Ann Powers
Ann Powers is NPR Music's critic and correspondent. She writes for NPR's music news blog, The Record, and she can be heard on NPR's newsmagazines and music programs .
One of the nation's most notable music critics, Powers has been writing for The Record, NPR's blog about finding, making, buying, sharing and talking about 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.
Her writing extends beyond blogs, magazines and newspapers. Powers co-wrote Tori Amos: Piece By Piece, with Amos, which was published in 2005. In 1999, Power's book Weird Like Us: My Bohemian Americawas published. She was the editor, with Evelyn McDonnell, of the 1995 book Rock She Wrote: Women Write About Rock, Rap, and Pop and the editor of Best Music Writing 2010.
After earning a Bachelor of Arts degree in creative writing from San Francisco State University, Powers went on to receive a Master of Arts degree in English from the University of California.
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Nashville the city, Nashville the TV show, close-harmony groups and two financially viable, independent-minded singers have shattered country music's glass ceiling — and the year's only half over. -
After 10 years out of the public eye, the new album from Bowie, The Next Day,proves he's still a compelling pop star in today's music world. -
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Our critic is down at the SXSW music convention, trying to take in as much of the action as she can. -
Summer, who died on Thursday at 63, created dozens of hits, including "Love To Love You Baby" and "Bad Girls." Over five decades, she combined a light touch, pop theatricality, innovative sounds and an attention to detail that made her into one of pop's best performers. -
The band's performance during last year's Grammy Awards show gave the song a second life.
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Ann Powers on one of the world's biggest singers, who died at age 48 Saturday afternoon. -
The critically-acclaimed band's lead singer is literally the Grammys' poster boy.
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Boys of all types have created tribute and parody videos that realize the comic potential built into Carly Rae Jepsen's rising pop hit.
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Once, American Idol helped establish a new pop songbook and distilled the essence of contemporary stardom. NPR Music's critic, Ann Powers, says those days are gone.
