Music

When a “fan” threw a phone at Bebe Rexha onstage last month, it was just one of many bizarre and unsettling recent instances of misbehavior at concerts. Concertgoers have pelted GloRilla with bottles, invaded Ava Max’s stage, and forced Pink to become part of a stranger’s grieving process by apparently tossing the ashes of a dead relative onstage. But those incidents are just the most visible sign of a depressing trend: Particularly since the pandemic, people seem to have completely forgotten how to behave at shows. In the new episode...

Thirty-two years ago today, on July 2, 1991, Trisha Yearwood released her self-titled debut album.Trisha Yearwood's debut single, "She's in Love With the Boy," shot straight to No. 1, making Yearwood the first female country artist to have a debut single reach the top of the country charts. Her second single, "Like We Never Had a Broken Heart," which was a duet with her now-husband, Garth Brooks, landed in the Top 5.Trisha Yearwood debut album coverMCA Nashvilleloading...It was fitting that Brooks sang on Yearwood's freshman record, since she sang background vocals on his...

From its sweet-ass health care system to its foxy nepo-baby prime minister to its absolutely banging national anthem, Canada has always had it going on. Sure, this hellish summer-wildfire shit has kind of been an unexpected plot twist — but no country is perfect, right?  Canada has about a tenth the population of the United States, which only makes its outsize impact on the history of music that much more incredible (excellent arts-education funding, eh?). The stats here are astounding. Three of the five or so greatest songwriters who ever...

Country music is made for tapping your toes to, no matter what kind of dance song you're looking for. From throwbacks to modern-day earworms, the genre has always provided plenty of material for dance soundtracks, and we've got the 50 best country dance songs to prove it.The 1990s were a fertile era for country dance music, as evidenced by iconic party tunes including Tracy Byrd's "Watermelon Crawl," Shania Twain's "Man! I Feel Like a Woman" and Garth Brooks' "Ain't Goin' Down ('Til the Sun Comes Up.)" But those obvious choices are...

It’s a wish-you-had-gills type of humid September day in Nashville, but Lucinda Williams is comfortably out of the soup, sitting at the kitchen table of Ray Kennedy’s Room & Board Studio telling tales about life on the road to a gang of touring lifers including Tommy Stinson and Jesse Malin. They’re rare, behind-the-curtain anecdotes, many of which she shares in her superb memoir, Don’t Tell Anybody the Secrets I Told You. But in person, hearing them delivered in Williams’ syrupy Southern drawl, they’re especially captivating. Soon, though, Williams’ husband and...

Since the release of his debut single "Chillin' It" in 2014, Cole Swindell has consistently sent songs to the top of the country charts.The Georgia native got his start as a songwriter, penning tracks for Luke Bryan, Florida Georgia Line, Craig Campbell and more. Even though he had established himself as one of country music's most in-demand songwriters, Swindell was ready to launch a solo career of his own.Since the release of "Chillin' It," the 40-year-old talent has taken eight additional tracks to No. 1 on country radio. He's dropped...

Friday Special The megastar continued her tradition of performing songs that aren't on her set list Taylor Swift gifted Swifties gathered for night one of the Eras Tour in Cincinnati on Friday with two surprise songs. The artist performed “Evermore and “I’m Only Me When I’m With You,” continuing her tradition of surprising crowds each night of the tour with songs that aren’t listed on her set list. “Evermore,” the title track to Swift’s ninth studio album, originally features a duet with Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon. On Friday, the Folklore singer...

Jelly Roll is a long-haired country boy no more! The budding artist documented the momentous occasion on social media with a fun video, in which he walks us through the process.Even his wife, Bunnie, helped shave off a few curls.The video opens with Jelly Roll getting ready for the big moment, and he jokingly asks if his wife will miss his hair. He's shared before that she is not a fan of his luscious locks, and even calls her "hair hater No. 1" in his post."Bro, me and about 5,000 other women," she says...

What must the inside of Tainy’s head be like? In there, past the archive of memories — all the awards and reggaeton hits since he began producing as a precocious 14-year-old kid in Puerto Rico — it’s easy to picture an infinite library of unlikely influences: a tangle of obscure anime films, cyborg fantasies, old-school hip hop beats, fine arts books, random nights in Tokyo. And then even deeper, where the synapses form, there seems to be a bottomless abyss that Tainy constantly pulls from, turning abstractions into refined experiments that...

On June 30, 1993, Kenny Chesney signed his first record deal, with the newly opened country division of Capricorn Records. The musician had moved to Nashville after graduating from East Tennessee State University, and managed to land a songwriting deal with publisher Acuff-Rose in 1992.In a 2007 interview with HitQuarters, Chesney's longtime publisher, Troy Tomlinson, recalled that his friend, a BMI employee named Clay Bradley, initially met (and was impressed by) the then-aspiring artist."Clay called me up and said, 'I met this kid today from East Tennessee. He's a good singer,...

There’s been so much good music in the first half of this year so far that Rolling Stone included no fewer than 85 albums in our recent best-of list. In the latest episode of the Rolling Stone Music Now podcast, we spotlight some of the most notable albums, from Paramore to Davido to Amanda Shires. Mankaprr Conteh and Maura Johnston join host Brian Hiatt for the discussion. To hear the whole episode, go here to find the podcast provider of your choice, listen on Apple Podcasts or Spotify, or just...

Kelly Clarkson may be starting a new chapter post-divorce from Brandon Blackstock, but she hasn't cut ties with former stepmother-in-law, Reba McEntire.During the June 27 episode of Watch What Happens Live With Andy Cohen, Clarkson confirmed that the split hadn't changed the personal dynamic between the two artists."Not at all," she insists. "We were friends before even got together. As a matter of fact, we were talking before she signed up to The Voice, we were texting each other about that and we text each other all the time."Clarkson filed for divorce from Blackstock in 2020...

Fasten your seatbelts, Charli XCX is at the wheel. On Thursday, the British star released her single “Speed Drive” from the Barbie soundtrack, and it’s exactly what you’d expect from the pop queen who forever changed gay clubs with “Vroom Vroom.” On “Speed Drive,” Charli flips Toni Basil’s “Mickey” for the chorus, to “feel quite bratty” and “about just being hot,” she recently told Rolling Stone. “Uh, uh, Barbie, you’re so fine, you’re so fine you blow my mind/Jump into the driver’s seat and put it into speed drive,” she...

Lauren Alaina is headed to ABC's The Bachelorette for a special performance. In an episode airing next month, the singer will perform for this season's bachelorette, Charity Lawson, during an intimate one-on-one date.Alaina's performance will find her debuting a brand-new, unreleased song. She's currently in the midst of a busy season of new music, fresh off the release of her six-song Unlocked EP, which marks her first project on Big Loud Records. The singer has also said she'll follow up Unlocked with a larger body of work later in the...