Rachel Brodsky is a contributor to GRAMMY.com. She's worked on staff at number of recognizable media institutions, including SPIN, MTV and CBS. Her writing has also been featured in Rolling Stone, Entertainment Weekly, GQ Stereogum, The Guardian, Paste, Glamour and others. In her spare time she enjoys a good flea market, watching TV with her cats Sam and Jones, saying hi to dogs on the street, and finding new and exciting snacks to eat.
New Year's Eve is a time to celebrate, to embrace friends and family, reflect on life's big changes and perhaps set a few resolutions. All the celebration calls for the perfect New Year's Eve playlist, whether you're heading out on the town or chilling at home by the television with a glass of wine. There are plenty of New Year's…
When Shamir Bailey first showed up in music circles, he was barely out of his teens. The year was 2015, he was living in New York and interning at the "indie-major" label XL Recordings, where he'd even been signed. "I was on a fast track of being a major mainstream pop star," he tells GRAMMY.com in a phone call from his home in…
"There is a real social division, and I don't live amongst that anger so much," Thurston Moore remarks over the phone from his London home, referring to the piercing political discord that fuels the upcoming presidential election—not to mention much of 2020 itself. "I don't really believe that that is the majority of the country, let alone the world," he continues. "I think…
What's Tom Morello been up to during the pandemic? "I’ve been primarily spending my time keeping my 97-year-old mom, 89-year-old mother-in-law, wife, two young kids, a couple of dogs, and myself healthy and sane with mixed results," he tells GRAMMY.com via email. This is not exactly what the GRAMMY-winning guitarist had in mind for 2020. Morello and his Rage Against The Machine bandmates were supposed…
One of the most painful losses of the COVID-19 era has undoubtedly been the total and complete shutdown of live music—something synth-soul kingpins Future Islands, who are arguably best known for their hyper-vigorous, electrifying shows, mourn at their core. For years, since their 2006 inception, touring was practically all the Baltimore four-piece did—a cycle that only intensified after their 2014 network television debut on "The Late Show…
Shelly Peiken might not be a household name, but the songs she's written very much are. In the mid-'90s, she and alt-pop singer Meredith Brooks reclaimed one of the more cutting slurs assigned to women with their 1997 GRAMMY-nominated anthem "Bitch." A few years later, Peiken co-wrote one of Christina Aguilera's earliest pop gems, "What A Girl Wants" with producer/songwriter…
If anyone is making the most of their time in quarantine, it's Madame Gandhi. The electronic artist and activist, who has toured as a drummer for the likes of M.I.A., Thievery Corporation and even Oprah on her 2020 Vision Stadium Tour, recently released a visually stunning music video titled "Waiting For Me," not to mention an all-female remix edition of her 2019 record Visions. On…
Justin Townes Earle, Americana singer-songwriter and son of alt-country figure and GRAMMY winner Steve Earle, has died at 38. The news was confirmed via his official Instagram and Facebook accounts on Sunday night. “It is with tremendous sadness that we inform you of the passing of our son, husband, father and friend Justin,” the statement says. "So many of you…
Rita Wilson is sick of talking about being sick. As the first public figure to be diagnosed with Covid-19 back in March (along with her husband Tom Hanks), the actress, producer and singer/songwriter probably hasn't been able to escape questions about the mysterious illness, which, in 2020, exploded to pandemic levels and has more or less shut down the entire entertainment…
Like her first-ever HBO comedy special states, Yvonne Orji has made it. The Nigerian-American actress and comedian has been on the come-up for a few years now, securing her first major role—sans agent!—in 2015 playing Issa Rae's best friend Molly Carter on HBO's smash hit "Insecure," which recently wrapped its fourth season. But what many fans of the show might not realize is that Orji…
This past weekend, hundreds of protests broke out across the United States in response to the death of George Floyd, a black Minneapolis man who died at the hands of four police officers last week. In response to Floyd's death, as well as the recent deaths of Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery and "other black citizens at the hands of police," numerous…
GRAMMY-winning R&B sensation The Weeknd has postponed his After Hours Tour until 2021 due to COVID-19. The tour, originally set to begin in June 2020, had been announced last February. The trek is now slated to kick off on June 12, 2021 in Vancouver and wrap up next November in Berlin. All 2020 tickets will be honored for the 2021 tour, according to…
When we called up revered punk artist/activist Alice Bag in March, the coronavirus pandemic was only just starting to pervade an increasingly dire news cycle. The feminist punk pioneer didn’t seem overly rattled by the poor timing, though. Unlike legions of artists going into panic mode over the idea of canceled tour dates and a drowned-out album cycle, Bag—who recently released…
As the music industry continues to grapple with the fallout around live event cancelations due to COVID-19/coronavirus, musicians have, in large part, turned to live streaming as a potential salve to make up for lost exposure. Leaning on internet-based distribution is nothing new, of course; musicians and creators of all kinds have been leaning into D.I.Y. models of fan engagement and…
Last Friday, March 20, in an effort to help artists impacted by coronavirus-related concert cancelations, music discovery and streaming platform Bandcamp waived its revenue shares for 24 hours, with a number of independent record labels following suit. Now, according to a statement from Bandcamp co-founder Ethan Diamond, the streaming platform has reportedly had its biggest sales day ever, with nearly 800,000 items sold. <blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en"…
Bonnaroo 2020 has been rescheduled for Sept. 24-27 due to ongoing concerns around the coronavirus pandemic. Organizers announced today (March 18) over Twitter that the festival, which was scheduled to take place on The Farm between June 11-14 with Lizzo, Tool and Tame Impala as headliners, would be rescheduled. The event was also set to feature major performances from Miley Cyrus, bass legend BASSNECTAR, recently reunited rock…
Music festivals the world over have been canceled or postponed due to coronavirus concerns, yet Glastonbury Festival is, as of this moment, still intending to go forward with its 2020 lineup. Announcing the full lineup for its 50th anniversary, Glastonbury has revealed that Kendrick Lamar will headline, in addition to previously announced headliners Paul McCartney, Taylor Swift and Diana Ross. <blockquote…
Producer and co-founder of '90s dream-pop outfit Mazzy Star David Roback has died at 61. The cause of death has yet to be announced. Born in Los Angeles in 1958, Roback was a major player in the West Coast 1980s Paisley Underground scene and went on to play in such bands as Rain Parade (which he co-founded) and Opal, as well…
Music royalty and 24-time GRAMMY winner Beyoncé opened a memorial, held Monday, Feb. 24 at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, honoring the late basketball hero Kobe Bryant and his daughter Gianna, as well as seven other victims who died in a helicopter crash last month. "I'm here because I love Kobe and this was one of his favorite songs," She said…
When Matthew Wilder first wrote his early '80s synth-pop smash "Break My Stride," he wasn't, as the lyrics suggest, in the greatest headspace. "I was under contract to Arista Records and I had been two years deep into that relationship and things were not going my way," he tells the Recording Academy. "I was quite frustrated... And 'Stride' was a culmination of that…
