Pop Culture

TV, movies, pop music and more.

TV, movies, pop music and more.

Highlights

  1. PhotoFrom left: Max Weinberg, Charlie Giordano, Bruce Springsteen, Roy Bittan and Garry Tallent in the studio. Springsteen’s new album with the E Street Band, “Letter to You,” is due Friday.
    CreditRob DeMartin

    Bruce Springsteen Is Living in the Moment

    “Letter to You,” his new album with the E Street Band, is built on lessons and skills accumulated in the past. But the Boss is focused on where he stands now — and where he’s going next.

    By

  2. Photo
    CreditJon Kopaloff/Getty Images

    My Ten

    Sam Smith Is Finding a Place Inside Queer Spaces

    Preparing to release their third album, “Love Goes,” the singer and songwriter talked about the films, club nights and images on their list of cultural must-haves.

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    1. PhotoThey’re all in this together: David Byrne surrounded by, clockwise from top left, the musicians and vocalists Bobby Wooten III and Angie Swan, and the dancers and vocalists Chris Giarmo and Tendayi Kuumba in “American Utopia.”
      CreditDavid Lee/HBO

      When David Byrne Got Together With Spike Lee

      The creative forces behind the new movie “American Utopia” were in search of a sense of connection and community even before the pandemic.

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    2. Photo
      CreditGetty Images and The New York Times

      Critic’s notebook

      The East Village, Home of Punks and Poets: Here’s a Tour

      Luc Sante, author of “Low Life,” chats about the neighborhood’s history, including CBGB, Warhol’s Electric Circus and the Tompkins Square Park riots.

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  1. Photo
    CreditJoe LaBracio/CBS

    11 Reality Shows to Watch With Your Older Kids

    A list of series that are exciting, funny, educational and exactly the kind of television that parents should be watching with their preteen and teenage children.

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  2. PhotoBig Boys, seen here onstage in 1984, were one of the bands that made Texas an unexpected stronghold of the American independent underground.
    CreditPat Blashill

    Texas Punk Rock, Straight From the Pit

    Pat Blashill’s photo book “Texas Is the Reason” captures the energy and anarchy of Austin’s burgeoning scene between 1979 and 1987.

    By Jeremy Gordon and

  3. An Appraisal

    PhotoEddie Van Halen was architect and vandal at the same time.
    CreditRoss Marino/Getty Images

    Eddie Van Halen, the Shredder Supreme

    The guitarist, who died this week at 65, gleefully reinvented the rules of being a guitar hero — then bent them again and again.

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  4. Photo
    CreditVictor Llorente for The New York Times

    In ‘Next,’ a ‘Mad Men’ Star Gets Madder

    John Slattery stars as an irascible former tech titan in the new Fox drama. In a conversation, he discusses artificial intelligence, Emmy disappointment and life as a middle-aged sex symbol.

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  5. PhotoRóisín Murphy has been releasing innovative, theatrically minded disco music for two decades.
    CreditRosie Marks for The New York Times

    Róisín Murphy, a Disco Queen Ruling Her Own Galaxy

    The Irish innovator has been putting her own spin on glittery music for two decades. In a year full of dance-pop releases, she’s returning to shake things up yet again.

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