Inhaltsverzeichnis für October 2021 in Rolling Stone

“Thank you both for ‘taking us back in time.’ The music is amazing, thank you!”—Patrick Williams, via Twitter The Retro Groove of Silk Sonic Readers embraced the cover story of Bruno Mars and Anderson. Paak’s “feel good” music, their shared history of loss, and learning about the duo’s deep friendship as they grow their musical legacy [“The Soothing Sounds of Silk Sonic,” RS 1355]. “Congrats, Silk Sonic. It’s a pleasure for the world to see the greatest of all time … gracing the cover of Rolling Stone!” tweeted @lillian_traina. “This interview is amazing. I love it,” wrote @cookiespop1. “Best article ever,” tweeted @mowarner88. Fan reactions to the release date of An Evening With Silk Sonic being pushed from September to January, however, were mixed. “God, I want the album…

JHAY CORTEZ has seen some huge moments in the past couple of years. There was the smash success of his 2019 song “No Me Conoce,” whose remix went platinum 20 times in the U.S.; the wild popularity of “Dákiti,” his futuristic Bad Bunny collaboration; the unexpected thrill of his 2021 single “En Mi Cuarto,” which offers a dubby, dramatic take on reggaeton with the help of Skrillex. Before that, he was one of the forces behind Cardi B’s Grammy-nominated 2018 hit “I Like It,” and even earlier, he wrote for artists such as Ozuna, Natti Natasha, and Zion Y Lennox. Now, he’s capped off these accomplishments with his most impressive swing yet: Timelezz, an album that puts his skills as a barbed lyricist and production maverick front and center.…

In 2004, Rolling Stone published its list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. It’s one of the most widely read stories in the magazine’s history (viewed hundreds of millions of times on rollingstone.com). But no ranking is set in stone, and after nearly 20 years, the list was ready for an update. To create our new version of the RS 500 we convened a poll of more than 200 artists, musicians, and producers — from Sam Smith to Megan Thee Stallion and the Edge to Lucy Dacus — as well as prominent figures in the music industry and leading critics and journalists. They each sent in a ranked list of their top 50 songs, and we tabulated the results. Where the 2004 version of the list was…

LINDSEY BUCKINGHAM will tell you that he isn’t about the drama these days. He leaves that to his former bandmates in Fleetwood Mac. Not everyone in his family subscribes to the same feeling. His son Will issued a declarative statement shortly after he was booted out of the band in 2018: “God, they ruined your life.” “Not even close,” Buckingham replies, flashing a wan smile. He’s right, in a way. Over the past three years, there have been other life ruination candidates. In short order, Buckingham nearly died, lost his voice, had an album repeatedly delayed, and suffered through a pandemic funk. Still, he insists, he is in a good place. Right now, Buckingham is in a Burbank rehearsal space preparing for a tour supporting his new solo album,…

THERE WILL NEVER be a world without Charlie Watts, because his backbeat changed how the world sounds. The Rolling Stones’ legendary drummer got away with nothing but boss moves for nearly 60 years. He made the Stones the World’s Greatest Rock & Roll Band by challenging them to keep up with him. That’s why the world has been in mourning for Charlie Watts, with the news of his death on August 24th at the age of 80. He was never the guy who wanted the spotlight, never a celebrity. He was simply the World’s Greatest Rock & Roll Drummer. If you’re looking for the Charlie mystique, it’s all there in his five-second drum entrance in “Let It Bleed.” It’s one of the Stones’ best tunes, yet it’s nothing but…

KACEY MUSGRAVES’ DARK HOUR The millennial-country hero’s fourth album is a divorce record on her own terms By JONATHAN BERNSTEIN Kacey Musgraves Star-Crossed UNIVERSAL ON HER 2018 ALBUM, Golden Hour, Nashville rule breaker Kacey Musgraves proved how effortlessly an artist can get deep and have fun at the same time. Golden Hour was a Grammy-winning rodeo-Zen opus that set her witty wordplay to a blissed-out blend of banjos and vocoder, cementing the Texas traditionalist as an avatar for the sonic and cultural boundary-crossing possibilities of contemporary country. Now, of course, Musgraves is facing outsize pressure to keep her winning streak rolling. But life these days is a little less Zen. “Being grown-up kind of sucks,” she sings on “Simple Times,” the most infectious and convincing song on Star-Crossed, her…

Your singing voice has only gotten stronger and clearer over the years. How much of that is vocal training, and how much of it was breaking through psychological blocks? Man, there’s so much in that question. When I came out of the bars, I had spent my whole life screaming our sets through smoke, and thinking that was really punk rock and loving that. … I was really preoccupied with sounding tough. So there was some psychological gender stuff in that for me, too; I didn’t want to sound feminine. But I started shedding affectation and restrictive gender-binary concepts vocally, at the same time that I was actually healing my voice from brutalizing it. … And then it made me question my relationship with alcohol and drugs and being…

JOY OLADOKUN has a regular practice of meditating as a way to channel her anxiety into something healthier. The Arizona-raised, Nashville-based singer-songwriter has done a lot of meditating in the past year, which held no shortage of challenges for everyone, and which also saw Oladokun’s artistry vault onto a national stage. “That’s been a huge lifeline for me this year,” she says. “I’m learning different ways that I can de-stress. Yes, the world can be a mess; yes, my job can be difficult to navigate; but I’m OK and I’m alive. And part of that wrestling is the blessing of this life.” There’s a similarly meditative quality to Oladokun’s music, which found its way into episodes of This Is Us and Grey’s Anatomy before she released her major-label debut,…

My older brother uses racial slurs, supports Trump, and is even anti-vax. My husband says he cannot be around our young children. What should I do? — Juanita Jenkins, Pittsburgh I would take a pass on your older brother. You choose your husband. You didn’t choose your older brother. The kids are more important. If he can’t behave himself and is publicly racist, you can’t have him around your kids. Your husband is right. I don’t envy your situation, the kids are more important. That’s what you have to look at. I met a great guy and we’ve been dating for the last six months, but he loves to hunt and even told me he wants to travel to Africa one day and kill an elephant! Is it wrong…

THE TWO MEN stand shoulder to shoulder, posing for the camera almost like father and son. On the left is former President Donald Trump, flashing that money grin, the light glinting off his golden-yellow tie. On the right is the Republican congressman who, more than any other, has hitched his fortunes to Trump and positioned himself to fill the vacuum left at the top of the Republican Party after Trump’s 2020 defeat. To Trump, he’s known as “my Kevin.” To the rest of us, he’s Rep. Kevin McCarthy of California. For four years, McCarthy dutifully served as one of Trump’s most loyal wingmen in Congress, defending the president after the latest racist tweet, running interference in both impeachment cases, and generally making himself available to do whatever necessary to…