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.

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2:53pm

Thu November 1, 2012
The Record

Go See The Old Guys

Originally published on Mon November 5, 2012 5:22 am

Neil Young made me write this. Before last Thursday, when ol' Shakey and his golden garage band Crazy Horse stomped through my local amphitheater, the last thing I'd thought I'd be excited about was a bunch of guys hovering around 70, playing loud rock and roll into the night.

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12:15pm

Fri October 26, 2012
The Record

'Nashville' Duets: Voices In Harmony And Conflict

Originally published on Mon November 5, 2012 9:07 am

Credit Katherine Bomboy-Thornton / ABC

1:19pm

Thu October 18, 2012
The Record

For The Ladies: R. Kelly, Teddy Pendergrass And The State Of R&B

Originally published on Sat October 20, 2012 1:49 pm

Credit Randee St. Nicholas / RCA Records

9:49am

Wed October 17, 2012
The Record

Tori Amos On Her Muses, Her Song Girls And Her Father

Originally published on Tue February 26, 2013 2:35 pm

Credit Ebru Yildiz for NPR

Two weeks ago, the inimitable Tori Amos played an intimate show at Le Poisson Rouge in New York City, accompanied by a string octet, in celebration of the release of her retrospective album Gold Dust.

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2:37pm

Thu September 20, 2012
The Record

Why Some Musicians Last

Originally published on Fri September 21, 2012 10:53 am

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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