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The pop star’s first single since 'Reputation' has almost none of the elements that once made her interesting, but it does have a dolphin screech for a chorus.

Even the highlights of last night’s ceremony couldn’t fully distract from its problems.

The writer dream hampton thinks hip-hop is broken. But she can’t stop trying to fix it.

“I thrive on a little chaos,” the queen of bubblegum pop said, describing her new album’s grit and glitter.

The colorful and joyful ceremony didn’t feel like a crisis-era bureaucratic procedure.

Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper's live rendition of the duet from 'A Star Is Born' was filmed like a movie—and made viewers feel like voyeurs.

Watching the insurrectionists, I felt outrage and horror and heartbreak. What some of them seemed to feel was boredom.

On her fascinating 10th album, the artist takes stock of the world she helped create—and, once again, conjures a new one.

The singer’s 10-minute performance of “All Too Well” was a dazzling reminder of how far she has come as an artist.

Released 10 years ago, 'Born This Way' made unity sound defiant.

“The Tortured Poets Department” excavates her private life more deeply than ever—but somehow, it’s a story we’ve heard before.

We don’t quite live in the country the show depicts. But, in an odd way, we should wish to.

Early this year, I found myself obsessed with a 21-year-old whose electronic-pop songs turn the past into something fresh.

Beyoncé and Drake are turning to house music to encourage listeners to let loose. But are we ready to submit?

Rian Johnson’s sensational "Star Wars" film recognizes that to keep an old franchise vital, you have to break its rules.

Two decades later, Radiohead’s experimental "Amnesiac" might be the band’s best record.

How the show’s characterization of the Lannister lioness flattened into spiritless villainy

The Netflix documentary 'Miss Americana' portrays a pop star facing a daunting challenge: redefining success.

Pitchfork challenged a generation of music listeners. Is there still a place for it?

A scholar of classical warfare sees real-world parallels to the Dragon Queen’s rain of fire in the penultimate episode of 'Game of Thrones.'

The acclaimed singer was once famous for mythologizing the U.S. Now his “bossy and bitchy” new album expresses discomfort with the country.

"Folklore," the singer’s surprise eighth album, gorgeously and empathetically challenges the public’s voyeurism.

Todd Field’s film spells out why creator and creation usually can’t be separated.

The secular guru has preached a gospel of individual solutions to individual problems. But when it comes to sexual abuse, as to so much else: It’s not enough. 

The musician, who co-created some of the year’s standout records, from Taylor Swift and Lana Del Rey, is always asking, "How do you cut all the bullshit out?"

The singer’s rerecording of her second album makes a statement about her past—and delivers a blow to her rivals.

And boygenius isn’t nostalgic about it.

How the classic strategy game drew me back in

The singer’s pro-gay single strangely compares her struggles with fame to more dangerous kinds of persecution.

Finally, some great anthems of Tinder thirst

Three critics try to decipher "House of Gucci"—its wild performances, its even wilder accents, and what it shows us about the state of movies.

The singer for Silver Jews and Purple Mountains brilliantly described how restlessness can curdle into isolation.

"Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives" is a mainstay of basic cable—and a rallying cry for a country that is losing touch with itself.

The latest in a line of revealing pop documentaries, "Dancing With the Devil" shares the brutal details of Demi Lovato’s drug overdose—even though sharing brings its own risks.

As pop stars time-warped back to the ’70s and most nightclubs remained closed, dance music’s tensions felt oddly relevant.

Explosive rage, statements of persecution, and an appeal to male viewers: The singer’s CBS interview about sexual-abuse allegations seemed familiar.

Robert Ford's speech in the finale delivered a cynical take on the power of storytelling.

Her dazzling halftime show didn’t explicitly address politics but still delivered big messages.

The singer and poet of the band Silver Jews, dead at 52, made a career out of strange, beautiful insights.

Kendrick Lamar, Dr. Dre, Mary J. Blige, Snoop Dogg, and Eminem put on a dazzling spectacle that also felt like a family affair.

The picture of the Recording Academy that the former head Deborah Dugan paints is of an organization encrusted by years of self-dealing and mismanagement.

Kesha opens up about being back to party-animal mode despite her ongoing struggle with the producer Dr. Luke.

An obsessive protector of rock’s past could hold the key to its future.

The smash hit from Disney’s 'Encanto' tells us a lot about how the definition of popularity is changing.

As "Keeping Up With the Kardashians" nears its 20th and final season, its family of influencers has lost the capacity to balance relatability and spectacle.

Will Mariah Carey’s battle with bipolar II disorder make people reevaluate how they’ve talked about her behavior?

How the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, a trio of Gen X rockers, made radical sincerity cool

The pop star’s first new song since a near-fatal overdose offers no comfort other than the mere fact of its existence.

The show tackled the toughest questions of existence, but its enlightenment resembled something darker.

"Folklore," the singer’s surprise eighth album, gorgeously and empathetically challenges the public’s voyeurism.

Concert catastrophes aren’t an inevitable side effect of mass gatherings, but the result of specific and often avoidable failures.

The Talking Heads mastermind's album tunefully renders the familiar as strange and new.

The Blondie singer’s memoir, 'Face It,' wryly recounts making the most of being ogled.

He understands better than almost anyone how to turn angst into a hit.

Movies like ‘Boy Erased’ and ‘Love, Simon’ show gay teens undergoing rites of passages that upend the classic ‘Breakfast Club’ script.

In a long career that included "Arrested Development,"Jessica Walter, who’s now dead at 80, showed how playing "lovably hateable" was an art form.

The ubiquitous singer/rapper’s third album, "Hollywood’s Bleeding," goes darker but not deeper.

The last installment of Disney’s "Star Wars" trilogy takes a storytelling approach diametrically opposed to what made the original series good.

Billie Eilish’s whispery goth pop is genuinely odd—but she’s benefiting from old biases concerning race and genre.

The film’s costume designer, Mitchell Travers, talks about fur, glitter, and the characters’ changing relationships with wealth.

Songs like “Running Up That Hill” stay in rotation not because of nostalgia but because they’re timeless.

The pop star wants to live on her own terms. To do that, she had to give one more brutal performance.

The pop star’s new album, '30,' is a work of dazzling ambition.

"Fine Line" is the latest major pop album to go all in on classic rock while updating—or at least repurposing—its message.

Her opulent performance for the 20th anniversary of "Titanic" saved the Billboard Music Awards.

The show has a tradition of white artists dedicating their awards to their Black peers who lost.

The fact that "The Shape of Water" was considered the “safe” choice out of the 2018 Best Picture contenders is revealing.

The band’s folk-pop experiments sound like gorgeous, nonsensical conversations on the state of the world.

On "Solar Power," Lorde surrenders to normalcy—and finds transcendence.

Lorde heads to the beach. Lana Del Rey sings of peace. Billie Eilish is happier than ever. But it doesn’t quite sound like a celebration.

The band’s fourth album, "A Deeper Understanding," offers a powerful and steady high.

An unlikely, controversial relationship didn’t seem so unlikely to a certain segment of "Force Awakens" viewers.

Understanding Netflix’s trippy masterpiece means understanding what it’s saying about mental illness and the stigma around it.

Don’t be fooled by the pastel tones and gentle sounds of "Harry’s House."

"Game of Thrones" could have taken a lesson from either crossover.

The story of dance music in America is a story of boom and backlash. As Beyoncé and Drake turn to house-inspired sounds, will the cycle happen again?

The director of a famously chaotic Oscars injected some surprise into an otherwise dull awards show.