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    13 Songs You Didn’t Know Were Big Hits Right Now

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    Subscribe to Popcast!Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Amazon Music | YouTubeThe Billboard Hot 100 chart is a weekly measurement of success that draws upon various reporting sources — radio play, streaming, paid downloads — in hopes of capturing what music is truly popular in a given week.Looking at the chart dated April 19, 2025, there are the obvious heavy hitters: Morgan Wallen, Drake, Sabrina Carpenter, Kendrick Lamar, Billie Eilish, Bruno Mars and so on. But there are also plenty of songs and artists who function outside of the usual fame apparatuses.Take Locash, the long-running country band. Or Brandon Lake, the Christian worship singer. Or Sleep Token, the alternative metal band. There are songs that are popular on TikTok, and songs used on reality television. And there are some songs that are so popular that they’re practically invisible.On this week’s Popcast, a deep listen to the songs on the current Hot 100 that might surprise you, along with a conversation on how fame is built (or invented) in the modern era and the discovery of some sleeper gems.Connect With Popcast. Become a part of the Popcast community: Join the show’s Facebook group and Discord channel. We want to hear from you! Tune in, and tell us what you think at popcast@nytimes.com. Follow our host, Jon Caramanica, on Twitter: @joncaramanica. Unlock full access to New York Times podcasts and explore everything from politics to pop culture. Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. More

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      Doechii! NewJeans! Ye! Answering Your Pop Music Questions

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      Subscribe to Popcast!Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Amazon MusicIt’s Popcast mailbag time, in which we field listener and reader questions about all of the most pressing topics in popular music.On this week’s episode, the hosts — including The New York Times pop critic Jon Caramanica and the pop reporter Joe Coscarelli, plus the pop music editor Caryn Ganz — address your thoughts and concerns about:The rise of Doechii, the young rap star turning viral fame into pop successOlivia Rodrigo’s role as a spirit guide for the eccentric pop stars of the day, like Chappell Roan and Sabrina CarpenterThe coherence of Lady Gaga’s latest album, “Mayhem”The ongoing legal situation between NewJeans and HybeThe latest provocations and music from Ye, formerly Kanye WestAnd whether great pain is inextricable from great art, per a recent interview with Bon IverConnect With Popcast. Become a part of the Popcast community: Join the show’s Facebook group and Discord channel. We want to hear from you! Tune in, and tell us what you think at popcast@nytimes.com. Follow our host, Jon Caramanica, on Twitter: @joncaramanica.Unlock full access to New York Times podcasts and explore everything from politics to pop culture. Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. More

    • 125 Shares119 Views

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      Is Playboi Carti Rap’s Next — or Last — Superstar?

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      Subscribe to Popcast!Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Amazon Music | YouTubeIn the almost five years since the release of “Whole Lotta Red,” Playboi Carti’s second studio album, the Atlanta rapper graduated from a potentially influential internet curio to a full-blown, era-defining headliner.Still, even while closing festivals with his brand of mosh pit mayhem and helping to lead songs like “Fein” by Travis Scott and “Carnival” by Ye (formerly Kanye West) into the Billboard Top 5, Carti has maintained the edge and mystique of an underground cult hero. That is, in part, thanks to absence: canceled concerts, blown appearances and repeated, yearslong delays for his increasingly hyped follow-up to “Whole Lotta Red,” with a growing legion of obsessive fans sating themselves instead by chasing every Carti-flavored online morsel, official and unofficial.Then, last week, it finally arrived: “Music,” a 30-song album lasting more than 75 minutes, with appearances by a who’s who of modern rap stars, including Kendrick Lamar, Future and Travis Scott. A streaming blockbuster already, “Music” has confounded and satisfied in equal measure, likely raising more questions than it answers: Is this what mainstream hip-hop sounds like now? Could anything Carti put out have lived up to the anticipation? And what role do toxic masculinity and obscure internet rabble-rousers play in this fandom?To discuss these Playboi Carti conundrums and many more on Popcast, the hosts Jon Caramanica and Joe Coscarelli of The New York Times were joined by Kieran Press-Reynolds, a columnist for Pitchfork and a contributor to The Times and other publications.Connect With Popcast. Become a part of the Popcast community: Join the show’s Facebook group and Discord channel. We want to hear from you! Tune in, and tell us what you think at popcast@nytimes.com. Follow our host, Jon Caramanica, on Twitter: @joncaramanica. Unlock full access to New York Times podcasts and explore everything from politics to pop culture. Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. More

    • 113 Shares129 Views

      in Music

      Lady Gaga Sells ‘Mayhem’ Hard. But Does It Work?

