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.

Pages

7:15pm

Sat February 11, 2012
The Record

Whitney Houston: Her Life Played Out Like An Opera

Originally published on Thu November 8, 2012 2:32 pm

Credit David Corio / Getty Images

10:01pm

Wed February 8, 2012
The Record

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

Originally published on Thu November 8, 2012 2:32 pm

Credit Courtesy of Billions

10:00pm

Tue February 7, 2012
The Record

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

Originally published on Thu November 8, 2012 2:31 pm

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

11:39am

Fri January 13, 2012
The Record

Are 140-Character Reviews The Future Of Music Criticism?

Originally published on Thu November 8, 2012 2:28 pm

Credit Mito Habe-Evans / NPR

This week, alternative rock's bible, SPIN magazine, announced that it would eliminate the standard short album review from the magazine (and web site) in order to "reinvent the album review." 21 staffers and freelancers will assess 1,500 albums over the course of the year via single 140-character posts on Twitter.

Read more
Tags: 

3:30pm

Fri November 11, 2011
The Record

'Stairway To Heaven' Turns 40: Celebrate With 7 Covers

Originally published on Thu November 8, 2012 2:25 pm

Credit Paul Natkin / WireImage

Pages