Maura Johnston
I've written about music and culture for 20 years, with pieces published in The New York Times, Time, The Boston Globe, and Rolling Stone, among others. In 2013 I founded the culture periodical Maura Magazine.
I'm an adjunct instructor in the journalism department at Boston College, where I teach two classes: Writing About Popular Music and Journalism and New Media.
I was a founding editor of the music blog Idolator and served as the music editor at The Village Voice.
I went to undergrad at Northwestern University; my graduation speakers were Bill Cosby and Rahm Emanuel, if you want the gist of how different times were back then.
30 articles
List of articles in the library
Dirty Projectors, Solange Knowles, and the Perils of Music-Racism
Comment by Maura Johnston, The Village Voice, 19 January 2010
On 'Stillness Is the Move' and the uselessness of genre. ...
Drake, Paramore: Paramore, Drake Rock Into the Night at New Jersey's Bamboozle
Live Review by Maura Johnston, Rolling Stone, 2 May 2010
DURING THE DAYLIGHT HOURS of the two-day New Jersey parking-lot festival known as the Bamboozle, attendees wander around the Meadowlands grounds, scoring rides on the ...
Indigo Girls, Sarah McLachlan, Cat Power, Suzanne Vega: The Lilith Fair Abides
Report by Maura Johnston, The Village Voice, 4 August 2010
A late-'90s fest returns with great ideas (the Lilipad!), throwback headliners, and terrible marketing. ...
Lana Del Rey: Is Lana Del Rey The Kreayshawn Of Moody, Electro-Tinged "Indie"?
Report by Maura Johnston, The Village Voice, 15 September 2011
LAST NIGHT, Glasslands played host to a "secret" show by Lana Del Rey, an up-and-coming singer who was described by the one press release I ...
Ellen Willis: Out of the Vinyl Deeps
Book Review by Maura Johnston, The Village Voice, 5 October 2011
The late New Yorker pop critic and Voice editor's work still vibrates off the page in Out of the Vinyl Deeps. ...
Deadmau5, Portishead: Portishead: Hammerstein Ballroom/Deadmau5: Roseland, NYC
Live Review by Maura Johnston, The Village Voice, 12 October 2011
AT A LIVE MUSIC event, your eye naturally is drawn to what's happening onstage: guitarists thrashing and sawing at the air, vocalists preening between yawps, ...
Report by Maura Johnston, The Village Voice, 30 November 2011
TONIGHT'S GRAMMY nomination concert, airing at 10 p.m. on CBS, will not only jam-pack a bunch of performances by the likes of Lady Gaga and ...
Lana Del Rey Takes Her Place On The Internet's Sacrificial Altar With Born To Die
Review by Maura Johnston, The Village Voice, 2 December 2011
IN ANOTHER era, Lana Del Rey would just be another pretty pop singer with a second-rate voice and big, unrealized ambitions, a major-label footnote maybe ...
POTUS playlist: Barack Obama shares his favorite summer tracks on Spotify
Comment by Maura Johnston, The Guardian, 14 August 2015
The US president freshens America's musical palate with a survey of tried-and-true classics and discoverable new artists ranging from soul to rock to jazz. ...
Gloria Estefan: how her rhythm got America … and the world
Retrospective and Interview by Maura Johnston, The Guardian, 25 November 2015
Pop hits with Latino influences are de rigueur now — and no one has had a greater impact on this state of affairs than Cuban-Americans ...
David Bowie, Lady Gaga: Lady Gaga's David Bowie tribute didn't do either artist justice
Comment by Maura Johnston, The Guardian, 16 February 2016
Gaga has Bowie's shapeshifting abilities and a strong voice, but the late star's legacy was ill-served by the hectic megamix she performed. ...
Ke$ha, The Last Shadow Puppets: Sexism on repeat: how the music industry can break the cycle
Essay by Maura Johnston, The Guardian, 11 March 2016
From Kesha's case against Dr Luke to Miles Kane's objectification of a female journalist, the industry has to admit there's a problem before sexism is ...
Review by Maura Johnston, Time, 9 May 2016
IN MANY WAYS, Radiohead is the ideal band to be scoring 2016's increasingly dystopian present. ...
