Ann Powers

Credit Mito Habe-Evans / NPR

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.

5:19am

Thu June 6, 2013
Music

Country Music's Year Of The Woman

Originally published on Thu June 6, 2013 9:38 am

Credit Kevin Winter/ACMA2013 / Getty Images for ACM

Sometimes, it can be difficult to notice a cultural sea change. At first, there's just a little, unexpected turn in the tide. But then, whoosh! The new current takes over, and old preconceptions are swept away. Country music seems to be in the middle of this process now.

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5:38pm

Thu September 20, 2012
The Record

Why Some Musicians Last

Originally published on Fri September 21, 2012 12:53 pm

The mists of eternity wafted over my Twitter feed the other night. Okay, not quite — but talk of eternity, or at least of the pop scene in thirty years, did make for a lengthy and spirited group exchange. It started when a friend who's not fond of singing competitions asked whether Kelly Clarkson will be remembered in 2042.

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4:19pm

Tue August 7, 2012
The Record

Antony's 'Future Feminism': Stage Banter As Statement Of Purpose

Originally published on Tue September 18, 2012 7:22 pm

Credit Jan Erik Svendsen / Courtesy of the artist

4:16pm

Sun August 5, 2012
The Record

On Bob Dylan And Jonah Lehrer, Two Fabulists

Originally published on Tue September 18, 2012 7:24 pm

Credit Fiona Adams / Redferns/Getty Images

Yesterday my husband and I had the same thought at the same time. It's not an uncommon occurrence for two writers who've spent decades arguing and enthusing about pop music. I mention it, in part, to stave off accusations that I'm plagiarizing from a nearby source, but also because I think what we reflected upon in light of the writer Jonah Lehrer's fatal mistake was probably in the minds of many music obsessives.

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8:06pm

Mon June 25, 2012
The Record

Springsteen's American Dream, Beautiful And Bleak

Originally published on Tue September 18, 2012 7:39 pm

Credit Richard E. Aaron / Redferns

5:29pm

Thu May 17, 2012
The Record

The Many Voices Of Donna Summer

Originally published on Thu November 8, 2012 4:36 pm

Pop singer Donna Summer, whose long career began in the 1960s and reached its apex in the disco era of the '70s, died of cancer on Thursday at her home in Naples, Florida. Summer was 63 years old. According to Billboard magazine, the singer born LaDonna Gaines had 32 singles that charted in the Hot 100. Fourteen of them made it into the top 10. To hear Sami Yenigun's appreciation of Donna Summer's life and career, as heard on All Things Considered, click the audio link.

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9:15pm

Sat February 11, 2012
The Record

Whitney Houston: Her Life Played Out Like An Opera

Originally published on Thu November 8, 2012 4:32 pm

Credit David Corio / Getty Images

12:01am

Thu February 9, 2012
The Record

Get To Know The Song Of The Year Nominees: Mumford And Sons' 'The Cave'

Originally published on Thu November 8, 2012 4:32 pm

Credit Courtesy of Billions

12:00am

Wed February 8, 2012
The Record

Get To Know The Song Of The Year Nominees: Bon Iver, 'Holocene'

Originally published on Thu November 8, 2012 4:31 pm

Credit D.L. Anderson / Courtesy of Shore Fire Media