Illustration for NPR by Jackie Lay
Social media can make a song go viral — even push it up the pop charts — seemingly overnight. Perhaps it's not surprising that some influencers are being paid to promote music without disclosing it.
Tyler's biggest hit is a perfect encapsulation of what made her a star in the 1980s: An epic power ballad surging with emotion, delivered in a voice that sounded like it might tear the singer apart.
No discussion of the midyear pop charts would be complete without a breakdown of contenders for the honorific "song of the summer."
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On jagged new albums and festival stages, rising pop artists are learning there may be no escape from the influencer economy. -
New albums by Lizzo and the rising artist Imani Imani are both "event" records — but one arrives with arguably too much backstory, the other with almost none. -
From SZA and Kendrick Lamar, to MJ Lenderman and Waxahatchee, there's been an uptick in recent years of prominent artists joining forces for a co-headlining tour. -
Ditching the punchy pop punk of Guts to play with a soft '80s pop and New Wave-indebted sound, her new LP is about the life cycle of her first "real, big girl" relationship. The result is bittersweet. -
This week, the biggest chart news revolves around Harry Styles all the time. Other artists, occasionally.
