Louder: 5 Minutes That Will Make You Love Percussion

The Playlist

John Mayer’s Retro Moper, and 10 More New Songs

Hear tracks by Liz Phair, Billie Eilish, Sofia Rei and others.

By Jon Pareles, Jon Caramanica, Caryn Ganz and Giovanni Russonello

Olivia Rodrigo’s ‘Sour’ Breakthrough

Few artists making pop music have risen to the top in the past several years. What made this Disney star click with listeners?

J. Cole, Triumphant (at His Own Pace)

The rapper’s sixth No. 1 album is here. Listen to a conversation about his career, and the long exchange between hip-hop and basketball.

Alix Dobkin, Who Sang Songs of Liberation, Dies at 80

She broke new ground in 1973 with her album “Lavender Jane Loves Women,” recorded and distributed by women for women, which sketched out a lesbian separatist utopia.

By Penelope Green

Chi Modu, Photographer Who Defined 1990s Hip-Hop, Dies at 54

His images of the Notorious B.I.G., Tupac Shakur, Dr. Dre and many more helped shape rap music’s visual identity.

By Jon Caramanica

B.J. Thomas Dies at 78; Sang ‘Raindrops Keep Fallin’ on My Head’

Mr. Thomas, who won five Grammys, helped introduce a smooth, down-home sensibility to the AM radio airwaves in the 1960s and ’70s.

By Bill Friskics-Warren

Those We’ve Lost

John Davis, a Voice Behind Milli Vanilli, Dies at 66

The singer was one of the voices behind the pop duo Milli Vanilli, fronted by Fabrice Morvan and Rob Pilatus, who later admitted that they did not sing on their albums or in concert.

By Jesus Jiménez

Some Venue Owners Get a Federal Lifeline. Others Are Told They’re Dead.

The first applications for the Shuttered Venue Operators Grant program, offering $16 billion in federal aid, were approved.

By Ben Sisario, Stacy Cowley and Julia Jacobs

The Charts

Olivia Rodrigo’s ‘Sour’ Scores the Biggest Debut of the Year

The teen pop phenomenon’s first album opened with the equivalent of 295,000 sales in the United States, including the second-best streaming total of 2021 so far.

By Ben Sisario

The Toasts Are Mimed, but the Kennedy Center Honors Return

The pandemic made the ceremony, honoring Debbie Allen, Joan Baez, Garth Brooks, Midori and Dick Van Dyke and airing on TV Sunday, like no other.

By Emily Cochrane

Lines Never Felt So Good: Crowds Herald New York’s Reopening

Museums broke attendance records, movie theaters sold out and jazz fans packed clubs on a Memorial Day weekend that felt far removed from the prior year’s pandemic traumas.

By Julia Jacobs