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 America was 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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The global pandemic has caused extreme financial uncertainty for artists, particularly those who work independently. -
Roberta Flack is only solo artist to win two consecutive Record of the Year Grammys and she helped usher in an enduring style of R&B. Could she be pop music's most under-appreciated influence? -
In a ceremony that front-loaded performances by women and black artists, mixed messages sparked both cynicism and cautious hope. -
Dolly Parton, Carla Thomas, Fanny, The Runaways and Salt n Pepa are just some of the women who should be in the Hall by now. -
As part of NPR's series "One-Hit Wonders / Second-Best Songs," NPR Music's Ann Powers nominates "Jesse" by Janis Ian. She's known mostly for her 1975 hit "At Seventeen." -
NPR Music's Ann Powers and Rodney Carmichael discuss albums they're looking forward to, as well as the artists they're begging to come back. -
A playlist of 50 notable songs from this year, paired with older ones that connect with them spiritually or sonically. -
Emerging as a major pop star in 2019, Eilish is emblematic of her moment: a rebel who is also a popular kid, a loud cultural presence emanating from a carefully maintained private place. -
The Grammy nominations are ripe for attempts to predict the future of popular music — but this year, we need to examine just one category to see how much everything is changing, and already has. -
In light of the ongoing acrimony between Taylor Swift, the boss of her former label and the mega-manager who purchased that label, a list of songs of artists railing against the powers that be.
