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      A Decade of Drill Rap

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      Subscribe to Popcast!Apple Podcasts | Spotify | StitcherIn the early 2010s, a novel sound emerged from Chicago’s rap scene. Drill music was immediate and brash, relentlessly local and yet easily accessible. It became a template that would be borrowed from widely.It has iterated several times in the years since. Lil Durk, one of the Chicago scene’s earliest stars, is having a career peak now with the recent release of his album “7220,” his first to top the Billboard album chart. New York drill, which found an sonic identity with the work of Pop Smoke, who was killed in 2020, is expanding as well, as heard in the music of Fivio Foreign, who on his debut album “B.I.B.L.E.” is seeking to translate the sound for a broader audience.On this week’s Popcast, a conversation about drill’s origins, its many global permutations, its intermittent embrace by the hip-hop mainstream and the directions it may still head in.Guests:Joe Coscarelli, New York Times pop music reporterDavid Drake, longtime chronicler of Chicago hip-hopConnect 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. More

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      Machine Gun Kelly’s Pop-Punk Pivot

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      Subscribe to Popcast!Apple Podcasts | Spotify | StitcherOne of the most unlikely pop music twists of the last couple of years has been the ascent of Machine Gun Kelly, who recently released “Mainstream Sellout,” his second consecutive No. 1 pop-punk album following a career of decreasing returns in the hip-hop world.The roots of this success predate his musical shift: in the mid-to-late 2010s hip-hop began flirting with pop-punk and emo thanks to the early waves of SoundCloud rap. Some of the most creatively successful practitioners of that era, namely Juice WRLD and Lil Peep, made influential music but unfortunately did not live to see the full scale of their impact. That left a vacuum, into which Machine Gun Kelly and others have stepped.On this week’s Popcast, a conversation about Machine Gun Kelly’s pop-punk pivot, the arc of his prior career in hip-hop and the behind-the-boards work of the drummer Travis Barker, who has been an influential engine of the current pop-punk revival.Guests:Meaghan Garvey, who writes about music for Billboard and othersArielle Gordon, who writes about music for Pitchfork and othersConnect 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. More

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      Will Smith, Before the Slap

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      Subscribe to Popcast!Apple Podcasts | Spotify | StitcherWill Smith’s outburst at the Oscars last month derailed the broadcast, his coronation as best actor later that night and the public good-guy image he’d carefully cultivated for several decades.But while much ink has been spilled about the slap and its meaning, far less has been devoted to what the slap truly overshadowed: the breadth and depth of Smith’s acting career. Since the late 1980s, after he transitioned from full-time rapper to sometime television actor, Smith has been building an impressive résumé onscreen, one with creative highs that have often been overshadowed by the sheer scale of his A-list success.On this week’s Popcast, a conversation about Smith’s long journey from rapper to television star to bankable superhero icon, how his creative choices have paralleled his personal journey and some possible options for his next steps.Guest:Soraya Nadia McDonald, senior culture critic for AndscapeConnect 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. More

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      The 2022 Grammys: Let’s Discuss

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      Subscribe to Popcast!Apple Podcasts | Spotify | StitcherWhat exactly are the Grammys, at this point? A ceremony that honors the best in popular music? Sometimes, but not often. A concert that explores the connections between generations of styles and songs? On a good day, maybe. A party thrown by the stars and behind-the-scenes movers of yesteryear that young stars aren’t quite sure if they want to be invited to, or embraced by? Yes, that’s it.Which means that this year, like every year, the Grammy Awards put on display the tensions between a Recording Academy that insists it is open-eared to young performers while largely bestowing awards on those who hew to old-fashioned ideas of musicianship and songcraft.On this week’s Popcast, a conversation about the usefulness of the Grammy Awards, and the musicians — Silk Sonic, H.E.R., Billie Eilish — who manage to thrive in the middle of the ceremony’s spiritual tug of war.Guests:Jon Pareles, The New York Times’s chief pop music criticWesley Morris, The New York Times’s critic at largeLindsay Zoladz, who writes about pop music for The New York TimesConnect 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. More

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      Charli XCX’s Ever-Evolving Pop

