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      The Ultimate Yacht Rock Playlist

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      Gain a deeper appreciation of music from Michael McDonald, Toto and Christopher Cross.Michael McDonald appearing on “Soul Train” in 1982.Soul Train/Getty, via Courtesy HBODear listeners,Over the weekend, I watched an entertaining new documentary — or, as it’s billed, a “dockumentary” — about the genre of music that’s retroactively come to be known as “yacht rock.”You might be familiar with the term, which encapsulates a disparate scene of mostly California-based musicians who brought jazz, soul and R&B influences to mainstream pop and soft rock in the late 1970s: Think Kenny Loggins, Toto, Christopher Cross and just about any song with backing or lead vocals by Michael McDonald. What you might not realize is that the term “yacht rock” was coined not by music critics or even the musicians themselves, but by a ragtag group of comedians who lovingly parodied some of those musicians in a beloved web series that premiered in 2005.“Yacht Rock: A Dockumentary,” currently streaming on Max, features interviews with J.D. Ryznar, a creator of the web series, as well as Loggins, Cross, McDonald and a host of the other artists who defined the genre’s sound — even if it wasn’t considered a genre at the time. “To us it was just the next logical step in making pop music,” Loggins says in the film. Steely Dan’s Donald Fagen had the documentary’s strongest rejection of the term: At the mere mention of “yacht rock,” he hangs up on the film’s director Garrett Price — though not before suggesting a course of action unprintable in this family newsletter.Regardless of what you call it, (“smooth music,” “the West Coast sound” and “progressive R&B pop” are all offered), Price’s documentary makes the case that this was indeed a unified scene, driven by overlapping influences, shared personnel and playfully competitive studio one-upsmanship. Like the web series that preceded it, the new documentary ultimately offers a deeper appreciation of this sometimes-maligned music, which is worth a considered reappraisal.Today’s playlist is one such opportunity. It features some of the aforementioned yacht rock luminaries alongside a few of the younger artists they influenced, like De La Soul, Warren G and Thundercat. Listening on a decent pair of speakers or headphones is a must; donning a captain’s hat is entirely optional.No wise man has the power,LindsayWe are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      YSL Trial Ends With Final Defendants Acquitted of Murder and Gang Charges

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      The winding, yearslong case against the star Atlanta rapper Young Thug, who recently pleaded guilty to gang charges, and five others concluded on Tuesday.Shannon Stillwell, left, and Deamonte Kendrick were found not guilty of murder and conspiracy to violate the RICO act.Miguel Martinez/Atlanta Journal-Constitution, via Associated PressMiguel Martinez/Atlanta Journal-Constitution, via Associated PressThe two remaining defendants in the gang conspiracy and racketeering case against YSL, the Atlanta rap label that prosecutors said doubled as a violent street crew led by Young Thug, were found not guilty on Tuesday of murder and conspiracy to violate the RICO act.The verdict ended a winding trial that became the longest in Georgia history. It arrived nearly two years after jury selection began and followed a year of testimony from close to 200 witnesses and nearly 16 hours of deliberations spread across four days.Young Thug, the platinum-selling rapper born Jeffery Williams, accepted a guilty plea on Oct. 31 and was released from jail after being sentenced to time served and 15 years of strict probation. As the case limped toward its conclusion in recent weeks, three other defendants also negotiated plea deals amid chaotic proceedings.Yet two of the original six men on trial — Deamonte Kendrick, known as the rapper Yak Gotti, and Shannon Stillwell, also known as Shannon Jackson — said they rejected similar deals with prosecutors, opting to leave their fate to jurors in Fulton County, Ga.On Tuesday, Mr. Kendrick and Mr. Stillwell were acquitted of the 2015 murder of Donovan Thomas Jr., an alleged gang rival, and also found not guilty of participating in criminal street gang activity and conspiracy to violate Georgia’s Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations act, or RICO. Mr. Stillwell was also acquitted of a second murder, but he was found guilty of a single count: possessing a firearm as a felon.The judge in the case, Paige Reese Whitaker, was required to sentence Mr. Stillwell to the maximum sentence for the gun charge — 10 years in prison — because of recidivism guidelines. But she opted to convert all but two of those years to probation while also crediting Mr. Stillwell with time served.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      The Revolutionary Sound at the Heart of ‘The Nutcracker’

