This week, we here at NPR celebrated the 50th anniversary of our first on-air original broadcast — a little show you may have heard of called All Things Considered. As an organization, we’ve spent the past few weeks reflecting on our origins and what the world was like during those earliest broadcasts back in 1971.
In the five decades since, the journalistic landscape has changed in countless ways, but through it all, member stations have played a critical role in the vitality of NPR. In that spirit, we asked member stations from across the country to reflect on the impeccable sounds of our genesis year and compiled their picks for a top-notch playlist. From Aretha Franklin’s “Rock Steady” to Marvin Gaye’s “What’s Going On” to Joni Mitchell’s “A Case Of You,” our best-loved tracks of 1971 represent a country at a moment of unrest – not unlike the very best sounds of today. You can stream the playlist with all our station picks on Spotify or Apple Music, and if you’ve hit the magic milestone of 50, we invite you to share what you’ve learned in your half century!
Hear every voice,
Marissa Lorusso and Lyndsey McKenna |
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| - On this week’s All Songs Considered New Music Friday roundup, hear selections from a new posthumous release from Nigerian drummer Tony Allen, the full-length debut of Essex singer Dodie Clark and conceptual albums from guitarist Daniel Bachman and jazz saxophonist James Brandon Lewis.
- Music genre names can sometimes feel a little silly – think shoegaze or jangle pop. But there is something happening in post-Brexit United Kingdom and Ireland, explains critic Matthew Perpetua, and the leading lights of this post-punk, post-rock genre with no name – including Squid, Dry Cleaning and Black Country, New Road – have released some of the year’s most thrilling debuts.
- “Sometimes an album comes along that's so good, you just can't stop listening to it and talking about it.” That’s how our colleague Tom Huizenga described his favorite album of April; hear that, and more of our favorites, on All Songs Considered this week.
- From NPR Live Sessions: Amy Helm’s forthcoming album What The Flood Leaves Behind was recorded at her late father Levon Helm’s studio in Woodstock, N.Y. Watch her perform “Breathing” with Zach Djanikian at his studio in this KXT On The Couch session.
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- If you think regional Mexican music is just the sound of your grandparents, tune in to this week’s episode of Alt.Latino, which features a deep dive into the recent resurgence of these styles on the charts and streaming. Your abuela may be the hippest member of your familia after all.
- Music critic Ed Ward died this week in his home in Austin, Texas, at the age of 72. Ward spent time writing and editing reviews for a young Rolling Stone and later became both a broadcast critic and historian, publishing two volumes on the beginnings of rock.
- The new Peacock series Girls5eva follows the members of a fictional late-'90s girl group as they attempt to stage a comeback and rekindle the magic of their heyday. At first, the show relies too heavily on old tropes, writes Pop Culture Happy Hour’s Aisha Harris – but it “blossoms into something beyond a blatant tool for nostalgia.”
- Recovered from a career-threatening injury, guitarist Miloš Karadaglic has his sights set on two goals: finding the next great classical guitar concerto, and erasing the taboo of injuries among musicians.
- This week, Amplify With Lara Downes features a conversation with poet Carl Hancock Rux about imagining change and being bold enough to give voice to your vision.
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At first, it might seem like Negativland's sound collage would be an unlikely candidate for a Tiny Desk concert. But honestly, the band is a perfect candidate: How many other groups can you name who have been making music since the late 1970s while sitting pretty much at their desks?
Also this week: Argentine duo Cande y Paulo performs captivating covers of songs by Leonard Cohen, Feist and more; and, British jazz drummer and producer Moses Boyd and his (physically distanced) band perform a (home) concert from the Church Studios in North London. |
| This week, we announced that the Tiny Desk Contest – our annual search for the next great undiscovered artist to invite to perform at the Tiny Desk – is back for 2021! Entries open on Tuesday, May 11. If you want to hear more from our previous winners and get a chance to ask questions about entering, tune in to Tiny Desk Contest Family Hour. |
| Got summer travel plans? Head to Boothbay, Maine, to get a glimpse of some oversized recycled art trolls. |
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