episode, go here for the podcast provider of your choice, listen on Apple Podcasts or Spotify, or just press play below).

In the new...

Marcus J. Moore, author of 2020’s The Butterfly Effect: How Kendrick Lamar Ignited the Soul of Black America, initially assumed it was too late to follow it with a book about one of his favorite hip-hop groups of all time, De La Soul. “My first thought was, ‘Oh, well, clearly I can’t do that, because there’s already been a book written,'” he says on the new episode of Rolling Stone Music Now. “And then much to my surprise, there wasn’t one.” (To hear the whole episode,...

Radiohead have had a spy in their midst for years. As his excellent new book, How to Disappear: A Portrait of Radiohead, reveals, bassist Colin Greenwood has been snapping candid, lovely photographs of his bandmates since the early 2000s — in the studio, in dressing rooms, and even, somehow, onstage during the middle of their concerts.

In the new episode of Rolling Stone Music Now, Greenwood — who just finished a tour playing bass with Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds — talks about his book, looks back at highlights of his years in the band,...

Chappell Roan and Olivia Rodrigo, two of the biggest and most interesting pop artists of the past half decade, have a not-so-secret weapon in common: producer and co-writer Daniel Nigro, formerly the frontman of the ’00s band As Tall As Lions. Nigro, who just scored a Grammy nomination for Producer of the Year, helped Roan and Rodrigo step off the pop assembly line and sidestep trends, building uncommonly sturdy catalogs of precisely crafted, oft rock-inflected hits.

In the new episode of our Rolling Stone Music Now podcast, Nigro shares studio...

On Saturday 17 November 2024, BBC Two broadcasts Later … with Jools Holland!

Season 65 Episode 5 Episode Summary

The upcoming episode of “Later … with Jools Holland” promises an exciting night of music. Jools Holland, the charming host, will welcome talented artists to the stage. This episode features the renowned Texan guitarist and singer Gary Clark Jr. He will perform a couple of tracks from his latest album, Jpeg Raw. Fans of Clark can expect his signature blend of rock, blues, and soul, showcasing his impressive guitar skills and powerful voice.

In addition to Gary Clark Jr., the Manchester band Courteeners will also take the spotlight. They are set to perform two songs, including the title track from their latest album, Pink Cactus Cafe. Courteeners are known for their catchy melodies and engaging performances, and their appearance will surely add to the excitement of the show.

This episode of “Later … with Jools Holland” is a must-watch for music lovers.

Some lessons need to be learned over and over again. When Bob Dylan and the Beatles broke through in the Sixties, they paved the way for generations of artists to write their own songs. But by the early 2000s, the charts had been largely reclaimed by pro songwriters and svengali producers — until a young, putatively country artist named Taylor Swift came along.

As Swift rapidly moved toward pop stardom, guitar always in hand, she started an industry-wide movement toward artists — especially young women — writing about their own lives again. “When...

In the upcoming episode of “Later … with Jools Holland,” viewers can look forward to an exciting night of music. This is Season 65, Episode 5, and it promises to showcase some incredible talent. The episode is set to air at 12:20 Am on Saturday, November 17, 2024, on BBC Two.

Jools Holland will welcome Gary Clark Jr., a talented guitarist and singer from Texas. Known for his soulful sound and powerful performances, Clark will treat the audience to a couple of tracks from his latest album, Jpeg Raw. His unique blend of blues, rock, and soul is sure to captivate fans and newcomers alike.

Additionally, the Manchester band Courteeners will take the stage. They will perform two songs, including the title track from their latest album, Pink Cactus Cafe. With their energetic style and catchy melodies, Courteeners are bound to deliver an unforgettable performance. This episode is shaping up to be a must-watch for music lovers,...

Decades never start quite on time, pop-culturally speaking, and it’s tempting to say that the Sixties didn’t really kick off until the Beatles played The Ed Sullivan Show in 1964, just as “Smells Like Teen Spirt” started the Nineties in 1991. But as David Browne’s new book, Talkin’ Greenwich Village: The Heady Rise and Slow Fall of America’s Bohemian Music Capital, suggests, the Sixties’ spirit really began in Greenwich Village, not Liverpool — and the music that really got it going was written by Bob Dylan. In June of 1963, Peter,...