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      There comes a moment in “The Nutcracker,” a ballet full of fantasy of fantastical music, when the Sugar Plum Fairy dances to a tune you’ve probably heard before.Over plucked string instruments, a glassy, bell-like melody emerges from a celesta, evoking water drops and then more as those drops give way to flowing runs. It’s a transporting sound: mysterious and otherworldly, delicate and playful.This is the famous “Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy,” a highlight of “The Nutcracker” and a holiday staple, born on the stage and heard today in commercials and on movie soundtracks around this time every year.Unmute to listen as Megan Fairchild dances the Sugarplum Fairy in New York City Ballet’s production of George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker.New York City BalletThe “Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy” is so familiar that it’s difficult to imagine that when this music was new, in 1892, it was really new. And that’s because of the celesta.Only recently invented, the celesta was in its infancy when Tchaikovsky began to imagine how he might write for it. Since then, its sound has spread throughout classical music and into pop, often with the same magical effect you hear in “The Nutcracker.” More

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      The Classical Music Our Critics Can’t Stop Thinking About

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      Watch and listen to five recent highlights, including performances by Davóne Tines and Lise Davidsen, and a new album by Ethan Iverson.The New York Times’s classical music and opera critics see and hear much more than they review. Here is what hooked them during the past month. Leave your own favorites in the comments.Davóne TinesAn installation view of “Living Room, Orlean, Virginia,” part of “Making Home — Smithsonian Design Triennial” at the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum.Jeenah Moon for The New York TimesAndrew Carnegie’s 1902 mansion on Fifth Avenue, a Georgian homage on an immense, Gilded-Age scale, is currently the home of a more modest domestic scene: the bass-baritone Davóne Tines’s childhood living room.As part of the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum’s triennial exhibition, “Making Home,” Tines has worked with the director Zack Winokur and the artist Hugh Hayden to create “Living Room, Orlean, Virginia,” an uncanny, poignant replica of the house of Tines’s grandparents, who raised him.‘Living Room, Orlean, Virginia’Sonic composition by Davóne Tines and Zack Winokur with Alma Lee Gibbs Tines, and John Hilton Tines Sr. Sound engineered by Al Carlson.The “Living Room” tableau, arranged on an enormous rocker, is a meditation on “home” as something soothing yet precarious for a musician like Tines, who spends much of his year on the road. On closer inspection, this installation, with its cozy arrangement of furniture, an upright piano and even a rug over carpeted flooring, has a dreaminess to it: Eerily, the photo frames are empty.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Chris Brown’s Concerts Draw Protest in South Africa

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      Women’s rights activists have petitioned for the singer to be denied a visa for two shows in South Africa, where gender-based violence is high.After Chris Brown announced that he would be performing in Johannesburg, tickets for the city’s 94,000-capacity FNB Stadium sold out in under two hours. A second show was swiftly added.Nearly as quickly came a protest against Brown, who has faced allegations of violence and harassment of women including his guilty plea on charges that he assaulted Rihanna, his then-girlfriend, in 2009. Women for Change, a South African nonprofit, started a petition to block Brown’s performances on Dec. 14 and 15. The organization presented the petition, which received over 50,000 signatures, to the country’s Departments of Home Affairs and of Sports, Arts and Culture, asking that Brown be denied a visa.The singer’s planned return has particular resonance in South Africa, where women are killed at a rate five times higher than the global average, with 60.1 percent of those murders committed by an intimate partner, according to a study by the South African Medical Research Council. “We aim to send a clear message that South Africa will not celebrate individuals with a history of violence against women,” Sabrina Walter, the founder of Women for Change, said in an interview.Brown and his representatives have not addressed the protest, but in October, as the group spread the #MuteChrisBrown hashtag on social media, the singer seemed to troll the organization by writing, “Can’t wait to come,” under one of its Instagram posts. Walter said the reply triggered a wave of online harassment from Brown’s followers, including death threats against her and her team. It was not the first time Brown used his fame to rally against detractors. He has challenged other celebrities who refer to allegations made against him, and in February used Instagram to accuse the NBA of bowing to sponsor pressure to disinvite him from participating in an event related to its All-Star game. In 2019, Brown was released without charges after being accused of aggravated rape in France. He then sold T-shirts that read “This Bitch Lyin’” online.In the years since his 2009 arrest, Brown has been accused a number of times of violence against women, including throwing a rock through his mother’s car window in 2013 and punching a woman at a Las Vegas nightclub in 2016. In 2017, his ex-girlfriend Karrueche Tran obtained a temporary restraining order, citing harassment, physical violence, intimidation and death threats during and after their on-again-off-again relationship, which lasted from 2011 to 2015. In 2022, a judge dismissed a lawsuit that accused Brown of drugging and raping a woman on a yacht owned by Sean Combs.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Bob Bryar, Former Drummer for My Chemical Romance, Dies at 44

