Music Features

Randy Rhoads‘ masterful guitar solos and unique approach to heavy-metal riffing, which drew more influence from Bach than Black Sabbath, made him an instant guitar legend with the release of “Blizzard of Ozz,”Ozzy Osbourne‘s 1980 solo debut. Rhoads had spent the previous couple of years struggling in an early lineup …

Olivia Rodrigo could have been designed in a laboratory as the perfect teen pop star — except the best part is how gloriously, messily, authentically human she is. She’s a whole new pop-queen paradigm, ripping up the old playbook and starting again. She seemingly blew in out of nowhere to …

The DJ-producer Rich Medina serves up a mellow call-to-arms for dancers in “This Thing,” a collaboration with Jimpster that zips and flutters like a brisk summer breeze. Jimpster excels in this zone: His 2018 remix of Peter Matson’s “Roma Norte” achieved a similar blend of propulsive and soothing, with intricate …

As soon as Moneybagg Yo’s latest song opens with a four-count, you know it’s a Neptunes-produced track. The duo of Pharrell and Chad Hugo have a storied list of past collaborations, ranging from Britney Spears to SZA, and the way their sound merges with the Memphis rapper’s on “Certified Neptunes,” …

Super Junior, a forerunner in the saturated K-pop market, started as a group more than 15 years ago and has managed to stay relevant and productive. With 13 members at their start, they were one of the trailblazers for the kinds of supergroups that dominate K-pop today. When they began, …

Rubén Blades, the singer-songwriter behind some of the greatest salsa of all time, attempts a bold merger on his latest album, Salswing!, moving between the strutting, brassy sheen of swing and the driving, blasting, hyperkinetic salsa that made him a legend. In the liner notes accompanying the album, which Blades …

Andrew Sandoval manages the Monkees, but that’s just one of many roles he occupies in the group’s vast universe. He’s also the guy who oversees their album reissues, spearheads their new albums, produces their tours, and picks out the songs they play every night out on the road. If that’s …

When the British Invasion arrived in America in the mid-1960s, the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, and other bands introduced songs like “Little Red Rooster” and “Road Runner” to American teenagers who assumed they were originals. In fact, those bands’ catalogs were full of American R&B and blues classics from years …

Haviah Mighty’s “Obeah” explores the spirituality of that Caribbean practice — describing the bad energy one might catch from a jealous friend. A true storyteller, Mighty introduces the listener to a cast of characters over the course of the song: the omnipotent narrator warning the protagonist of the ire of …

Fleetwood Mac‘s The Dance gets all the (well-deserved) attention for being Fleetwood Mac’s best live album. But the band’s first live release, 1980’s Fleetwood Mac Live, is overdue for some rightful acclaim of its own. Ahead of an upcoming deluxe reissue, let the band’s live take on “Rhiannon” show you …