Category: Music

  • For Joan Armatrading, Classical Music Is Just Another Genre

    The pioneering singer-songwriter is unveiling her first classical composition, Symphony No. 1, this month.

  • Taylor Swift Brings Her Eras Tour to Argentina, Shaking El Monumental

    The singer-songwriter began her Eras Tour outside North America in the country, where some Swifties camped out for more than five months.

  • Review: With Premieres, an Orchestra Keeps Facing Forward

    The American Composers Orchestra, which occupies an essential place in the New York scene, presented an evening of several new works at Zankel Hall.

  • Grammy Awards 2024: Full List of Nominees

    Artists, albums and songs competing for trophies at the 66th annual ceremony are being announced on Friday. The show will take place on Feb. 4 at Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles.

  • Yuri Temirkanov, Conductor Who Celebrated Russia’s Music, Dies at 84

    Immersed in his native land’s repertoire — Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninoff, Prokofiev — he drew bold, rich sounds from the world’s major orchestras. In Russia, he was adored.

  • Pop Music Hits Finding New Listeners as Mexican Norteñas

    The EZ Band’s blend of norteña music and Top 40 hits offers some Americans a way to connect with their parents’ culture and exposes others to a new sound.

  • Music Executive L.A. Reid Is Accused of Sexual Assault in Lawsuit

    The lawsuit, filed by Drew Dixon in federal court in Manhattan under the Adult Survivors Act, says that Mr. Reid’s misconduct cut short her career in music.

  • Musician Accuses Former Grammys Head Neil Portnow of Rape

    The woman, who is not named in the lawsuit, said that she was drugged by Neil Portnow, and that the Recording Academy was negligent in investigating her complaint.

  • Desire Marea’s Genre-Melting Music Stirs South Africa, and the World

    The 32-year-old’s work in Zulu and English traverses styles and explores queer histories. This week he releases a new EP, “The Baddies of Isandlwana.”

  • Book Review: ‘My Name is Barbra,’ by Barbra Streisand

    In a chatty and candid new memoir, Barbra Streisand talks about her early determination to be famous and tallies the hurdles and helpers she met along the way.

  • “Piece of Me” by Britney Spears

    Reviewed by Ramona Prioleau

    The music video for “Piece of Me” by pop music icon Britney Spears is unlike anything else in the performer’s extensive catalogue. Released in 2008 following the single’s release the year prior, the video’s different scenes are all framed as covers of different tabloid or paparazzi magazines. The idea is that these are the very people at whom the song’s surprisingly bitter lyrics are directed towards. So as Britney dances, in different outfits and locations, the magazines keep coming, but Britney dances around them unbothered and uncaring.

    The music video has everything you’d come to expect from a Britney video, though a little bit tuned down from something like “Circus.” There are steamy, sexy moments and choreographed dance sequences, and a lot of different outfit and style changes as well. However, for the most part, the “Piece of Me” video features Britney just having a good time. She dances around—not in a certain style or with any choreography—but just to enjoy dancing. These moments are very feel-good. The whole song is about reclaiming her privacy and her brand, so she should at least have some fun doing it.

    “Piece of Me” is not a grand production, and it’s not the type of music video that one would necessarily watch over and over again. Once you’ve seen half of it you’re able to get a pretty good picture of what the video has to offer. However, there’s something special about it, something surprisingly hard to put a name to. “Not over-the-top sarcastic, but having a laugh at everything that was going on,” was how director Wayne Isham described the video in 2008.

    This perfect balance—a blending of self-awareness and dry comedy—is what makes the video so intriguing. “Piece of Me” might not be Britney’s most popular or most iconic video, far from it, but it has a feeling to it unlike anything else the artist has made. It’s more true, more joyful. It, counterintuitively maybe, is a little more innocent than anything in Britney’s collection of videos. It’s a fascinating entry for an artist with countless classics.M

    November 2023

  • Zdenek Macal, Conductor With an International Reach, Dies at 87

    Shuttling between Europe and the United States, he conducted the world’s great orchestras. He was music director of the New Jersey Symphony for 11 years.