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      He joined that pop-punk band in 2004 and played on its most successful album, “The Black Parade.”Bob Bryar, the former drummer for the rock band My Chemical Romance, which drew a large following with catchy hooks and a dark, misfit energy, has died. He was 44.Mr. Bryar’s death was confirmed by a spokesman for the band, who did not provide any additional details.Mr. Bryar joined My Chemical Romance in 2004. The band, led by the brothers Gerard and Mikey Way, had just released the record “Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge,” which went platinum and helped build a following among fans of emo and pop punk.Mr. Bryar was perhaps best known for his drumming on the group’s 2006 landmark concept album, “The Black Parade,” which combined punk, glam and Broadway. It became the band’s most popular album.Mr. Bryar was born in Chicago on Dec. 30, 1979. He said in a 2008 video that he learned to play drums on a toy drum set, fell in love with the instrument and began playing in high school bands and at clubs around Chicago.He went on to study sound engineering at the University of Florida and later worked as a sound engineer for several bands. While working for the rock band the Used, Mr. Bryar met the members of My Chemical Romance.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      New York Philharmonic Looks to Philadelphia for Its Next Leader

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      Matías Tarnopolsky, who manages the Philadelphia Orchestra, will come to New York as the Philharmonic works to recover from a trying period.The New York Philharmonic announced on Monday that it had chosen a new president and chief executive: Matías Tarnopolsky, who currently leads the Philadelphia Orchestra.Tarnopolsky, 54, a veteran arts leader who oversaw the merger of the Philadelphia Orchestra and the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts in 2021, said he saw potential for an “auspicious new chapter” in New York, pointing to the arrival in 2026 of the star maestro Gustavo Dudamel.“It’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to help shape the future of the New York Philharmonic,” said Tarnopolsky, who begins an initial five-year contract in January. “I embrace it with all my heart.”Tarnopolsky will take the helm of the Philharmonic, America’s oldest symphony orchestra, at a critical time.The ensemble has been grappling with a series of challenges, including the sudden resignation in July of its previous chief executive, Gary Ginstling, after only a year on the job. Ginstling left amid friction with Dudamel, board members, staff and musicians. Since then, Deborah Borda, a veteran Philharmonic leader, has run the orchestra on an interim basis.Borda, who led the orchestra from 2017 to 2023, has worked to stabilize the organization. After months of tense negotiations, the administration reached a labor deal in September with musicians, offering 30 percent raises over three years. And last month, the orchestra, hoping to bring to an end a long-running issue, dismissed two players over accusations of sexual misconduct.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Kendrick Lamar’s ‘GNX’ Rockets to No. 1 on the Charts

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      The rapper’s surprise LP tops Billboard’s album and singles charts, where “Squabble Up” blocked Shaboozey’s “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” from a historic 20th week of dominance.You never know when Kendrick Lamar will put out a new album, but when he does, it’s big news. His latest, “GNX,” is no exception, dominating rap’s fandom discourse and immediately taking over Billboard’s album and singles charts.Lamar’s sixth studio LP, “GNX” was a surprise release, on Nov. 22, and has sailed to No. 1 on the Billboard 200, becoming his fifth album to top the chart. It opened with the equivalent of 319,000 sales in the United States, including 380 million streams, according to the tracking service Luminate. That makes it one of the splashiest debuts of 2024, though it had lower overall numbers than albums by Taylor Swift, Beyoncé and Sabrina Carpenter.Still, “GNX” has become yet another headline maker for Lamar, who earlier this year bested Drake in a rapid-fire volley of diss tracks. Fans have picked apart references to Lil Wayne’s complaints about Lamar taking the next Super Bowl halftime show, and Snoop Dogg commented on social media about the track “Wacced Out Murals,” whose lyrics cite a post by Snoop Dogg about a Drake song, “Taylor Made.”Tracks from “GNX” quickly took over the lists of top songs on streaming services, and they occupy the entire Top 5 of Billboard’s Hot 100 chart, with “Squabble Up” at No. 1. It has blocked what would have been a historic week for Shaboozey’s country hit “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” — last week, Shaboozey’s song notched its 19th week at the top, tying the record set in 2019 by Lil Nas X with “Old Town Road” for the longest run on Billboard’s flagship singles chart, which dates to 1958.“A Bar Song (Tipsy)” falls to No. 6 on the singles chart, and the rest of the Top 5 all belongs to Lamar: “TV Off” (No. 2), “Luther” (No. 3), “Wacced Out Murals” (No. 4) and “Hey Now” (No. 5). According to Billboard, that feat has previously been accomplished only by the Beatles, Taylor Swift and … Drake, who claimed nine of the Top 10 in 2021, with songs from his album “Certified Lover Boy.” That week, Drake had every slot in the Top 10 except for No. 6. (Streaming has made such blanketing of the charts much easier than ever before, when chart positions were determined by sales and airplay.)We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More