Ann Powers
Ann Powers is NPR Music's critic and correspondent. She writes for NPR's music news blog, The Record, and she can be heard on NPR's newsmagazines and music programs.
One of the nation's most notable music critics, Powers has been writing for The Record, NPR's blog about finding, making, buying, sharing and talking about music, since April 2011.
Powers served as chief pop music critic at the Los Angeles Times from 2006 until she joined NPR. Prior to the Los Angeles Times, she was senior critic at Blender and senior curator at Experience Music Project. From 1997 to 2001 Powers was a pop critic at The New York Times and before that worked as a senior editor at the Village Voice. Powers began her career working as an editor and columnist at San Francisco Weekly.
Her writing extends beyond blogs, magazines and newspapers. Powers co-wrote Tori Amos: Piece By Piece, with Amos, which was published in 2005. In 1999, Power's book Weird Like Us: My Bohemian America was published. She was the editor, with Evelyn McDonnell, of the 1995 book Rock She Wrote: Women Write About Rock, Rap, and Pop and the editor of Best Music Writing 2010.
After earning a Bachelor of Arts degree in creative writing from San Francisco State University, Powers went on to receive a Master of Arts degree in English from the University of California.
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Russell and her talented band embody healing community; watch a performance of songs from her astounding, unclassifiable album Outside Child.
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The era-defining star's seventh album sparks a conversation about the infinite possibilities of dance music, the difference between fun and pleasure and why disco is always political.
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The iconic singer-songwriter performed her first public full-length show anywhere since 2000, with a little help from Brandi Carlile.
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After Friday's Supreme Court decision, artists from around the world spent the following days sharing their reactions and plans for the immediate future.
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NPR Music staffers convene to offer up the Kate Bush tracks we think deserve a powerful, paradigm-shifting sync in a television show or movie.
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Buffy Sainte-Marie has always been a wandering soul with a fierce sense of direction. Watch her and her touring band perform four songs from across her long, innovative career.
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The Brazilian singer Flora Purim helped create the sound of jazz fusion. Now, as she releases what she says will be her final album, it's time to give her artistic legacy its due.
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Greg Tate's death left an immeasurable hole in the universe of cultural criticism. Vernon Reid, Matana Roberts, Jared Michael Nickerson and Christina Wheeler pay tribute to his music as Burnt Sugar.
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Wet Leg, the year's breakout indie rock band, just released a debut album full of loopy, addictive songs that are as fun to talk about as they are to listen to.
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The show, despite a delay caused by the pandemic and brief moments of seriousness, was mostly a highly professional, relentlessly energetic showcase for the pleasure of live music. Plus a few awards.