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      Subscribe to Popcast!Apple Podcasts | Spotify | StitcherDoes Charli XCX want to be a big pop star? Do her fans want her to be one?The 29-year-old singer and songwriter, whose fifth studio album, “Crash,” came out earlier this month, has inspired a mountain of discourse since the release of her debut, “True Romance,” in 2013. Her prodigious output — which has encompassed dreamy pop, punky new wave, spiky and noisy electronic music and more conventional pop over a series of albums, EPs and mixtapes — can be seen as commentary on pop music itself, an experiment to push the boundaries of the major-label system, the result of a firm commitment to collaboration, or simply the bold wanderings of a curious and sometimes chaotic creative mind.A sub-narrative following her journey, however, has been the size of her stardom. Charli XCX has written on blockbuster hits for other artists. Does she choose to release the kind of music that will make her a superstar? “Crash,” the final album of her Atlantic Records deal, opened at No. 7 this week, a career high.On this week’s Popcast, The New York Times’s pop music editor Caryn Ganz sits in for Jon Caramanica, hosting a conversation about Charli XCX’s unconventional major label career, her sonic evolutions, her complex relationship with her listeners and the successes and missteps on “Crash.”Guests:Hazel Cills, an editor at NPR MusicShaad D’Souza, a writer who contributes to Pitchfork, The Fader, Paper and othersConnect 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. More

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      The Many Worlds of Rosalía

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      Subscribe to Popcast!Apple Podcasts | Spotify | StitcherThe Spanish flamenco prodigy turned multigenre pop innovator Rosalía has just released her third album, “Motomami.” Crucially, it’s her first full-length since the breakthrough she experienced with her 2018 album “El Mal Querer,” which elevated her from local renown to global attention.In the years since, Rosalía has collaborated widely — Travis Scott, Ozuna, Billie Eilish, J Balvin — and leaned into the sounds of the Spanish-speaking Caribbean. Her success has, for some, underscored how much latitude is afforded white performers working with nonwhite styles and sounds. But also it has marked Rosalía as one of the most sonically ambitious and creative performers in contemporary pop.On this week’s Popcast, a conversation about Rosalía’s unlikely pop stardom, her avant-garde approach to style blending and the cultural politics of laying claim to a multitude of traditions.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. More

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      The Sounds of Ukrainian Pop

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      Subscribe to Popcast!Apple Podcasts | Spotify | StitcherThe Russian invasion of Ukraine is entering its fourth week, upending life, damaging cities and towns and spawning a refugee crisis. Culture, needless to say, has largely come to a standstill.Pop music in Ukraine has long been a window to understanding the country. The scene is wide and varied — there is, among many other styles, the theatrical pop of Max Barskih, the indie pop of Luna, the quick-tongued rapping of Alyona Alyona and the dance-soul of Ivan Dorn. The music is bold and modern, in dialogue with the styles popular in the rest of Eastern Europe, and beyond.On this week’s Popcast, a conversation about some of the country’s pop stars, the musical traditions they borrow from and work within, and how they have grappled with the Russian invasion of Ukraine, both in music and on the internet.Guest:Liana Satenstein, senior fashion writer at VogueConnect 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. More

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      Reggaeton’s Global Expansion and Wide-Open Future

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      Subscribe to Popcast!Apple Podcasts | Spotify | StitcherThe current generation of reggaeton superstars — J Balvin, Rauw Alejandro, Farruko and more — find themselves in constant dialogue with pop, EDM and hip-hop, and have become ambitious ambassadors of cultural exchange. As the genre is growing in global popularity, it is also stratifying into subsets, some leaning toward the synthetic and some returning to roots.That sign of reggaeton’s growth and maturity also portends questions about who will lead the genre into its future, and what that future might sound like.On this week’s Popcast, a conversation about reggaeton’s engagements with the pop music mainstream, how its biggest stars navigate the responsibilities of being emissaries and also recent developments in Dominican dembow.Guests:Isabelia Herrera, The New York Times’s arts critic fellowKatelina Eccleston, reggaeton historian at reggaetonconlagata.comConnect 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. More