The Year Music Reminded Us About the Beauty of Analog Life
The day before the July release of Renaissance, Beyoncé’s seventh studio album, her management team announced in a press statement that the record would not include visuals as part of its rollout.…
The 12 Best Albums of 2022
All creative industries are bound by trends. Hollywood has its superhero blockbuster. The fashion world its seasonal wunderkind. Silicon Valley loves a disruptor. Before streaming’s age of excess, prestige dramas…
Three Music Legends Collaborated on One Nintendo Game. Sparks Flew
The positive reception to Kingdom Battle meant that Brillaud, Soliani, and Kirkhope were soon discussing plans for the sequel. Soliani wanted to do what Nintendo does with all of its sequels:…
What Music Did You Stream in 2022? Here’s How to Find Your Recaps
Over on Apple Music, the 2022 year-in-review feature is called Apple Music Replay. The best place to get to your highlights is on the web: Sign in using your Apple…
Moog’s New Theramin Etherwave Still Makes Far-Out Sounds
One of the coolest instruments I’ve played this year requires a small history lesson: In 1949, in a small home in Queens, New York, a 14-year-old boy named Robert Moog…
Roland Juno-X Review: A Nostalgic Workhorse
Some sounds never die. Whether it’s classic rock guitarists coveting decades-old guitars and amps or Mac DeMarco messing with ’80s Casio keyboards, there’s something about vintage sounds that goes beyond…
Fender American Vintage II 1961 Stratocaster Review: Closet Classic
Vintage guitars are expensive because most people who play guitar grew up hearing them, seeing them on TV, and dreaming of owning a real one someday. This fact has bolstered…
Stormzy Has Built a Last-of-Its-Kind Social Media Empire
On November 25, UK grime artist Stormzy released his much-anticipated third album, This Is What I Mean. Critically lauded, the record marked an ambitious attempt from the multifaceted MC to encapsulate himself…
26 Gifts Ideas for Audiophiles and Music Lovers (2022): Record Players, Speakers, Headphones
Whether you’re trying to find a turntable so Mom and Dad can bust out their vintage vinyl collection, or you want to give the gift of great sound to a…
How to Start a Cassette Collection in the 21st Century
When you walk into a record store, the cassette section (yes, record stores have cassette sections again) won’t be just filled with old cassettes, but rather freshly shrink-wrapped albums from…
Victrola’s Portable Record Player Brings the Party Anywhere
I love spinning records on my turntable, but my setup doesn’t leave me much time to actually use it. My system and records currently sit in my living room next…
The Big Problem With Spotify Wrapped
For some, Black Friday ushers in the holiday season. But for others, it’s when they open Spotify on a late autumn day and see their Spotify Wrapped is available. It’s the opening…
This Singer Deepfaked Her Own Voice—and Thinks You Should Too
In 2019, Herndon released PROTO, a collaboration with an AI created by Herndon and her regular group of collaborators, including her partner Mat Dryhurst. They called it Spawn and they saw…
65daysofstatic’s ‘Wreckage Systems’ Pushes Algorithmic Music
“We will not retreat. This band is unstoppable!” These sampled words, which come at the peak of “Retreat! Retreat!,” an anthemic song by the instrumental post-rock band 65daysofstatic, have long…
18 Best Wireless Headphones (2022): Earbuds, Noise Canceling, and More
Whether you’re listening to the latest episode of the Gadget Lab podcast or hitting the trail with Taylor Swift’s album on repeat, the right pair of wireless headphones can make…
The OkCupid Dev Who Built a Hack to Get Taylor Swift Tickets
The Monitor is a weekly column devoted to everything happening in the WIRED world of culture, from movies to memes, TV to Twitter. On Tuesday morning, Ruben Martinez Jr. was…
The Taylor Swift Chaos Is a Reckoning for Ticketmaster
Taylor Swift fans were eagerly waiting Monday for their golden ticket: a verified code that would grant them entry to Ticketmaster’s presale for the icon’s upcoming Eras Tour. The following…
The Real Story of How the Weird Al Movie Scored Fake Cameos
“Weird Al” Yankovic: I just went through my address book and emailed a bunch of people. I was looking for people who happened to be in town and available on…
TikTok Turned Lil Yachty’s ‘Poland’ Into a National Anthem
Lil Yachty’s “Poland” is 83 seconds long, jarringly repetitive, and purposefully obtuse. And yet, in the hands of TikTok, it’s become a smash, cracking the top half of the Billboard…
Rihanna, ‘Black Panther,’ and the Panic of Anticipation
The Monitor is a weekly column devoted to everything happening in the WIRED world of culture, from movies to memes, TV to Twitter. The Navy must be losing their minds.…
The ‘M3GAN’ Dance Meme: Vicious Dolls Could Dominate 2023
The Monitor is a weekly column devoted to everything happening in the WIRED world of culture, from movies to memes, TV to Twitter. You know what’s always been scary as…
John Carpenter Is Finally Happy—and Making Music
When he was 8 years old, John Carpenter picked up the violin. His father, a violinist himself and a music teacher, was his tutor. “The only problem,” Carpenter cackles on…
Brian Eno on Why He Wrote a Climate Album With Deepfake Birdsongs
One transition I liked on the album was “Garden of Stars” to “Inclusion,” which comes as a relief. It made me think of the fire lily growing after wildfires. That’s…
How ‘The Mandalorian’ Inspired One of the Year’s Best Rap Videos
Like so many kids of the Blockbuster generation, the eclectic Miami rapper Denzel Curry, 27, grew up renting the same movie over and over. For Curry, it was Star Wars:…
Streamers Use Playlists to Control the Music Industry
Paul Johnson’s life was like any other struggling musician’s—working multiple jobs, picking up gigs, hustling. Then his warm acoustic folk-pop tune “Firework” made it on to one of Spotify’s Fresh…