Louder: Lorde, Revealed, in ‘Diary of a Song’

August 6, 2021

By Caryn Ganz

Pop Music Editor

“Diary of a Song” returns this week with Joe Coscarelli grilling Lorde about her big mood shift, from the broodier fare of “Melodrama” to the sunny summertime pop of “Solar Power.” (Watch to the end for a surprise about when they met at a bodega.) Jon Caramanica took in the 129-song “The Smithsonian Anthology of Hip-Hop and Rap” and examined its makers’ nearly impossible task: pinning down a constantly moving genre. Lindsay Zoladz reviewed Billie Eilish’s new album, “Happier Than Ever,” a meditation on how much of herself to share with a public demanding ever more of her.

And big news about Aaliyah’s catalog, long absent from streaming, arriving on platforms later his month. What’s really going on there? Ben Sisario explains.

DIARY OF A SONG

The New York Times

Diary of a Song

How Lorde Grew Up, Embraced Guitars and Made a Feel-Good Summer Song

“Solar Power” was built on nostalgia for early 2000s pop, a newfound feeling of freedom and the singer-songwriter’s ongoing love for her New Zealand home. See how she did it.

By Joe Coscarelli

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Billie Eilish’s Uneasy View From the Top

On her second album, “Happier Than Ever,” the 19-year-old pop phenomenon takes on new anxieties and adversaries — and debates just how much of herself to reveal.

By Lindsay Zoladz

The Playlist

The Weeknd’s Disco Fever, and 9 More New Songs

Hear tracks by Aventura and Bad Bunny, Guns N’ Roses, Aimee Mann and others.

By Jon Pareles, Jon Caramanica, Isabelia Herrera and Giovanni Russonello

Jack Mitchell

Critic’s Notebook

How Do You Capture Four Decades of Hip-Hop? Very Broadly.

“The Smithsonian Anthology of Hip-Hop and Rap,” a 129-song boxed set, has a very challenging (and maybe impossible) goal: pinning down a constantly evolving genre.

By Jon Caramanica

Critic’s Notebook

As Bang on a Can Returns, a New Generation Rises

After months of livestreamed marathons, the new music collective was back to in-person performance with a two-day festival.

By Seth Colter Walls

Critic’s Pick

‘Bix’ Review: A Jazz Legend Fondly Remembered

The composer and cornet player Bix Beiderbecke changed music forever in a very short life. A restored documentary from the ’80s goes into the details.

By Glenn Kenny

STYLES

Shoe Obsession for the Ages: Prince’s Killer Collection of Custom Heels, Now on View

The beautiful ones, they hurt you every time.

By Sally Franson

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The Unsettling Music That Drives Artistic Swimming

At the Tokyo Games, the music selected by artistic swimming teams often was better suited to a horror movie than to a symphony matinee.

By Victor Mather and Alexandra Garcia

Stephanie Keith for The New York Times

The Nights When New York Felt Alive Again

Over eight weeks this summer we documented nightlife as New Yorkers returned to the city’s deeply missed party scene. It ended up being a brief window of freedom, a hint at what we hope will be waiting for us on the other side of the pandemic.

By Julia Carmel, Jonah Markowitz, Jeffrey Furticella, Andrew Hinderaker, Meghan Louttit and Rebecca Lieberman

Angie Wang

5 Minutes That Will Make You Love Stravinsky

Dive into the composer who changed music history and gave Mikhail Baryshnikov “my first heady sniff of the West.”

OBITUARIES

Johnny Ventura, Who Created the Sound of Modern Merengue, Dies at 81

The “Elvis of Merengue” released more than 100 albums and won six Latin Grammys. For a time, he was mayor of the capital of the Dominican Republic.

By Gavin Edwards

Patricia Kennealy-Morrison, Rock Journalist, Dies at 75

She took the music seriously at a time when not many writers did. Among her books was a memoir of her life with one of its biggest stars, Jim Morrison.

By Neil Genzlinger

Willie Winfield, Angelic-Voiced Doo-Wop Singer, Is Dead at 91

For more than 60 years, he sang with various incarnations of the Harptones. “His voice was unique,” one concert producer said, “and it lasted his whole life.”

By Richard Sandomir

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Aaliyah’s Music Will Finally Be Streaming. What Took So Long?

Twenty years after one of the most celebrated stars of ’90s R&B died in a plane crash, her songs — like “Try Again” and “If Your Girl Only Knew” — will be widely available.

By Ben Sisario

Britney Spears Asks for Quick Hearing to Oust Her Father as Conservator

In a court filing on Thursday, a lawyer for the singer said that she would be harmed if her request to remove her father was left unheard until late September, as now scheduled.

By Liz Day

More Events Drop DaBaby After His Homophobic Remarks

The rapper apologized on Monday after being criticized for asking fans at a performance to raise their phones in the air if they didn’t have H.I.V. or AIDS.

By Alyssa Lukpat

Lincoln Center, Seeking Wider Range, Names New Artistic Leader

Shanta Thake, a theater executive, faces challenges that include helping the center embrace new genres and attract virus-wary audiences.

By Javier C. Hernández

With #MeToo Case, China Takes a Swipe at Celebrity Obsession

The detention of Kris Wu, a popular Canadian singer, has been hailed as a rare victory for the movement. But Beijing, wary of social activism, has cast it as a warning to celebrities.

By Amy Qin and Elsie Chen

The Charts

The Kid Laroi’s Ever-Growing Mixtape Is Now a No. 1 Album

By continually adding songs to “____ Love,” the teenage rapper and singer’s label pushed a release that arrived a year ago to the top of the Billboard 200.

By Ben Sisario

Want Free Central Park Concert Tickets? Keep Trying.

The first batches of free tickets to the “We Love NYC: The Homecoming Concert” are being released online this week. They can be gotten, with patience.

By Laura Zornosa

The Offspring’s drummer says he was dropped from the band over being unvaccinated.

“It has recently been decided that I am unsafe to be around, in the studio, and on tour,” Pete Parada said, citing medical reasons for not getting vaccinated.

By Derrick Bryson Taylor