Jazz’s Historical Agenda as Protest Music in the Stellar ‘Brassroots Democracy’
The excellent Brassroots Democracy details the beautiful and bleak ways that jazz music created the soundtrack of an emancipatory movement that lasts to this day.
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The 24 Best Video Games of 2024
PopMatters’ 24 Best Video Games of 2024 highlight achievements in game design and the risks creators take to lure gamers into the magic circle.
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The 20 Best Americana Albums of 2024
Americana has never been better with the quality of music, diversity of styles, and the artists’ demographics in terms of race, gender, and wealth.
Featured: Top of Home Page/Features/Lists/Music/Music Features/PopMatters Picks/The Best Music of 2024
The 10 Best Folk Albums of 2024
The year’s best folk albums transcend genre boundaries, yet each entry remains firmly grounded in the folk ethos of connection and storytelling.
How Shinedown went from Drugs and Angst to Inspirational Advocacy
Hard rock band Shinedown are never quiet about their struggles and never will be as they assure fans that being “slightly awkward, kinda weird” is perfectly normal.
‘Deadpool & Wolverine’ and the Death of Hollywood Franchises
Hollywood franchise films may not have started as theme parks, but the drive to eliminate risk will quickly turn them into the very thing their detractors fear.
Opa’s ‘Goldenwings’ Is a South American Jazz Fusion Classic
Opa’s Goldenwings is an influential Uruguayan jazz album that somehow got lost in the shuffle but is gloriously brought back to life with love and care.
STS9 Lift Up California with Transcendent Shows
STS9 conjure pure mana for the soul with their wizardly sonic alchemy. The livetronica tone scientists continue to play at a very high level.
Chatuye’s ‘Ahmuti’ Adds to a Garifuna Cultural Archive
The Chatuye archives offer a broader understanding of how Garifuna artists have sounded their identity in community with one another.
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The 10 Best Global Music Albums of 2024
In 2024’s best global music, celebrations of culture abound, with performers playing with sounds of home and family from the Caribbean to Tanzania and beyond.
Michael Kiwanuka Records Another Meaningful Record
Michael Kiwanuka’s most striking quality remains his voice, which has the power to evoke deep feelings, as his idols did for another generation.
Arthur Russell’s Underground Genius
Arthur Russell biography Travels Over Feeling is an elegy for a generation of underground artists that died too soon and a requiem for a vanished New York.