They’re empaths, peacemakers, negotiators — and an endangered species.

NPR moved this week to cut 10% of its staff and stop production of a handful of podcasts, including Invisibilia, Louder Than a Riot and Rough Translation.

Dacus's third album is an intimate collection of snapshots from her youth and teen years. Both searching and empathetic, it channels what it means to revisit the past with the wisdom of distance.

"I learned how to play guitar watching Tiny Desk concerts," lead singer Karly Hartzman says. The Asheville rock band translates its noisy, country-influenced sound to a quieter setting.

The three songwriters share a musical sensibility and a friendship, so it's only natural they combined their superpowers for a collection of aching, intimate songs.

Duster released a few space-rock records at the turn of the millennium then nearly disappeared. Then, somehow, a small, devoted group of fans from an entirely different generation found the band.

The friendship shared by Julien Baker, Phoebe Bridgers and Lucy Dacus isn't just the backdrop for their album as boygenius: It's the subject of many of these songs, built into their very structures.

For Pride Month, the drag queen and songwriter presents the antidote to a mundane makeover: a roséwave playlist, featuring Kesha, The Go-Go's and several former RuPaul's Drag Race competitors.

Rosetta Tharpe was a huge star in her era and set the template for rock and roll. So why was she absent from popular consciousness after her death — and why did it take decades to revive her legacy?

What does it take to really know a record? To overcome feeling alienated by a challenging album, it sometimes takes abandoning preconceived ideas of expertise and looking for something more personal.

The cult-beloved Philly singer-songwriter plays a handful of stripped-down songs from across his vast discography, including songs from this year's God Save The Animals.

Confessional and funny, boastful and self-deprecating, poetic and profane all at once, Mitski's songwriting captures the experience of youth in the 21st century.

El Kempner turns the force of their wiry indie rock toward collapse, yet the visceral palette of Eye on the Bat has an unexpectedly joyful quality.

Beyoncé's historic 2018 Coachella performance has been immortalized thanks to the Netflix film Homecoming. Three members of Beyoncé's Coachella marching band talk about the show's prolonged legacy.

The frontwoman of the indie-rock band Hop Along made her second appearance at the Tiny Desk, this time performing songs from her debut solo album.

On her new album, We've Been Going About This All Wrong, Van Etten turns her steady gaze towards the wreckage of the last few years and still finds a way to prioritize compassion.

Robyn songs feel like crying on the dancefloor. But Honey is, at its core, about moving towards something freer, softer, more honest.

The Asheville, N.C., band's new album blends country and shoegaze influences in a thrilling set of songs that capture youthful debauchery and local lore against a backdrop of strip malls and highways.

While members of Hop Along appear on her solo debut, Likewise is decidedly Frances Quinlan's vision. Her voice and unique, meandering melodies sit at the forefront of an inquisitive record.

Likewise comes out Jan. 31. Its first single brings empathy and courage to a nightmarish dream.

Read Marissa Larusso’s review of the album.

The Philly group has crafted a densely textured third album, shot through with restlessness and singer Frances Quinlan's acrobatic melodies.

Mackenzie Scott's fourth record, which came after a period of self-reflection and romantic pursuit, is fixated on desire. "I want people to understand that women can burn for each other," she says.

As outdated assumptions about the market for instruments come to light, some guitar-makers finally are starting to recognize that players come in all shapes, sizes and genders.

These women made some of the most significant music of the past century. They originated genres, broke political boundaries, nurtured generations of followers and in most cases, became icons.

At the Tiny Desk, the pop trio preached the importance of joyful revolution.

NPR Music's Hazel Cills and Marissa Lorusso join host Bob Boilen to share their favorite new tracks. Featured Artists And Songs: 1. Katy Kirby: "Cubic Zirconia" (Single) 2. Daneshevskaya: "Somewhere...

Read Marissa Lorusso’s review of the album.

The great songs of 2020 were as abundant as the rest of the year was a drag. Think of these 100 jams as a silver linings playlist for the worst year of our collective lives.

Our new canon is a celebration of the women and non-binary musicians shaping the sound of this century, and an attempt to interrupt the history-making process before it's calcified by the status quo.