Louder: Bobby Rush Lived the Blues. Six Decades On, He’s Still Playing Them.

The Playlist

Lorde’s Sunburst, and 10 More New Songs

Hear tracks by Ava Max, Clairo, PmBata and others.

By Jon Pareles, Jon Caramanica and Giovanni Russonello

She Was Deeply Moved by Refugees’ Stories. So She Told Them in Song.

“Song to a Refugee,” an inadvertent concept album from the singer and songwriter Diana Jones, strives to center the voices of migrant women.

By Bill Friskics-Warren

‘For Those I Love’ Sets Sad Stories to Electronic Beats

David Balfe never thought the public would hear his deeply personal debut album. But it became a runaway success in his native Ireland.

By Douglas Greenwood

What I Love

For Chloe Flower, the Décor Always Serves the Music

With a few exceptions, the composer and social media influencer’s walls are bare. But who needs art when you have Liberace’s piano?

By Joanne Kaufman

New York City Plans a Central Park Mega-Concert to Celebrate Reopening

The mayor’s office has asked the producer Clive Davis to sign up musical stars for an event on the Great Lawn in August.

By Ben Sisario and Emma G. Fitzsimmons

Bruce Springsteen Will Return to Broadway in June

“Springsteen on Broadway” opens on June 26 at the St. James Theater; audience members will be required to show proof of full Covid-19 vaccination to enter.

By Ben Sisario

Foo Fighters Will Play First Concert Back at Madison Square Garden

The first full-capacity arena concert in New York since March 2020 will feature rock ’n’ roll — but only for fans who are fully vaccinated — on June 20.

By Sarah Bahr

Headliners and Headdresses Return to Las Vegas. Will Tourists Follow?

The first shows to reopen face a challenge: It is hard to draw audiences without tourists, but hard to draw tourists without shows.

By Adam Nagourney

After a ‘Terrible Silence,’ Many of N.Y.C.’s Subway Musicians Are Back

After 14 months away, authorized performers returned to train platforms to play for a reduced ridership.

By Corey Kilgannon

Yoshi Wada, Inventive Creator of Sound Worlds, Dies at 77

A member of the Fluxus performance art movement (and a contractor by trade), he incorporated bagpipes, electronics and, yes, plumber’s materials in his music.

By William Robin

Patrick Sky, ’60s Folk Star and Later a Piper, Dies at 80

He was a part of the folk revival emanating from Greenwich Village, mixing melodic songs and satire. Then he became infatuated with the uilleann pipes.

By Neil Genzlinger

global roundup

McDonald’s outlets in Indonesia are forced to close after a ‘BTS Meal’ frenzy that violated Covid measures.

Crowds of delivery drivers responding to a rush of online orders violated safe distancing measures as they flooded unprepared restaurants.

By Shashank Bengali

Kim Jong-un Calls K-Pop a ‘Vicious Cancer’ in the New Culture War

South Korean music, movies and dramas are winning the hearts of young North Koreans. Their influence is seen as a threat to Mr. Kim’s grip on society.

By Choe Sang-Hun

The Charts

Taylor Swift’s ‘Evermore’ Vaults to No. 1 With a Vinyl Bump

Taking advantage of a Billboard chart tweak in how the sales of physical albums are counted, the singer-songwriter’s six-month-old album returned to the top.

By Ben Sisario

The government vows to fix a plagued relief program for live-event businesses.

More than six weeks after the long-delayed program started taking applications, 14,000 businesses have applied for a Shuttered Venue Operators Grant. Only 90 have been awarded one.

By Stacy Cowley and Ben Sisario

Is the Yeezy Gap Jacket Really Any Good?

The first product of the much-hyped collaboration made a big splash. But can Kanye West actually save Gap?

By Vanessa Friedman

skin deep

Debbie Gibson Is Not Going to Get Stuck in the Past

The pioneering pop singer talks beauty secrets, and a life-changing tweezing session.

By Bee Shapiro