The rock field at the Grammys has given us some of the show’s most memorable winners, whether they’re critically acclaimed industry faves like Boygenius, Brandi Carlile and Fiona Apple, or big commercial powerhouses like Imagine Dragons and Foo Fighters. This year’s lineup is quite competitive, with multiple previous winners and nominees vying for noms alongside breakthrough critics picks. With last year’s victories for Paramore and Boygenius, it looked like the voters were starting to skew younger and fall more in line with critics. Will that stay the same this year?

There are three alternative contenders that you can count on popping up in the Best Rock Performance and/or Best Rock Song categories. First is Brittany Howard, who has won Best Rock Song twice, and could be gunning for a third win with her hit “What Now,” which topped triple A radio. Howard is a field favorite,...

Peter Shapiro, the concert promoter who organized the Grateful Dead’s 50th anniversary Fare Thee Well shows, spoke to Rolling Stone following the death of the band’s bassist, Phil Lesh.

In recent years, Lesh staged annual birthday concerts for himself at the Shapiro-owned Capitol Theatre venue in Port Chester, New York. Lesh’s five shows at the venue this March, marking his 84th birthday, were among his final live performances before his death on Oct. 25.

In a tribute given to Rolling Stone, Shapiro reminisced about meeting Lesh more than 20 years ago,...

Despite numerous Grammy nominations in the country field, and a Best Country Duo/Group Performance win with Kacey Musgraves for “I Remember Everything,” Zach Bryan says he doesn’t want to be defined as a country music artist.

In an exclusive Rolling Stone interview between Bryan and Bruce Springsteen, the Great American Bar Scene songwriter and the New Jersey working-class hero talked at length about how country music has affected their work. Springsteen cited Hank Williams and Johnny Cash as influences, while Bryan praised Jason Isbell and went on to...

Maggie Rogers has returned to Austin City Limits. After making her debut on the landmark program in 2019, the artist is back, this time sharing the hour with Gracie Abrams. Watch an exclusive clip of Rogers performing “Don’t Forget Me” from her upcoming episode below.

Backed by a five-piece band, Rogers delivered an energetic version of the 2024 track that appeared on her album of the same name. The set closer followed live stagings of four other cuts from Rogers’ discography: “So Sick of Dreaming,” “The Kill,” “Love You for a Long Time,” and “Anywhere with You.”

Get Maggie Rogers Tickets Here

Acl airs weekly on PBS stations nationwide, and the full episode spotlighting Rogers and Abrams will be available to stream online immediately following the initial broadcast on Saturday, October 12th at 8:00 p.m. Et.

Season 50 kicked off in late September with Kacey Musgraves’ latest appearance on the live music series,...

“This world is bullshit,” Chappell Roan recently said, during an extended TikTok rant. “You shouldn’t model your life on what we think is cool and what we’re wearing and what we’re saying and everything. Go with yourself.” All right, fine, that was actually what Fiona Apple said on the VMAs in 1997 — and at the time, Apple’s dissatisfaction with fame briefly threatened to become the essence of her brand, overshadowing the brilliance of her music. But Apple continued creating, and her songs have long since outlasted any passing controversies.

Kacey Musgraves was the featured performer on the Season 50 premiere of Austin City Limits, which aired on Saturday (September 28th) to kick off the show’s 50th anniversary celebration. Watch the full episode below or at the PBS website.

While making her third appearance on the live music series, Musgraves scattered songs from throughout her discography with tracks from her latest album, Deeper Well. With the backing of a seven-piece band, the 13-song set featured recent standouts like “Cardinal,” “Deeper Well,” and “Too Good to Be True” alongside older cuts like “Follow Your Arrow,” “Slow Burn,” and “Rainbow.”

Get Kacey Musgraves Tickets Here

Other artists that will be featured during Season 50 include Chris Stapleton, Gary Clark Jr., Maggie Rogers, Gracie Abrams, Brittany Howard, and Jelly Roll. On October 17th, Austin City Limits will also celebrate its 50th anniversary with a free concert headlined by Willie Nelson.

In early August, Musgraves released Deeper into the Well,...

On Saturday, October 5, 2024, at 11:00 Pm, PBS will air Season 50, Episode 2 of “Austin City Limits,” featuring performances by blues rock sensation Gary Clark Jr. and the Grammy-nominated Black Pumas. This special episode promises to deliver an unforgettable night of soulful music and powerful performances that showcase the raw talent of both artists.

