Welcome to another edition of Rhap Radar, our month-long survey of 24 up-and-coming artists that excite us. For a peek at what you've missed so far, here's a playlist of our first dozen honorees. And now we move on to a new batch, featuring a slow-burning blog-rap upstart, an Afro-Latin innovator (and politician!), Radiohead-esque indie rockers, a nostalgia-drenched electro-funker, and two women named Natalia (one a Latin-pop diva, the other a will.i.am-abetted pop star in training). Read on and listen in below.Com Truise: The Synthesizer-Wielding Retro-Futurist
Welcome back to 
This week brings us one of the year's most anticipated albums: London's masked producer SBTRKT has finally arrived with his debut full-length. Featuring a diverse and wildly talented bunch of singers (including Little Dragon's Yukimi Nagano), it's a stunning realignment of pop along bass music's principles — or perhaps vice versa. Recent Ghostly signing Com Truise and the Oneohtrix Point Never-related Ford & Lopatin, meanwhile, prove that there's still plenty of future left in '80s electro pop, while Sarcastic Disco hero DJ Harvey brings us bleary-eyed Balearica with his Locussolus project, and Berlin's Trickski puts a slow-motion spin on house music.
Ever since fusion devolved into flaccid pop-jazz in the 1980s, the genre has been treated with suspicion by more than a few jazz snobs. In fact, fusion didn't get a fair shake right out of the gate. When Miles Davis went electric and started performing before rock audiences, critics couldn't stop condemning the man. "SELLOUT!" they proclaimed ad nauseam, even though the music he made was wildly challenging and ambitious.
"Delayed gratification" is the theme of June's rap slate. Big Sean's Finally Famous has arrived long after the Detroit rapper signed to G.O.O.D. Music in 2007. Bad Meets Evil's Hell: The Sequel is a "follow-up" to an abandoned album once planned for the end of the '90s, back when 
Big Sean and the Leaders of the New Rap School playlist
We're a little more than halfway through 
One of music's biggest stars has gifted us with one of this summer's biggest albums: yeah, you might say 
When we think of 
"
After three solo albums and a full tour of duty in 
If you grew up in the Midwest, you know what the 4-H Club stands for. I mean, what it really stands for — not just the "head, heart, hands and health" motto that makes up the four H's. The idea is simple: teach young people and their families the skills they need to be proactive forces in their communities, and develop ideas for a more innovative economy. The program revolutionized the way science was taught outside the classroom; in 100+ years of active service, more than 60 million youth have used the program, from elementary school kids to high school seniors.
The 1995 film 
Welcome back to 
By 1998, 
Metal, as always, is detonating in several directions at once. But one encouraging trend seems to be a return to a certain songfulness — as if, after two decades-plus of metal mainly aiming to be "extreme" at the expense of musicality, the most forward-looking headbangers are suddenly beginning to realize that incomprehensibly thrown-up vocals (for instance) became a cliché eons ago, and having memorable songs doesn't automatically make you less heavy. 
Welcome to 
The latest installment of my Rock Roundup column is dominated by legends and icons. Who can argue when Neil Young drops A Treasure, a rootsy live set from the mid-1980s that's heavy on Nashville flavor? And who can resist when Macca releases expanded editions of McCartney and McCartney II? The latter is a stone-cold masterpiece: homemade synth-pop that morphs from quirky to bizarre. There's this one bonus track called "Check My Machine" that sounds like proto-hypnagogic pop! (James Ferraro, you listening?) Also, don't sleep on The Hollies box set that gets an "honorable mentions" shout-out: those dudes were pop badasses. I never tire of "
Welcome to week two of 
Back in their early days, 
Been living under a rock lately? Or perhaps just listening to too much rock? Catch up on the latest and greatest in new pop fare with our June Pop Roundup. Complete with nutshell reviews and don't-miss tracks, we break down the Top 10 releases of the last few months, from New Boyz to NKOTBSB, from newcomer Tinie Tempah to a certain Lady you may have heard a thing or two about. 
Earnest high school Anglophiles prefer to keep a low profile, ya know, because they're just a little cooler than you are, and also usually just a bit down and out. (It is always cold and rainy in their world.) But in reality, they're quite an easy lot to spot. They'll likely be decked out in a pair of skinny jeans, Doc Martens and a 
By now we've got a pretty good handle on the biggest stars of 2011: 
Summer is here, and we all know what that means: beaches, barbecues, road trips, soaring temperatures, plummeting inhibitions, and generally lots and lots of what our good friends 
One aspect of summer that never fails to surprise is that the year is now nearly half over: we are closer to 2011's year-end critics-poll season than we are to 2010's. You've started drafting your own Top 10 list already, right? No? You haven't? Don't panic: here, Rhapsody's genre editors each pick their five favorite records of the year so far. How many will survive until November? Which ones will be replaced by Lil Wayne, by Beyoncé, by the soundtrack to Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark? Time will tell, but for now, here are our picks for the year's best, half a year early. 
Summer, summer, summertime. It's that time of year again: barbecues, bikinis, lazy days at the beach and, of course, summer jams — those songs that just somehow define the best season of them all. We've assembled a massive collection here: more than seven hours of summer-themed classics, from "
Summer jams. Everyone's got one. That song that evokes instant images of sun and fun, that makes you smell the barbecue and taste the daiquiri, that just sings summer to you. But what does your summer jam of choice say about you and, more importantly, your summer personality? We've developed this handy-dandy little guide to psychoanalyzing your summer anthem —or at least finding the perfect drink to pair with it.
