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      Michael Kiwanuka Makes the Simple Profound on ‘Small Changes’

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      “A song can make you hear or understand things that you don’t know how to say,” the English singer and songwriter Michael Kiwanuka said. “I think of songs as ways to communicate without conversation.”For more than a decade, Kiwanuka, 37, has been creating songs that speak directly and soulfully. Most often, he uses just a handful of chords and succinct, open-ended lyrics. But his words often turn into incantations over lush, organic grooves that reach back to vintage R&B, psychedelia and trip-hop. The songs offer questions and life lessons, mingling the personal and the political, balancing sorrow and solace.“Music heals me,” Kiwanuka said in a video interview from his home in England. “So that’s what I try and do.”Kiwanuka’s fourth studio album, “Small Changes,” is due in November, while in September and October he will be touring North America as a co-headliner with Brittany Howard, including an Oct. 2 stop at the Capitol Theater in Port Chester, N.Y.“I’m amazed by his songwriting; I think it’s classic,” Howard said from her home in Nashville. “There’s an art form to being vulnerable and telling your story, but also keeping it simple so that other people can relate to it,” she added. “The mood he’s creating, the stories he’s telling — it feels like I’m being let in on a little secret or something, like a close friend of mine is telling me their life.”Kiwanuka, whose parents are from Uganda, was born and grew up in London, often feeling like an outsider. “Maybe it’s an immigrant thing — you’re always trying to discover yourself,” he said.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 Song That Connects Jackson Browne, Nico and Margot Tenenbaum

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      Browne wrote “These Days” at 16. Now 75, he and some famous admirers reflect on his unexpected mainstay: “If a song is worth anything, it’s about the life of the listener.”When he was 16, Jack Browne sat down at his parents’ kitchen table in Fullerton, Calif., and started picking out a tune on an old Kay guitar.It was the fall of 1964, and the fledgling songwriter and high school junior — inspired by books, records and his own suburban disaffection — began weaving together an existential number about loss and regret called “These Days.”It would be a year until he finished the song, nearly a decade before he recorded it properly. By the time Jackson Browne, as he would be known professionally, cut it for his 1973 album “For Everyman” — which will be reissued on Sept. 20 — it had already been done in two distinct, definitive versions: the first by the German chanteuse and Velvet Underground collaborator Nico, then later by the Southern rocker Gregg Allman.“These Days” has proved a remarkably durable composition, reinterpreted by Cher, St. Vincent, Glen Campbell, Miley Cyrus, Paul Westerberg and Drake, to name a handful. It inspired Wes Anderson’s 2001 film “The Royal Tenenbaums,” and more recently has become the unlikely soundtrack to a series of TikTok trends.While Browne has had bigger hits as an artist (“Doctor My Eyes,” “Running on Empty”) and as a writer (Eagles’ “Take It Easy”), “These Days” has rambled through the decades, morphing musically, changing lyrically and taking on added layers of meaning. “In that regard, it’s sort of like a folk song,” Browne said on a late August afternoon, sitting in the control room of his Santa Monica recording studio, Groove Masters.“I come from folk music, that was my school,” continued Browne, somehow still boyish and bright-eyed at 75. “You’d learn several versions of the same song and adapt the parts of it that you liked and it’d become something else. That’s what’s happened with ‘These Days.’”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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      MTV Video Music Awards: 7 Memorable Moments

