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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'Tis the season for a handful of familiar Christmas songs to monopolize the top spots on the Billboard pop chart. But a few newer songs are making a play to join the annual holiday jukebox. -
Stephen Thompson looks at the biggest songs and albums of the week, and digs into the stories and trends beyond the Top 10. -
The pop charts this week are full of milestones, from a trio of K-pop acts crashing the top of the album chart to the year's biggest hit matching the longest-ever run atop the singles chart. -
Not all movies work at cruising altitude. If you're traveling for the holidays, here's what NPR's pop culture critics suggest to make the time fly by. -
In recent months, the list of the nation's top songs has been remarkably unchanging — Shaboozey has had the No. 1 song for 18 weeks — but this week, a brand new name makes a splash in the Top 10. -
"A Bar Song (Tipsy)" added another week atop the chart, making it the longest-running No. 1 of the decade. In two more weeks, it could tie the all-time record, but a seasonal juggernaut approaches. -
Stephen Thompson on the biggest surprises, trends and questions to be found in the Grammy nominations, plus the most interesting stories to be found beyond the major categories. -
The rapper's eighth album scored his best-selling debut week ever, but the raw numbers don't tell the whole story of its success. Meanwhile, Shaboozey returns to the top of the songs chart. -
The production wizard behind Michael Jackson's Thriller won 28 Grammy awards during a career that spanned more than 70 years as a performer, songwriter, producer and music executive. -
Each week, guests and hosts on NPR's Pop Culture Happy Hour share what's bringing them joy. This week: The Cure's Songs of a Lost World, a lawn mowing simulator video game, and fall yard work.
