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.)
The K-pop group has officially returned from its four-year hiatus bigger than ever. Based solely on first-week sales, there's only one artist who has done any better.
The roots music maverick did something rare in the streaming era: landed an album that's only available on CD, cassette and LP — without his name on the sleeve — in the top five of the albums chart.