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      Subscribe to Popcast!Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Amazon MusicLady Gaga’s sixth solo pop album, “Mayhem,” was released last week, and its retro palette immediately connected with many of the singer’s most devoted longtime fans.Produced by Gaga, the rock revivalist Andrew Watt and the pop fixture Cirkut — with what Gaga has described as substantial input from her fiancé, Michael Polansky — the LP gestures pointedly back at the sounds of the pop star’s ascent in the late aughts and early 2010s. In a surprising amount of promotional interviews for a modern star of her caliber, Gaga has also cited a lofty list of influences for the album’s rock and funk touches: Prince, David Bowie, Nine Inch Nails, Radiohead, Earth, Wind & Fire and more.But does “Mayhem” transcend homage and fan service, successfully shifting or adding to the current conversation in pop? Reviewing the album for The New York Times, the critic Lindsay Zoladz called it “a refreshing anomaly” and “a little behind the times” — which may be its strength.To discuss “Mayhem” on this week’s Popcast, Zoladz was joined by Caryn Ganz, The Times’ pop music editor, and Joe Coscarelli, a pop music reporter, who traced Gaga’s unorthodox career path through the Top 40, jazz standards and Hollywood, while considering the potential limits of a “return to form” album for the 38-year-old singer.Connect With Popcast. Become a part of the Popcast community: Join the show’s Facebook group and Discord channel. We want to hear from you! Tune in, and tell us what you think at popcast@nytimes.com. Follow our host, Jon Caramanica, on Twitter: @joncaramanica.Unlock full access to New York Times podcasts and explore everything from politics to pop culture. Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. More

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      How Music Took Over This Year’s Oscars

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      Subscribe to Popcast!Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Amazon Music | YouTubeIn seemingly every crevice of the 97th Academy Awards, there was music, or a reminder of it. It was a song from a nominated film being performed, like Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande delivering one of their “Wicked” duets; or it was the best score winner Daniel Blumberg, a onetime indie-rock hero now on a second musical act; or it was the musical sections of the host Conan O’Brien’s stand-up bits.And even when there was no music performed, there was music in the air: Timothée Chalamet, who did not take the stage, nominated for the role of Bob Dylan in “A Complete Unknown”; nods to how music functioned in the night’s big winner, “Anora,” and in the polarizing nominee “Emilia Pérez”; and the appearance of Mick Jagger, gamely making an age joke at his own expense.On this week’s Popcast, a conversation about how the Oscars incorporated music into this year’s ceremony, in manners both smooth and bumpy; whether music made for movies can ever be cool; and whether O’Brien should be making jokes about Drake and Kendrick Lamar.Guests:Joe Coscarelli, The New York Times’s pop music reporterConnect With Popcast. Become a part of the Popcast community: Join the show’s Facebook group and Discord channel. We want to hear from you! Tune in, and tell us what you think at popcast@nytimes.com. Follow our host, Jon Caramanica, on Twitter: @joncaramanica.Unlock full access to New York Times podcasts and explore everything from politics to pop culture. Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. More

    • 138 Shares99 Views

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      Drake’s Tentative Comeback, Plus: New Music From the Weeknd and More

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      Subscribe to Popcast!Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Amazon Music | YouTubeLast week saw the release of “Some Sexy Songs 4 U,” the collaborative album from Drake and the Toronto R&B singer and songwriter PartyNextDoor, a longtime collaborator. For the most part, the sound is a vintage one for Drake, feeling something like a retreat to a comfort zone: moody heartbreak soul bathed in self-loathing and suspicion.It’s an album that, from a distance, appears to exist in a space totally parallel to the dominant narrative of his last year, which is the toxic and very popular beef he’s had with Kendrick Lamar, which seemed to culminate this month with Lamar’s five Grammy wins for “Not Like Us,” followed by his performance of the song at the Super Bowl halftime show.But there are a handful of songs on this new album that suggest Drake is already looking at musical pathways forward, or away, from that bumpy stretch.On this week’s Popcast, a conversation about Drake’s post-Kendrick predicament and the ways he might move on. Plus: a host of promising new albums that have brightened up the beginning of the year from artists like the Weeknd, Central Cee, Oklou, Skaiwater and OsamaSon.Guest:Joe Coscarelli, The New York Times’s pop music reporterConnect With Popcast. Become a part of the Popcast community: Join the show’s Facebook group and Discord channel. We want to hear from you! Tune in, and tell us what you think at popcast@nytimes.com. Follow our host, Jon Caramanica, on Twitter: @joncaramanica.Unlock full access to New York Times podcasts and explore everything from politics to pop culture. Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. More