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      Taylor Swift set a record and Chappell Roan, Sabrina Carpenter and Katy Perry delivered noteworthy performances as the show struck a balance between past and present.Wednesday night’s MTV Video Music Awards marked the show’s 40th anniversary, and much of the festivities strived for déjà vu by honoring memorable performances and moments from shows past. Montages of “V.M.A. flashbacks” like Michael Jackson heartily kissing Lisa Marie Presley, Madonna writhing through “Like a Virgin,” and Eminem storming the building with a regiment of bleached look-alikes peppered the telecast.This year’s show paid homage to those events too, sometimes explicitly. Eminem, for instance, opened the show performing his latest single, “Houdini,” alongside an army costumed to look like him, with dark beards underneath blond wigs that referenced the old days. The host Megan Thee Stallion donned an outfit that nodded to the silky green top Britney Spears wore in 2001 to perform “I’m a Slave 4 U,” and sported a yellow boa constrictor to boot — though Megan’s genuine discomfort with the creature worked to comedic effect.The V.M.A.s are forever looking to inaugurate new stars to take up the mantle of the classic music-video era icons. This year’s class, including Sabrina Carpenter, Chappell Roan, Tyla and Rauw Alejandro stood out amid the throwback references. Katy Perry bridged the gap between eras, and Taylor Swift did what she does best at award shows — dance zealously to other artists and collect hardware. Here are the highlights.Shawn Mendes returned to the stage with new music.The last time Shawn Mendes was on the V.M.A. stage, it was 2021 and he was performing “Summer of Love” with Tainy. He’d last released an album, “Wonder,” in 2020 but later postponed a 2022 tour to focus on his mental health.Wednesday Mendes returned to the stage to perform an acoustic and stripped-down new single, “Nobody Knows,” from his upcoming album “Shawn,” expected to release in October. Fans on social media speculated that the song contained a reference to his ex-girlfriend and fellow V.M.A. performer, Camila Cabello. In the song, Mendes sings, “When the bottle is open, anything can happen/flying too close to the sun”; Cabello’s Instagram bio reads, “long, thick black hair turned white from flying too close to the sun.” — SHIVANI GONZALEZWe 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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      Dave Grohl’s Mystery Baby Offers a Lesson in Crisis Communication

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      The timing and content of Dave Grohl’s admission that he had a child outside his marriage was complimented for addressing the issue and relying on short memories.Dave Grohl — the Nirvana drummer and Foo Fighters founder — is as close as America gets to a rock ’n’ roll father figure: funny and family-oriented, beloved by his fans and his fellow musicians and seemingly as steady as the drumbeats that made him famous. His nickname? “The nicest dude in rock.”On Tuesday, however, that reputation took a hit when Mr. Grohl revealed that he was also paternal in a very real, and decidedly less flattering way, with the announcement of the birth of a daughter outside his marriage.“I plan to be a loving and supportive parent to her,” the musician posted on Instagram, adding that he loved his wife and their children. “I am doing everything I can to regain their trust and earn their forgiveness.”The decision by Mr. Grohl to make a pre-emptive announcement may well have been an attempt to control the narrative, something that crisis communications experts said was savvy.“I thought it was clean, smart, simple,” said Melissa Nathan, the chief executive of The Agency Group PR, which specializes in “reputation management.”Molly McPherson, a crisis communications strategist, echoed that sentiment, saying that Mr. Grohl’s post was probably strategically timed, coming on the same day as the highly anticipated debate between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald J. Trump.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

    • 150 Shares199 Views

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      Frankie Beverly, Frontman of the Soul Group Maze, Is Dead at 77

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      A consistent hitmaker on the R&B charts for almost 50 years, he had announced just this year that he would be retiring.Frankie Beverly, the lead singer and songwriter of the soul and funk band Maze, whose songs, including “Golden Time of Day,” “Joy and Pain” and “Happy Feelin’s,” provided the soundtrack to countless summer cookouts and family reunions for more than five decades, died on Tuesday. He was 77.His death was announced in a statement by his family on his Instagram account. The statement did not say where he died or cite a cause.“He lived his life with pure soul, as one would say, and for us, no one did it better,” the statement said. “He lived for his music, family and friends.”Mr. Beverly had announced a farewell tour this year with a handful of dates. He had said that he would retire after going on the road one last time.Mr. Beverly with Maze in 2023. He announced this year that he would retire after a brief tour.Gary Miller/Getty Images“Thank you so much for the support given to me for over 50 years as I pass on the lead vocalist torch to Tony Lindsay,” Mr. Beverly said in a statement to Billboard at the time. “The band will continue on as Maze Honoring Frankie Beverly. It’s been a great ride through the decades. Let the music of my legacy continue.”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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      Popcast: Kendrick Lamar at the Super Bowl, Sabrina Carpenter on Top

