On Taylor Swift's 11th album, The Tortured Poets Department, her artistry is tangled up in the details of her private life and her deployment of celebrity. But Swift's lack of concern about whether these songs speak to and for anyone but herself is audible throughout the album.
Beth Garrabrant /Courtesy of the artist
hide caption
Metro Boomin and Future perform during 2023 MTV Video Music Awards. The producer and rapper have linked for two sprawling new albums this year, released weeks apart.
Theo Wargo/Getty Images for MTV
hide caption
Beyoncé's Cowboy Carter has ignited discourse about the place of Black musicians in country music. But it's also evidence of its creator's desire to break genre walls by following her most eccentric impulses.
Mason Poole/Courtesy of the artist
hide caption
Cellist Maya Beiser has reimagined Terry Riley's pioneering work In C, which helped launch the style of music called minimalism.
Boyang Hu/Courtesy of the artist
hide caption
MGK (Machine Gun Kelly) and Trippie Redd at the March 21 listening party for their collaborative EP, genre : sadboy, at Harriet's Rooftop in West Hollywood.
Christopher Polk/Billboard via Getty Images
hide caption
Inside Long Island's UBS Arena on Feb. 9, Ye commands the crowd at a massive listening event for Vultures 1. His new collab with Ty Dolla $ign is now a No. 1. album.
Jason Martinez/Courtesy of the artist
hide caption
Howard's vocal malleability allows her to access a whole spectrum of contradictory emotions and gender expressions.
Medios y Media/Getty Images
hide caption
On Doja Cat's fourth album, Scarlet, she delights in playing the "demon" her haters and fans accuse her of being.
Illustration by Jackie Lay
hide caption
Before (left to right) Justin Vernon, Joe Westerlund, Phil Cook and Brad Cook started Bon Iver and Megafaun, they made music together as DeYarmond Edison.
D.L. Anderson/Courtesy of the artist
hide caption
Sundial is against sitting idle, and calls not just to hear its own voice, but to enter into conversation in the griot tradition of call and response.
Emma McIntyre/Getty Images
hide caption
Wayne Shorter performs during the Marciac Jazz festival in southern France in 2005. Two recent tribute projects each aim to capture the wandering spirit of the late saxophonist.
Lionel Bonaventure/AFP via Getty Images
hide caption