I'm attempting to nail two themes with this, my latest cheat sheet. The first is a celebration of summer, of hanging on front porches while cranking killer rock 'n' roll. I know this concept has been slayed to death through the years, but only because it's a durable one. Rock music is capable of speaking to the deepest depths of the soul, as well as the most abstruse pockets of the brain. But oftentimes its most potent powers manifest themselves when in service of nothing more than good times and hanging out. The perfect chair, a rickety porch and sunlight filtered in just the right way can fuse with your favorite jams to elevate summer-month leisure time into something sublime and unique, something that infuses life with real meaning. Example: to this very day, I'll never forget the first time I heard 
Nothing says "summer" quite like the murmur of the tide and the shrieks of seagulls wheeling in the setting sun.
If they were really honest, most bandmembers would probably admit they’ve dreamed about being their group's frontman (or frontwoman) - and that frontman (or frontwoman) would cop to imagining what it would be like to go solo. No more collaborating, no more sharing the spotlight: they would be free to be the artist they were meant to be!
It's time for another look into the past month of new indie releases. We've got the vets (Death Cab, My Morning Jacket, Thurston Moore, Arctic Monkeys), along with some buzz-y newcomers (Cults, Givers, Foster the People) and exclusive live sets from indie mainstays Deerhunter and Kurt Vile. For more info on each release, read on and play away.
Do a little dance y'all! (Like this y'all, like that y'all!) Feel the groove! (I feel it, I feel it now!) Make a little love now! (Ooh, aah, ooh ooh, aah!) This party's at the funhouse, we're rocking high-top fades, Cross Colours tees and high-top Jordans, and the sound is the New Jack Swing.
A bunch of punk kids form their own adult-scaring, mainstream-baiting subculture with a unique style, slang and sound. Sound familiar? That's the recipe for basically every pop music style ever, but the particular concoction we're talking about here resulted in the Latin-laden R&B and swing genre known as pachuco boogie, which came to life in the '40s and '50s.
Ready? OK! Picture it: it's 2002-ish. You're a senior and totally, like, the hottest girl in school. Oh, and you're a cheerleader. Duh! Life is pretty sweet: you get to wear super-short skirts to school, you're dating the point guard, and Bring It On (and the sequel!) just came out, so everyone is, like, totally into cheerleaders right now. (As if they weren't already!) And? Bonus! The pop music of the day is totally awesome for killer floor routines: big, dance-pop beats (perfect for pom ripples!), and sexy (but not too sexy) lyrics performed by hot boys and girls who look like (or at least as good as) cheerleaders. (
May was Asian-Pacific American Heritage Month, a celebration of the history and contemporary contributions of Asian communities and cultures to this country. That celebration includes the roles Asian-Pacific artists have played in American popular music—contributions that have all too often been overlooked, underappreciated or restricted. The history of American pop music has often been a predominantly black-and-white (and sometimes Latino) one; Asian artists struggle to get noticed and acquire record deals in a demographics-based industry that doesn't seem to know how to market them. But even those artists who do make it often get written out of the history books: see, for instance, the Asian-American big bands who toured the country during the swing era, or even the more recent contributions of West Coast Filipino DJ culture to hip-hop.
Electronic pop is the most vocal that it's been in years. Between acts like Planningtorock, Austra and Glasser, we're riding a wave of strong new voices wrapped artfully in idiosyncratic sonics and synth-pop productions. Artists like James Blake and Gang Gang Dance, meanwhile, are using vocals as waveforms to be manipulated, tracing the human/machine interface with wires wrapped around vocal cords.
Heavy metal may well be the Viking soundtrack to an endless tundra of ice and snow and darkness, but the genre's also obviously always been obsessed with interminable conflagration amid Dante's nine steamin'-hot circles of Hell. Seriously: if you want a really excellent suntan all year 'round, metal's where to go. Google "kneecap burning sensation," as this writer did recently, and the No. 3 possible cause (right behind "patellar bursitis" and "peripheral neuropathy") is "heavy metal exposure" — true fact! So in honor of metal's "Eternal Summer" (as apparent 
First off, there are those who question the very existence of a 
The song "
Whether you're a fan of country pop, traditional fare or something a bit more alt-leaning, we've got something for you in our spring roundup of new country releases. This time around, we're highlighting new albums from superstars (Brad Paisley), legends (Levon Helm) and newcomers (Craig Campbell) alike, along with a bevy of fresh singles from both well-known artists (including Kenny Chesney and Neil Young) and up-and-comers like Hunter Hayes. It's all just a click away.
Regional Mexican music is a wide and varied world with hotly contested borders — its vast yet insular nature can be completely overwhelming to neophytes. From brass-tastic banda to romantic ranchera, from grisly narcocorridos to jubilant polkas (all sometimes in the same song!), this diverse swath of music pulses with the richness of Mexican cultures on either side of the border. The terrain encompasses the sounds of accordions and synthesizers, sticky-sweet pop and centuries-old folk traditions. It's a pretty exciting journey to take, and that's especially been the case in the first half of 2011, which has seen big-name release after big-name release (plus plenty of noise from hot new up-and-comers). We've rounded up this spring's hottest new releases in Norteño, banda, Tex-Mex/Tejano, duranguense, ranchera and more. So get ready to explore, and if you start to feel lost, just remember: almost all roads lead to Los Tigres del Norte.
Portions of album content provided by All Music Guide © 2011 All Media Guide, LLC ® 1999-2011 Rhapsody International Inc.