The New York Times

Popcast

Music EN ↓ 560 episodes

The Popcast is hosted by Jon Caramanica, a pop music critic for The New York Times. It covers the latest in popular music criticism, trends and news. Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher. For more podcasts and narrated articles, download The New York Times app at nytimes.com/app.

Author

The New York Times

Category

Music

Podcast website

www.nytimes.com

Latest episode

Jul 10, 2026

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Episodes

The Sudden Rise of Zach Bryan 05.10.2022

The breakout country-folk singer and songwriter has found an audience for his old-fashioned artistry largely on a newer platform: streaming. Guest: Grady Smith. Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher. For more podcasts and narrated articles, d...

Popcast Live! The New Faces of 2022 22.09.2022

Blondshell, Central Cee, Ethel Cain and more: a conversation about what’s breaking through, plus questions from the audience at our first live taping. Guests: Joe Coscarelli and Caryn Ganz. Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher. For more podc...

The Perseverance of Megan Thee Stallion 14.09.2022

The rapper’s rise has been accompanied by outside noise. How has she grown on record, and how have extra-musical narratives shaped her career? Guests: Rolling Stone's Mankaprr Conteh and Pitchfork's Heven Haile. Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=pod...

What Is a ‘Fake’ Artist in 2022? 31.08.2022

Firestorms over the “virtual rapper” FN Meka and faceless artists on Spotify have sparked conversations about alienation and creative agency. Guests: Joe Coscarelli; Garbage Day's Ryan Broderick; and Music Business Worldwide's Tim Ingham. Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activ...

Rage Against the Machine, Roaring On 24.08.2022

A conversation about the band’s return, its evolving message and the nature of comeback tours. Guests: Rolling Stone's Andy Greene and the writer and "Summer of Soul" producer Joseph Patel. Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher. For more podc...

Beyoncé’s ‘Renaissance’: The Speed Round 17.08.2022

The conversation continues about one of the year’s most ideologically provocative pop albums, its queer inspirations and its credits. Guests: Naima Cochrane, Vulture's Jason P. Frank, Resident Advisor's Kiana Mickles and Patrik Sandberg. Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activa...

A Renaissance in American Hardcore Music 11.08.2022

A look at the recent burst of bands and how the scene operates as music, ethic and feeling. Guests: Stereogum's Tom Breihan and The Ringer's Chris Ryan. Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher. For more podcasts and narrated articles, download...

The Robust Return of Beyoncé 02.08.2022

A deep dive on “Renaissance,” her relationship to queer music communities and her framing of authorship. Guests: Joe Coscarelli, Wesley Morris, Jon Pareles and Salamishah Tillet. Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher. For more podcasts and na...

Lizzo’s Complicated, Joyful Pop 27.07.2022

The singer, rapper and songwriter’s peppy empowerment songs have made her an outlier in a field dominated by melancholic music. Guests: The Ringer's Justin Charity; Lindsay Zoladz; and William Robin. Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher. For...

‘Elvis’ vs. Elvis 13.07.2022

How much do fantasy and imagination play into how we remember pop culture heroes? Guests: A.O. Scott and Alanna Nash. Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher. For more podcasts and narrated articles, download The New York Times app at nytimes.c...

What’s Next for Jack Harlow? 07.07.2022

He’s one of hip-hop’s biggest emerging stars, and he’s cutting a very different path than the white rappers who came before him. Guests: Hunter Harris, Larisha Paul and Peter Rosenberg. Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher. For more podcasts...

Where Is Jazz Most at Home? 29.06.2022

The genre has long been filled with tension between mainstream outlets and the spaces in which the music is most likely to grow. Guests: Giovanni Russonello and WBGO's Nate Chinen. Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher. For more podcasts and...

Drake Hits the Nightclub 22.06.2022

How did the rapper arrive on the dance floor? And what subcultures and expectations might he experiment with next? Guests: Joe Coscarelli and The Baltimore Banner's Lawrence Burney. Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher. For more podcasts and...

Digging Into Bob Dylan and Lou Reed’s Archives 15.06.2022

Attempting to uncover unknown things about very well known people. Guest: Ben Sisario. Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher. For more podcasts and narrated articles, download The New York Times app at nytimes.com/app. Hosted by Simplecast, a...

Mailbag Madness: Adele, Jack Harlow, the State of Rock’s Return 08.06.2022

The team answers your questions about Chance the Rapper, how the critics consider extramusical concerns and more. Guests: Joe Coscarelli, Caryn Ganz and Jon Pareles. Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher. For more podcasts and narrated articl...

Can Harry Styles’s Music Catch Up to His Fame? 01.06.2022

How his time in One Direction and a powerful online fan base have shaped the pop star’s career. Guests: The Atlantic's Kaitlyn Tiffany, and Lindsay Zoladz. Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher. For more podcasts and narrated articles, downlo...

Kendrick Lamar’s Anxiety Era 24.05.2022

During his five-year pause between albums, the rapper has been reckoning — with his own evolution, and the narrative that’s been constructed for him. Guests: Rolling Stone's Jeff Ihaza; New York magazine and Vulture's Craig Jenkins; and The Nation's Stephen Kearse. Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here ht...

How Gossip Is Remaking Online Hip-Hop Media 18.05.2022

Actual music can seem like an afterthought as digital coverage of the genre has tilted toward tabloidism. Are there other paths forward? Guests: HipHopDX's Jerry Barrow; Complex's Andre Gee; and Genius's Rob Markman. Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?sourc...

Why We Collect 11.05.2022

A conversation about the urge to accumulate treasured items and the stories objects can hold. Guest: The New Yorker's Hua Hsu. Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher. For more podcasts and narrated articles, download The New York Times app at...

A Decade of Drill Rap 08.05.2022

Pop Smoke, Lil Durk, Fivio Foreign and more have taken the sound that emerged in Chicago in different directions. What might come next? Guests: Joe Coscarelli and David Drake. Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher. For more podcasts and narra...

Machine Gun Kelly’s Pop-Punk Pivot 27.04.2022

After decreasing returns in the hip-hop world, the musician and actor stepped into a revival that had roots in SoundCloud rap, and a champion in Travis Barker. Guests: Meaghan Garvey and Arielle Gordon. Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher....

Will Smith, Before the Slap 21.04.2022

Plenty has been said about Oscars night. But what about the rapper-turned-actor’s remarkable journey up to that point? Guest: Andscape's Soraya Nadia McDonald. Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher. For more podcasts and narrated articles, do...

The 2022 Grammys: Let’s Discuss 05.04.2022

What are the awards at this point, and who benefits from them? Guests: Jon Pareles, Wesley Morris and Lindsay Zoladz. Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher. For more podcasts and narrated articles, download The New York Times app at nytimes.c...

Charli XCX’s Ever-Evolving Pop 30.03.2022

The singer and songwriter’s career has inspired dance parties as well as spirited conversations about her ambitions and aesthetic innovations. Guests: Hazel Cills and Shaad D’Souza. Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher. For more podcasts and...

The Many Worlds of Rosalía 23.03.2022

The Spanish phenom’s music takes in a host of global influences, making her one of the most sonically ambitious and critically dissected pop artists today. Guest: Joe Coscarelli. Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher. For more podcasts and na...

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