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      Subscribe to Popcast!Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Amazon MusicOn this week’s episode of Popcast, the pop music critic Jon Caramanica and the pop music reporter Joe Coscarelli discuss the week in music:The announcement that Kendrick Lamar will headline the halftime show at Super Bowl LIX, to be held in February in New Orleans, and how it extends his year of tension and musical beef with Drake.Sabrina Carpenter’s sixth album, “Short n’ Sweet,” which is No. 1 on the Billboard album chart, and has helped her break into pop’s top tier.The career of the Atlanta rapper Rich Homie Quan, who died last week at 34.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. More

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      Taylor Swift Endorses Kamala Harris After Presidential Debate

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      Look what they made her do.Taylor Swift, who is one of America’s most celebrated pop-culture icons and has an enormous following across the world, endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris late Tuesday after Ms. Harris’s debate against former President Donald J. Trump.The endorsement by Ms. Swift, delivered minutes after Ms. Harris and Mr. Trump had stepped off the debate stage in Philadelphia, offers Ms. Harris an unrivaled celebrity backer and a tremendous shot of adrenaline to her campaign, especially with the younger voters she has been trying to attract.“Like many of you, I watched the debate tonight,” Ms. Swift wrote on Instagram to her 283 million followers. “I will be casting my vote for Kamala Harris and Tim Walz in the 2024 Presidential Election. I’m voting for @kamalaharris because she fights for the rights and causes I believe need a warrior to champion them.”She signed her post as “Childless Cat Lady,” a reference to comments made by Mr. Trump’s running mate, Senator JD Vance of Ohio, about women without children. The photo that accompanied her post showed her holding a furry feline, Benjamin Button, her pet Ragdoll.Ms. Swift’s endorsement was much anticipated among Democrats. The singer has expressed regret for not having done more to speak out about her opposition to Mr. Trump during his first run in 2016. Since then, she has embraced a more political posture while speaking out on issues such as abortion access. But the precise timing of Tuesday’s endorsement was something of a surprise: Ms. Swift endorsed Joe Biden on Oct. 7, 2020, closer to the election.The impact of Ms. Swift’s endorsement may be hard to quantify, but her ability to get supporters to register to vote came into sharp relief just last year. In a brief post on her Instagram account in 2023, Ms. Swift encouraged her 272 million supporters at the time to vote and included a link to the website Vote.org.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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      Readers Pick Their Song of the Summer

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      You sent in an eclectic mix of tracks from Chappell Roan, Bad Bunny, Lawrence and more.A lot of you got into Chappell Roan this summer.Chona Kasinger for The New York TimesDear listeners,A few weeks ago, I asked you to share your 2024 song of the summer. Not necessarily your favorite of the pop smashes that defined the balmiest months of this year — because I’ve already compiled a playlist of those — but the song that served as your personal soundtrack to the season. The song that will conjure a montaged rush of summer of ’24 memories when you hear it years from now.As usual, Amplifier readers delivered, sending me an eclectic mix of songs and some of your lively personal stories.Over and over, it occurred to me while reading your submissions that a song of the summer does not need to be the kind of frothily fun, carefree tune that we usually associate with that phrase. Sure, there are quite a few tracks on this playlist that fit the bill, from artists like the New York-bred sibling duo Lawrence, the ’60s pop singer Keith and the French icon Zizi Jeanmaire. But quite a few of you recommended more subdued songs that had inspired reflection (like a ballad from Zach Bryan’s latest album) or that provided the soundtrack to a challenging moment (like one reader’s selection of a Mississippi John Hurt classic).I wish I could have selected every single song you submitted — but that would have been a very, very long playlist. It was difficult to pare it down to just 13 tracks, but these selections reflect the range of what you recommended: Some new and some old, some familiar and some so obscure I’d never even heard of them. Thanks to each and every one of you who shared your song and your story.Also, reading through these submissions gave me concrete proof of something I’d suspected: A lot of you got into Chappell Roan this summer. Femininomenon indeed.Ouch! Mi corazón,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