Ann Powers

Ann Powers is NPR Music's critic and correspondent. She writes for NPR.org and she can be heard on NPR's newsmagazines and music podcasts . One of the nation's most notable music critics, Powers has been writing for NPR Music since April 2011. Powers served as chief pop music critic at the Los Angeles Times from 2006 until she joined NPR. Prior to the Los Angeles Times , she was senior critic at Blender and senior curator at Experience Music Project. From 1997 to 2001 Powers was a pop critic at The New York Times and before that worked as a senior editor at the Village Voice . Powers began her career working as an editor and columnist at San Francisco Weekly . July 10, 2026 • With the release of the Rolling Stones' latest studio effort, "Foreign Tongues," NPR Music's Ann Powers reviews that album and makes the case for Mick and Keith to keep going as long as they want. Musician Ben Gibbard of the band The Postal Service performs onstage during day 2 of the 2013 Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival at the Empire Polo Club on April 13, 2013 in Indio, California. Kevin Winter/Getty Images for Coachella hide caption July 2, 2026 • The origin story of The Postal Service is as simple (and twee) as they come: An electronic music producer (Jimmy Tamborello) and an indie rock singer-songwriter (Ben Gibbard) decide to collaborate on a few songs, sending each other music via snail mail. But The Postal Service’s only album, Give Up , eventually went platinum, and the band is selling out arenas decades later. It’s a record that seems to have captured how rapid advances in technology would change how we communicate and even love, bridging the distances that separate us. Musician Eddie Cochran performing onstage with his guitar circa 1958. Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images hide caption June 18, 2026 • With the summer solstice upon us, we’re looking back at a song that really nails the season in the opposite way that you’d expect. It’s a song about how summer is not always fun and why that's the case—and it’s since inspired dozens of high-profile covers and influenced a trove of other summer bummer songs. From right to left, actors Richard O'Brien, Tim Curry and Patricia Quinn as Riff Raff, Dr Frank-N-Furter and Magenta respectively, on a lobby card from the 1975 musical comedy 'The Rocky Horror Picture Show', produced by 20th Century Fox. Movie Poster Image Art/Getty Images hide caption June 4, 2026 • The latest revival of “The Rocky Horror Show,” which first appeared on stage in London in 1973 and later became a cult movie classic, is nominated for nine Tony Awards this year. The show's continued resonance is no surprise—after all, its most popular song is one that’s exceeded the frame of the musical and captured the hearts of countercultural weirdos all over. May 22, 2026 • Aja Monet. Jack Antonoff's Bleachers. Radiohead's Ed O'Brien. Guest host Ann Powers chats with Aurora McGuckin of MVY Radio in Massachusetts about their favorite albums out Friday, May 22. Plus, a handful of NPR Music writers and critics offer their personal picks in the lightning round. Trent Renzor of Nine Inch Nails performs at 106.7 KROQ's "Almost Acoustic Christmas" at Gibson Ampitheater at Universal Studios on December 10, 2005 in Los Angeles, California. Karl Walter/Getty Images hide caption May 21, 2026 • It’s a song that contains one of the most notorious F-bombs ever committed to tape, but if you scrub underneath its grimy surface, you can find the influences of industrial music, transgressive art, and even Prince. You may also find the seeds that led to Trent Reznor’s perhaps surprising, multifaceted career today. Salt-N-Pepa pose with their Grammys for Best Rap Performance by a Group on March 1, 1995, at the 37th Annual Grammy Awards in Los Angeles. Philippe AIMAR / AFP via Getty Images hide caption May 7, 2026 • On paper, “Push It” seems incredibly simple. But once you dig into the details—the vocal expressivity, the creative interpolations