RSS FeedsAnn Powers, Pop Music Critic
The Latest
ALBUM REVIEW
The pop queen looks at sex as commodity and liberating force.
CRITIC'S NOTEBOOK
The singer's classic hit bridges the generation gap in a new AT & T ad.
POP MUSIC REVIEW
In pure comic-book adventure, the Seattle show is big on heroics.
A bullet in Iraq put Tomas Young in a wheelchair. But with a documentary film and its double-CD music...
IDOL BANTER
Celebrities do what it takes, as long as it means more donations.
POP MUSIC REVIEW
The Pearl Jam frontman opens his first solo tour with an intimate yet powerful performance in Vancouver.
IDOL BANTER
Chikezie is the latest black male singer to find the going rough. It reflects the challenges that face...
IDOL BANTER
"Idol" watchers, it's time to talk about our feelings. I don't mean your fanatical devotion to David Cook...
CRITIC'S NOTEBOOK
Can controlling how and when music is released backfire on artists and fans?
The band breaks from its latest run to talk about rock, three decades into the game.
IDOL BANTER
With Amanda gone, the remaining fit too neatly into five categories.
IDOL BANTER
The show undertakes the Beatles again. But clearly they dream of different things.
CRITIC'S NOTEBOOK
Austin's South by Southwest sings. And it whispers of industry fears, Next Big Thing dreams and the solid...
CRITIC'S NOTEBOOK
In a genre that often favors the androgynous, Nick Cave, Greg Dulli and Mark Lanegan, and Nick Urata of...
CRITIC'S NOTEBOOK
Michael Jackson, unlike Britney and Paris, is too alien to garner the public's sympathy. He should...
TELEVISION / IDOL BANTER
Weak execution hacks away at already questionable song selection.
IDOL BANTER
David Archuleta wows everyone on Lennon's classic with an original interpretion -- by the late Eva...
SHOW TRACKER
Illness and bouts of timidity marked the performances of most. But a few showed there's a fever burning.
POP MUSIC REVIEW
Was (Not Was) revives its dance/avant-garde mash-up at the Orpheum but is not...
CRITICS' ROUNDTABLE
After 25 years, 'Thriller' proves that Jackson's musical glory is worth remembering.
CRITIC'S NOTEBOOK
FROM the long march of dead and living forebears, to the Aretha-led gospel invocation, to Tom Hanks...
POP MUSIC REVIEW
The MusiCares gala honoring the singer is also a celebration of the gospel tradition that shaped her.
ALBUM SPOTLIGHT
"All the Lost Souls" (Atlantic Records)
POP ALBUM REVIEW
"It Won't Be Soon Before Long"(A&M/Octone)
More
POP ALBUM REVIEW
Minutes to Midnight (Warner Bros.)
CRITIC'S NOTEBOOK
Strength, suffering and survival mark the poetry of three artists on the pop-...
REVIEW
The documentary details the controversy that engulfed the Dixie Chicks after...
REVIEW
Cirque Du Soleil is all about personal growth — in the literal sense, celebrating the astounding...
MOVIE / POP MUSIC REVIEW
The movie "Idlewild" and the music of OutKast can learn from each other. The...
THE MUSIC OF WAR
Pop protest, born of unifying slogans, reinvents itself for a new era. But...
