
Stephen Thompson
Stephen Thompson is a writer, editor and reviewer for NPR Music, where he speaks into any microphone that will have him and appears as a frequent panelist on All Songs Considered. Since 2010, Thompson has been a fixture on the NPR roundtable podcast Pop Culture Happy Hour, which he created and developed with NPR correspondent Linda Holmes. In 2008, he and Bob Boilen created the NPR Music video series Tiny Desk Concerts, in which musicians perform at Boilen's desk. (To be more specific, Thompson had the idea, which took seconds, while Boilen created the series, which took years. Thompson will insist upon equal billing until the day he dies.)
In 1993, Thompson founded The Onion's entertainment section, The A.V. Club, which he edited until December 2004. In the years since, he has provided music-themed commentaries for NPR programs such as Weekend Edition, All Things Considered and Morning Edition, on which he earned the distinction of becoming the first member of the NPR Music staff ever to sing on an NPR newsmagazine. (Later, the magic of AutoTune transformed him from a 12th-rate David Archuleta into a fourth-rate Cher.) Thompson's entertainment writing has also run in Paste magazine, The Washington Post and The London Guardian.
During his tenure at The Onion, Thompson edited the 2002 book The Tenacity Of The Cockroach: Conversations With Entertainment's Most Enduring Outsiders (Crown) and copy-edited six best-selling comedy books. While there, he also coached The Onion's softball team to a sizzling 21-42 record, and was once outscored 72-0 in a span of 10 innings. Later in life, Thompson redeemed himself by teaming up with the small gaggle of fleet-footed twentysomethings who won the 2008 NPR Relay Race, a triumph he documents in a hard-hitting essay for the book This Is NPR: The First Forty Years (Chronicle).
A 1994 graduate of the University of Wisconsin, Thompson now lives in Silver Spring, Md., with his girlfriend, his daughter, their three cats and a room full of vintage arcade machines. (He also has a large adult son who has headed off to college but still calls once in a while.) Thompson's hobbies include watching reality television without shame, eating Pringles until his hand has involuntarily twisted itself into a gnarled claw, using the size of his Twitter following to assess his self-worth, touting the immutable moral superiority of the Green Bay Packers (who returned the favor by making a 22-minute documentary about his life) and maintaining a fierce rivalry with all Midwestern states other than Wisconsin.
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What new music is coming out this year that is worth checking out? A preview of two albums that just might make it on to 2022's best of list.
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Members of the NPR Music team this week have been previewing the new music out this year. Another member of the team spotlights two of the albums he's looking forward to hearing.
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NPR's Michel Martin talks with Aisha Harris, host of the Pop Culture Happy Hour podcast, and NPR Music's Stephen Thompson, about how the events of 2020 have forever changed the entertainment industry.
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The Biden administration's pick for Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, is a musician who's released two songs on Spotify under the name "ABlinken."
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Here are a few song recommendations to help you soothe your nerves.
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The guitarist, bandleader and songwriter Eddie Van Halen died on Tuesday. He was 65. NPR remembers his life and legacy.
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Shortly before his death, Prine sat down, in his living room, with producer Dave Cobb to record one last plainspoken reflection. It's a deeply graceful look back at a life well lived.
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A film of the original Broadway cast performing Hamilton was scheduled to hit theaters on Oct. 15, 2021. Now it's coming to Disney+ 15 months ahead of schedule.
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Schlesinger's creative tendrils extended into the catalogs of many other brilliant artists.
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Houston, the only woman included in the 2020 class of a male-dominated institution, will be joined by Biggie Smalls, Nine Inch Nails, The Doobie Brothers, T. Rex and Depeche Mode.
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From Moses Sumney's upcoming double album to a folk supergroup starring two of the minds behind Hadestown and Fruit Bats, here are some of Stephen Thompson's early picks for 2020.
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"I Feel for You" was a smash for Chaka Khan in 1984. Five years earlier, it existed only as a solo demo by a 20-year-old Prince.