Dierks Bentley: How Dierks Bentley Became Country Music's Most Relatable Star
Profile and Interview by Maura Johnston, Esquire, 25 August 2016
IT'S A SULTRY August afternoon at the St. Louis record mecca Vintage Vinyl, and in the back of the shop amidst carrels of LPs, Dierks ...
Kanye West: Kanye West: TD Garden, Boston
Live Review by Maura Johnston, The Boston Globe, 4 September 2016
"IT'S A GOOD YEAR to be a Kanye West fan," Kanye West said near the end of his show at TD Garden on Saturday night. ...
Live Review by Maura Johnston, The Boston Globe, 15 September 2016
THE CURRENT TREND of downcast pop – minor keys, lyrics drenched with bitterness, an overwhelming sense of despair – can be at least partially traced ...
Against Me!: Shape Shift With Me
Review by Maura Johnston, The Boston Globe, 15 September 2016
THE FLORIDA-BORN Against Me! has been one of the standard-bearers of politicized nth-generation punk since their debut in 1998, thanks to the strangled voice and ...
Review by Maura Johnston, The Village Voice, 6 October 2016
SAY THE NAME Rick Astley in 2016 and you'll probably get a reply involving his 1987 smash 'Never Gonna Give You Up', a brightly spangled ...
Amy Winehouse's Back to Black: 10 Things You Didn't Know
Retrospective by Maura Johnston, Rolling Stone, 27 October 2016
How 'Rehab' came to be, which song Nas inspired and other behind-the-scenes facts about singer-songwriter's 2006 smash ...
Drake, Green Day, Sting: American Music Awards: anti-Trump sentiment peppers pop's timid party
Report by Maura Johnston, The Guardian, 21 November 2016
Usually the awards show is a chance for those who turn up to walk away with a gong, but this year several acts and presenters ...
George Michael: Why George Michael was the greatest pop star of the MTV era
Comment by Maura Johnston, The Guardian, 26 December 2016
Jackson had the moves, Madonna had the moxie, Prince had the sex – but George Michael had the voice … and thrilling songs like spinning ...
Austra: "How psychedelic would our world be if technology wasn't just about making someone money?"
Interview by Maura Johnston, The Guardian, 5 January 2017
Depressed at the state of the world, Canadian vocalist and producer Katie Stelmanis dove into Naomi Klein, Star Trek, cyborgs and Latin American dance music ...
Comment by Maura Johnston, The Guardian, 14 February 2017
After Perry's #wokepop at the Grammys, there's an argument about how subversive pop can be in 2017. History shows it will take more than hashtags. ...
Review by Maura Johnston, The Guardian, 2 March 2017
The 20-year-old New Zealand singer makes a triumphant return with a stellar '90s-inspired pop song about her first heartbreak. ...
Review by Maura Johnston, Rolling Stone, 25 July 2017
LANA DEL REY has become a hugely adored miserablist thanks to a perpetually wounded voice and plainspoken poetry. Her fourth album as Lana Del Rey ...
Taylor Swift: 'Look What You Made Me Do'
Review by Maura Johnston, The Guardian, 25 August 2017
The pop star's return is full of visceral disses, but it's not clear whether she's playing a role or being herself. ...
Jess Glynne: Always In Between
Review by Maura Johnston, Rolling Stone, 19 October 2018
BRITISH BELTER JESS GLYNNE introduced herself to American audiences in 2014 with 'Rather Be', an effervescent slice-of-love giggle that showed off her strong vocals and ...
The 1975: A Brief Inquiry Into Online Relationships
Review by Maura Johnston, Rolling Stone, 4 December 2018
The UK band's latest cuts through our social media malaise with some highly emotional songs and a sound that replicates the sonic placelessness of the ...
Lizzo: The Year of Lizzo took its time getting here
Preview by Maura Johnston, The Boston Globe, 8 September 2019
IT'S SAFE TO say that Lizzo is one of 2019's defining pop artists. Her album Cuz I Love You is entrenched in the Billboard 200 ...
Live Review by Maura Johnston, Rolling Stone, 25 June 2022
Combs isn't reinventing Nashville clichés but he does give them a fresh coat of wax ...
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