Gary Clark Jr., known for his electrifying guitar skills and rich, bluesy sound, will perform highlights from his latest release, *Jpeg Raw*. Fans can expect a mix of gritty rock, smooth blues, and heartfelt lyrics that capture the essence of his unique style. His performance is sure to be a standout, showcasing why he remains one of the most influential artists in modern blues rock.

The Black Pumas, with their distinctive blend of soul, funk, and psychedelic rock, will present selections from their latest album, *Chronicles of a Diamond*. Known for their dynamic performances and infectious energy, the...

David Gilmour just released a new album, Luck and Strange, and he’s about to kick off his first tour since 2016 — as for any other future career plans, he’s taking it day by day. Might this be his final tour? “Well, it could be, obviously,” he tells Andy Greene in an interview featured in the new episode of our Rolling Stone Music Now podcast. Gilmour dwells on mortality on the new album, which he co-wrote with his wife, Polly Samson, and he’s all too aware that we’ve...

“I do want to put a lot of music out there,” D’Angelo told Rolling Stone in 2015, shortly after the release of his acclaimed, long-delayed third album, Black Messiah. “I feel like, in a lot of respects, that I’m just getting started.” He still has yet to release a follow-up, however, and has largely gone quiet since touring behind it. But now, D’Angelo is deep into recording his next album, according to his friend and longtime collaborator Raphael Saadiq.

“D’s in a good space,” Saadiq says on the...

When the original lineup of the legendary R&b band Tony! Toni! Toné! reunited for a tour last year, co-founder and key creative force Raphael Saadiq had high hopes of recording what would have been the band’s first new album since 1996. But now that the tour is over, Saadiq says the new album has been canceled. “We just got overzealous a little bit,” Saadiq says in the new episode of our Rolling Stone Music Now podcast. “The tour was amazing. We had a beautiful time … We’re just at...

Last year, back when the prospect of Oasis reuniting seemed about as likely as Joe Biden dropping out of the presidential race, Noel Gallagher revealed on our Rolling Stone Music Now podcast that he’d written 40 songs during Covid lockdown. Some of those tracks were included on Council Skies, his most recent album with the High Flying Birds, but that left two full albums worth. “There is an acoustic album as well, which is very, very stripped back,” he said, “and which I started recording recently before I came away...

Stevie Wonder is back with his first new song in four years, “Can We Fix Our Nation’s Broken Heart.”

The track is a tender plea for unity built around dextrous acoustic guitars and a melange of light percussion, while Wonder also laces it with piano, bass, harmonica, and more. Despite the multitudes this arrangement contains, Wonder’s voice and message remain front-and-center as he sings, “We’ve come together with purpose far bigger than you and me/Don’t have no time for hatred and negativity/It’s you and me,...

“Too twiddly didn’t really exist to us, in our minds,” guitar legend Steve Howe of Yes says in the new episode of Rolling Stone Music Now, explaining the musical mission of his band — and of prog-rock itself. “There wasn’t really such a thing. If you could play it, then it obviously isn’t too twiddly — because, hang on, you’re playing it! We wanted to sparkle, we wanted a surprise… We were taking untold risks and gambles and playing about with things.”

A new ultra-deluxe box set Yes’ 1971 classic,...

Kacey Musgraves set the bar high for the 50th anniversary season of Austin City Limits. The long-running television program will return this fall with a new slate of performances from veteran artists and newcomers alike — and Musgraves is first on the lineup. The musician’s hour-long set will premiere on PBS on Sept. 28 and includes a tender live performance of her Deeper Well single “Too Good to Be True.”

Musgraves begins the performance by commending the lively audience for their assistance on the previous song. But when she begins strumming...

Sure, making one’s late-night television debut is nice, but you really know you made it when you hear your name announced in the dulcet tones of Jeff Goldblum.

Nashville’s new guitar hero, the 18-year-old Grace Bowers, performed with her band, the Hodge Podge, on Jimmy Kimmel Live! on Monday night, roaring through a funky version of her song “Tell Me Why U Do That.” It was a fun, breezy performance — the track appears on Bowers and the Hodge Podge’s new album Wine on Venus — that helped illustrate...

Joe Walsh has recruited Eric Church, Kool & the Gang and Toto for his eighth annual VetsAid concert.

