Although the sound of the music has changed, country’s themes have endured.
Search results
Best of 2024: All Our Number Five Story Picks
Every story that appeared in the number five slot in our Weekly Top 5, all in one place.
Rewriting Country Music’s Racist History
“First, you exclude black people from the festivals. Then write them out by not recording them. And pretty soon, ‘you have this manufactured image of country music being white and being poor. But when a narrative is that clean,’ Giddens warns, ‘somebody wrote it.’”
The Top 5 Longreads of the Week
This week’s list features stories from Melissa del Bosque, Jeff Maysh, Nathan Munn, Katherine Rundell, and Tom Lamont.
How Covid Is Decimating British Music Journalism
What will England be like with fewer music magazines?
Yo-Yo Ma and the Meaning of Life
David Marchese interviews cellist Yo-Yo Ma on music, politics, culture, the pandemic, stereotypes, and the meaning of life.
Ten Outstanding Stories to Read in 2023
Ten hand-picked short stories to kick off your year in reading.
Best of 2022: Features
As part of Best of Longreads, our annual labor of love, we pored over all the stories we’ve picked in 2022 to create these year-end lists. The following features all embody the strong voice and excellent writing that made us fall in love with narrative journalism. Sweeping, hard-hitting, and emotional, each immerses us in a […]
Stumbling Can Be Lovely
On the many ways we fall—and the beauty of getting back up.
Into the Darkness
Germany’s Black Forest faces a future of transformation. So do the people who have lived there for centuries.

