Every story needs a hero or heroine and this week’s Nashville has two of the latter in Scarlett and Maddie, who act as voices of reason in otherwise chaotic situations, one much more life-threatening than the other. Deacon is invited to perform for a group of college students and his …

Spotify’s RapCaviar and ¡Viva Latino! playlists, already some of the most powerful spheres of influence in the music industry, are now also looking to be some of the most lucrative. The music-streaming service announced tour dates this week for “¡Viva Latino! Live,” a concert series featuring popular Latin music artists …

As Occupy protests spread in the fall of 2011, rattling elites and offering a brief, tantalizing vision of grassroots uprising, the most uncompromising and confrontational arm of the would-be revolution was in Oakland. At its center was Boots Riley, the longtime radical activist and frontman of the hip-hop group the …

Kendrick Lamar, Questlove, Chuck D and Melissa Etheridge are among the record-setting 928 members invited to join the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the organization that oversees the Oscars. Other new members from the music world include Prince & The Revolution’s Lisa Coleman and Wendy Melvoin, Sufjan Stevens, …

Boston indie-pop act Wet drafted former Vampire Weekend member Rostam Batmanglij to produce their jovial new song “You’re Not Wrong.” The multi-instrumentalist adds a classic soul flair with his stomping, staccato piano chords and stuttering, funky drum groove. Singer-writer Kelly Zutrau croons softly over a shifting arrangement that weaves in …

The affiliations that led to Kamasi Washington becoming the most talked-about jazz musician in recent memory can obscure what his music actually sounds like. Sure, he played on Kendrick’s Lamar’s To Pimp a Butterfly and put out his breakthrough triple LP, 2015’s The Epic, on Flying Lotus’ Brainfeeder label, but …

Sitting in a hotel lobby in downtown Los Angeles, David Macklovitch and Patrick Gemayel look exactly as you’d expect from the musicians better known as Dave 1 and P-Thugg from the funk duo Chromeo: Macklovitch in chunky black glasses, a leather jacket and skinny jeans, and Gemayel draped in Cuban-link …

The day before LeAnn Rimes releases her Re-Imagined EP, a collection putting unique new spins on some of her best-known songs, the country-pop powerhouse unleashes another surprise track from the collection. And this one comes with a bona fide rock superstar attached. Stevie Nicks, whose work as a solo artist …

My Morning Jacket frontman Jim Jamesannounced a career-spanning acoustic tour while hitting the road in support of his upcoming solo album Uniform Distortion. On the 14-date trek, which kicks off November 2nd at Los Angeles’ Cathedral Sanctuary, James and longtime touring drummer David Givan will plumb James’ entire catalog, from …

British singer Cher Lloyd strives for a new start on “4U,” a song she’s featured in by Swedish producer Joakim Molitor. The track starts with a swoon, as Lloyd softly croons about leaving old insecurities and demons behind: “Ending is near, just wait a few years/ I will repair, I …