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Megan Thee Stallion resets her terms with 'Traumazine'

Traumazine raffirms Megan Thee Stalllion's skills as one of rap's bar-for-bar heavyweights. Courtesy of the artist hide caption

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Courtesy of the artist

Megan Thee Stallion resets her terms with 'Traumazine'

August 19, 2022 • The rapper's second studio album reaches for a confessional mode, making space for ruminations and grief — while reaffirming her skills as one of rap's bar-for-bar heavyweights.

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Coup de Foudre: 30 songs for your summer crush

While she speaks, you've already made life plans. You will quit your job. You will move to Montréal. Dammit, you will learn French. Vanessa Leroy/NPR hide caption

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Vanessa Leroy/NPR

Roséwave: Coup de Foudre

Your eyes meet and you know it's too late. The French-speaking Montréalais call it un coup de foudre — love strikes like a sudden thunderstorm. She makes you a playlist of her Canadian faves.

Comic book artist Daniel Warren Johnson (Murder Falcon, Extremity) illustrates the music of Viking's Choice. Horns up! Daniel Warren Johnson hide caption

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Daniel Warren Johnson

Viking's Choice

This week: Raymond Byron's mystic folk, Crestfallen Dusk's Hill Country black metal, Iceberg's free-jazz skronk, L.O.T.I.O.N.'s digital hardcore, The Soft Pink Truth's avant-disco.

Disco Beethoven Chris Sharron hide caption

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Chris Sharron

Classical music is alive and well in America. Hear vibrant tracks from 10 contemporary composers, including Meredith Monk, Joan Tower, Carlos Simon Jerod Tate and even a string-driven take on Beyoncé's classic "Halo."

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#NowPlaying: Essential New Music Playlist

NPR Music staff and NPR Member stations share today's essential new music that makes us dance, smile and weep.

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Olivia Newton-John, a sexy nerd for the rest of us

Olivia Newton-John at a London press conference in 1978. The pop singer, actress and activist died August 8 at 73. Keystone/Hulton Archive/Getty Images hide caption

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Keystone/Hulton Archive/Getty Images

Olivia Newton-John, a sexy nerd for the rest of us

She was never just that prim prude from the start of Grease, nor the strutting vamp from its finale. Her superpower, for over 50 years, was embodying both at once.

A new label revives forgotten female composers' music

From left to right: Geneviève Laurenceau, David Kadouch, Fiona McGown and Héloïse Luzzati perform at the July 2022 edition of the music festival Un Temps pour Elles. Alexis Lardilleux/La Boîte à Pépites hide caption

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Alexis Lardilleux/La Boîte à Pépites

A new label revives forgotten female composers' music

The new record label La Boîte à Pépites is dedicated to raising the profile of female composers whose works have been neglected.

Interpreting the music of Julius Eastman, Wild Up honors the composer's vastness

What Wild Up unearths on Julius Eastman, Vol. 2: Joy Boy is more than just music, it's a set of relations and modes of comporting in the world that risk trading fleeting, worldly praise to regain the eternal soul. Ron Hammond hide caption

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Ron Hammond