The event, where Walsh will also perform, will take place Nov. 11 at Ubs Arena in Belmont Park, New York.

VetsAid 2024 is returning to the East Coast since its 2017 debut in Northern Virginia. This year’s show serves as a homecoming for Walsh’s wife and VetsAid co-founder, Marjorie Walsh, who is a native of Rosedale, Queens, and a proud daughter of a WWII Air Force veteran and Purple Heart recipient.

“VetsAid 2024 is all about family, friends and faith,” the Kennedy Center Honor recipient and Grammy winner tells The Hollywood Reporter in a statement. “I honor my wife’s family and their legacy of service in her home borough of Queens. I honor and thank my extraordinary friends Eric Church (the Chief!), Toto and Kool & the Gang. I honor our collective faith in the...

Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter is much more than a country album — it’s actually a tour through the Black roots of American music that manages to be both thematically rich and stuffed with indelible pop songs, in multiple genres. Kendrick Lamar’s virtuosic “Not Like Us,” meanwhile, completely transcends its status as a killing blow in the Lamar-Drake battle, packing in an astonishing amount of lyrical and musical density — and it’s somehow also the year’s most entertaining, endlessly replayable track.

In the new episode of our Rolling Stone Music Now podcast,...

On the evening of Feb. 28, 1984, Prince was at home, watching Michael Jackson become the first artist to win eight Grammys in a single night, including Album of the Year for Thriller. When the broadcast was over, Prince turned to Bobby Z, his longtime friend and drummer for the Revolution, and told him, “Next year, that’s gonna be us.”

As both an album and a movie, Purple Rain was still unfinished at that point, but Prince had a good idea of what he had. The very idea of making a movie was inspired,...

There have been many one-of-a-kind historic events over the last two weeks or so, but arguably — arguably! — the most significant is the release of Katy Perry’s “Woman’s World,” her hilariously catastrophic attempt at a comeback single. Thanks to its brain-dead lyrics (“sexy, confident/ so intelligent”), AI-like chorus, and Perry’s startlingly tone-deaf choice to record a “feminist” song with the likes of Dr. Luke, the song prompted near-universal mockery, and instantly flopped.

“Woman’s World” raises many difficult-to-answer questions. Perry has said its video is meant to be satirical — but...

Some summers are just hotter and poppier than others — and summer 2024 is turning out to be a wild one, with way more than its share of pop breakthroughs. Chappell Roan and Sabrina Carpenter are conquering the world, Shaboozey hit Number One with “A Bar Song (Tipsy),” and two longer-running artists, Tinashe and Charli Xcx, are having the biggest moments of their careers.

In the new episode of Rolling Stone Music Now, we take a deep look at a summer of pop magic, with Brittany Spanos and Rob Sheffield joining host Brian Hiatt for the discussion.

Which Nineties band once dropped $32,000 to buy a dealer’s entire supply of Ecstasy at once? The answer would’ve been hard to guess at the height of their fame, but the culprits were the seemingly clean-cut dudes in Hootie and the Blowfish — who, as frontman Darius Rucker reveals in his excellent new book, Life’s Too Short: A Memoir, could out-party any band you can name. “When I’m dead, I’ll let them study my brain and tell you if I have any serotonin,” Rucker says.

Rucker looks...

As the birthplace of Texas weirdness, Austin has long been a nail that refuses to be hammered down. Despite its recent growth, unflappable Austinites like Jackie Venson know their city to be steadfast in its identity. “I just always want people to recognize the unbreakable spirit of Austin,” she says, smiling.

Singer-songwriter Jackie Venson’s version of the blues – with its R’n’B, psychedelic rock – has invigorated Austin’s music scene with its refreshingly electric sound. She became the first Black woman to be named “Best Guitarist” at the Austin Music Awards,...

Billie Eilish held nothing back in her most recent Rolling Stone cover story — and amidst her many personal revelations, she also went deep on the making of her new album, Hit Me Hard and Soft. As Finneas, her brother, producer, and co-writer told Rolling Stone‘s Angie Martoccio — in a quote that was immediately picked up everywhere — the pair intended to make an “album-ass album,” their most cohesive statement ever. The songs twist and turn as they go, sometimes moving from balladry to tranced-out dance beats along the way, and...