• Rhythm Nation 1814 was Janet Jackson’s fourth solo album, although she was just 23 years old when it came out. • One of the most commercially successful albums ever to come out of Minnesota, Rhythm Nation 1814 was produced by Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, and all of the tracks were recorded at their Flyte Tyme studio in Minneapolis.…

MPR News Arts Reporter Marianne Combs joins Jill Riley and John Munson (in for Steve Seel) to talk about three brand-new works opening in the Twin Cities.

Jimi Hendrix played no more, Pink Floyd were called classical, and Joe Jackson puts out a hit Today in Music History.

Bethany Cosentino of Best Coast has one of indie rock’s most famous cats: Snacks, who appeared on the cover of the first Best Coast album and has more Twitter followers than you. (Snacks is such a meme, he’s inspired a sub-meme in the form of Hipster Runoff’s Snacks the Cat Girl.) Snacks has now opened up about being adopted, via a PETA video…

Christian Gregory - Count on You

After a couple of weeks hiatus, First Aid Kit return to the top for the second week holding off a strong surge by the New Pornographers, who just lost founding drummer Kurt Dahle, and a very high new entry by Interpol, who seem to have overcome the loss of their iconic bassist Carlos Dengler!

In a feature just published today, Rolling Stone declares 2014 the 30th anniversary of “pop’s greatest year.” 1984 was “the year that pop stood tallest,” according to several collaborators on a feature listing the 100 best songs of that year. And who stood tallest in 1984? Well, Madonna was pretty good—her “Borderline” comes in at #2. Michael Jackson?…

The 13th annual Americana Music Association Honors and Awards Show takes place on Wednesday, Sept. 17, at 7 p.m. CDT, live from the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, Tenn. You can watch the entire event, including more than 20 performances by some of Americana's biggest acts, live on TheCurrent.org and RadioHeartland.org.

What musicians are the children or grandchildren of other musicians? We'll play some of your picks for today's 9:30 Coffee Break.

This week Dara spoke to The Morning Show's Jill Riley and Steve Seel about the secret value of vegetables.