    • 113 Shares169 Views

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      Breaking Down Kendrick Lamar’s Drake-centric Super Bowl Halftime Show

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      Subscribe to Popcast!Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Amazon Music | YouTubeOn Sunday in New Orleans, Kendrick Lamar became the first solo rapper to headline the Super Bowl halftime show, performing a medley of hits, deep cuts and Drake disses.Writing in The New York Times, the critic Jon Caramanica called it both “curiously low-key” and, in the case of the climactic use “Not Like Us,” complete with a Serena Williams cameo, “quite a spectacle — perhaps the peak of any rap battle, ever.”Immediately after the game, on an emergency episode of Popcast, we discussed the way Lamar’s beef with Drake provided the momentum of the performance; the cameos from SZA, Samuel L. Jackson and Williams; the rest of the set list, including an unreleased, fan-favorite track (and no “Alright”); the surprise leak of the show a few days early; the protester who unveiled a flag for Gaza and Sudan; and whether this is finally the end of the biggest beef in hip-hop history.Connect With Popcast. Become a part of the Popcast community: Join the show’s Facebook group and Discord channel. We want to hear from you! Tune in, and tell us what you think at popcast@nytimes.com. Follow our host, Jon Caramanica, on Twitter: @joncaramanica.Unlock full access to New York Times podcasts and explore everything from politics to pop culture. Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. More

    • 138 Shares119 Views

      in Theater

      Idina Menzel Played Elphaba and Elsa. Now She’s Back on Broadway.

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      Menzel, a fan favorite since “Rent,” is back on Broadway in “Redwood,” and this time she’s climbing conifers.Idina Menzel was sitting on a bench in a California redwood grove, yearning for silence. It was late one autumn afternoon, and I had been trying for months to get her to meet me in a forest where we could discuss this musical she’d been working on for 15 years about a woman in a tree, and now here we were. But also, there was a wedding party walking by, and an unleashed dog that knocked over her hibiscus tea, and an aircraft buzzing overhead.Listen to this article with reporter commentaryNo matter. On the drive to the forest from a dance studio where Menzel had been practicing singing upside down, because yes, this musical requires her to dance and sing while scaling a giant tree, she had been thinking about what she wanted to tell me about why she was making a show that is outwardly about redwoods — it’s called “Redwood” — but also about a grieving woman’s search for sanctuary.“I’m a little reticent to say, but I think I have a lot of noise in my own head as a person,” she told me as we settled in at Oakland’s Reinhardt Redwood Regional Park. “The idea of escaping and freeing yourself from your own pain or loneliness or confusion is very healing to me.”In an entertainment industry where actors are lucky to have one career-defining role, Menzel already has three: Maureen, the rabble-rousing performance artist in “Rent”; Elphaba, the green-skinned who-are-you-calling-wicked witch in “Wicked”; and Elsa, the ice-conjuring queen in Disney’s animated “Frozen” films. Those characters have many strengths, but serenity is not one of them.Menzel had her breakout role in “Rent,” top left, and then won a Tony in “Wicked,” top right. Her other stage roles have included the Off Broadway play “Skintight,” bottom right, and the Broadway musical “If/Then,” bottom left.Photographs by Sara Krulwich/The New York TimesWe 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

    • 113 Shares99 Views

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      The Messy Modern Music Business, According to Larry Jackson

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      Subscribe to Popcast!Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Amazon MusicThe music executive Larry Jackson, a founder of the entertainment company Gamma, has seen several sea changes in the recording business from different vantages over different eras of disruption.As head of A&R at Arista Records/RCA Music Group under Clive Davis, he oversaw albums by Whitney Houston and Jennifer Hudson while CDs were giving way to the iTunes Store. At Interscope, alongside Jimmy Iovine, he helped sign Chief Keef and Lana Del Rey as YouTube made new stars. As the global creative director at Apple Music, Jackson partnered with artists like Drake, Frank Ocean and Taylor Swift to bring streaming to the masses, while competing with Spotify — and the major labels.On this week’s episode of Popcast, Jackson spoke with the hosts Jon Caramanica and Joe Coscarelli about a topsy-turvy year in music — headlined by the battle between Kendrick Lamar and Drake — and how Jackson is applying lessons from his label days to whatever the industry has become.Connect With Popcast. Become a part of the Popcast community: Join the show’s Facebook group and Discord channel. We want to hear from you! Tune in, and tell us what you think at popcast@nytimes.com. Follow our host, Jon Caramanica, on Twitter: @joncaramanica. Unlock full access to New York Times podcasts and explore everything from politics to pop culture. Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. More