Taylor Ardrey
Taylor Ardrey is a news reporter at USA TODAY who centers contemporary music and the wider entertainment world, combining service journalism with close attention to how artists, award shows and cultural figures connect with fans. Her coverage is distinguished by practical guides to major events and releases, photo‑driven stories, and a recurring focus on Black artists and the intersections of pop culture and public life.
Awards shows and live music events
Ardrey spends much of her time on major music and entertainment tentpoles, writing pieces that help readers navigate what is happening, who is involved and how to watch or attend. Her work on the Grammys includes red carpet photo coverage of Taylor Swift’s appearance at the 67th annual ceremony, framing the night through a visual record of one of its most prominent performers. She extends that awards‑show lens to artists like Teyana Taylor, highlighting her striking Grammy red carpet look and presenting it in a way that foregrounds both fashion and star power.
Beyond the Grammys, Ardrey covers other televised music events and their hosts, lineups and histories, such as features that explore LL Cool J’s reflections on the impact of the MTV Video Music Awards as a “melting pot of all kinds of music.” She also reports on live protest‑themed festivals, detailing Bruce Springsteen’s role as a special guest at a Washington, D.C.–area event and breaking down dates, venue information, ticket tiers and pricing so readers can act on the news. Across these stories, the through‑line is clear: she treats awards shows and festivals as both cultural touchpoints and logistical events, giving fans the information they need while situating performances in a broader narrative.
Pop and hip-hop releases and fan access
Ardrey’s music coverage extends from the stage to the studio, with pieces that explain how new projects fit into an artist’s career and how fans can hear or obtain them. Her reporting on Cardi B’s album “Am I The Drama?” focuses on the unconventional release strategy, explaining that the record can be delivered via DoorDash and outlining options such as signed CD vinyl available through a dedicated online storefront. In doing so, she treats distribution mechanics as central to the story, emphasizing convenience and access alongside the artist’s profile.
She brings a similar approach to Teyana Taylor’s “Escape Room,” covering the album and its nearly 40‑minute short film and underscoring themes of love and healing described by the artist. Ardrey notes where the visual project is available to stream and highlights how it is conceived for “lover girls,” tying artistic intent to viewing platforms and audience. This mix of thematic framing and practical detail is characteristic of her work on music releases, where she connects the creative arc of a project to the ways fans encounter it.
Red carpet, imagery and cultural memory
Visual storytelling is a defining element of Ardrey’s reporting. Her Grammys pieces use photos to capture artists’ fashion and presence on the red carpet, turning those images into quick‑read stories that document how musicians present themselves at high‑profile events. She applies the same photo‑driven format to political figures, assembling images of Dick Cheney and George W. Bush across their careers to chronicle their public lives through curated archival photography. In each case, the emphasis is on clear, caption‑led narratives that allow readers to move through history or a single night’s visuals at a glance.
Ardrey also revisits past moments in televised culture, such as Jesse Jackson’s “Green Eggs and Ham” sketch on “Saturday Night Live,” using retrospectives to connect today’s readers to earlier intersections of politics, religion and comedy. These pieces show her interest in how images and clips become part of collective memory, whether the subject is an awards show performance or a satirical skit involving a prominent civil rights leader.
Race, culture and entertainment background
Before joining USA TODAY, Ardrey worked as a news reporter for Atlanta Black Star, where her experience spanned race, culture and entertainment. That background informs her current focus, which often spotlights Black artists and cultural figures in stories about mainstream events and releases. Her music and entertainment reporting features creators such as Cardi B, Teyana Taylor and LL Cool J, taking their work and public appearances as a starting point for broader discussions of visibility and influence.
Her portfolio also includes entertainment video segments, where she conducts on‑camera interviews with actors and digital creators tied to television series and podcasts. In these pieces, Ardrey speaks with performers about season finales, roles in popular shows and the growth of podcast brands, extending her beat beyond music into the wider ecosystem of contemporary entertainment. Taken together, her print and video work show a reporter whose coverage sits where music, screen culture and social media‑driven fame meet, with a consistent emphasis on making complex cultural moments accessible to a general audience.
4 more music journalists.
Aisling Murphy
Aisling Murphy is the theatre reporter and critic at The Globe and Mail. She stands out for writing about theatre as both art and infrastructure, with coverage that links new Canadian stage work, awards culture, and pop-inflected criticism. She covers theatre, music, and pop culture in a detailed, conversational style, moving between reviews, reported features, and analysis of the systems that shape what gets produced. Her beat includes the Dora Awards, Toronto stages, new writing, intimate productions, and smaller venues, as well as controversy where artistic decisions meet politics and community response. Before The Globe, she was senior editor of Intermission Magazine, and her bylines include The New York Times, Toronto Star, CBC Arts, and the Baltimore Sun.
Alex Hudson
Alex Hudson is Editor-in-Chief of Exclaim! and leads coverage of music’s links to sports, literature, and technology, with a strong focus on Canadian artists. Hudson reports on how music intersects with other fields, not as a separate industry. Recent coverage has included Blue Jays pitcher Max Scherzer on how playing piano saved his career, Ottawa Bluesfest’s Canada-wide soccer watch party, Lakes of Canada’s Margaret Atwood-inspired album Transgressions, Hannah Mary McKinnon on The Beaches influencing her rock-themed novel, and Alexander Nilsson’s 1001 Albums Generator as a tool for broadening music discovery beyond algorithmic recommendations.
Alexis Mikulski Ruiz
Alexis Mikulski Ruiz is a commerce writer whose distinct focus is the buying and streaming side of music, entertainment and lifestyle, helping readers decide how to watch major events and what to purchase around them. She is an e-commerce specialist at Rolling Stone, covering products, platforms and deals tied to award shows, festivals, sports and everyday culture. Her beat blends music streaming guides with shopping and product recommendations across fashion, beauty, tech, food, wellness and drinks. She reports through experience-focused service journalism, using lists, comparison roundups and step-by-step guides to answer concrete questions about how to stream major cultural moments, where to shop and which products to choose. Her background includes commerce and lifestyle writing for consumer publications such as Esquire, Men’s Health, Good Housekeeping, Oprah Daily, Women’s Wear Daily and Billboard.
Allie Gregory
Allie Gregory maps how audiences encounter new music by tracking the practical pathways of releases, tours, festivals, platforms and projects. She is a managing editor and news writer at Exclaim!, where she is a primary editorial contact for forthcoming releases and news tips and helps shape the outlet’s daily agenda around new music and its broader entertainment context. Her reporting centres on timely album and tour announcements, live logistics and festival programming across indie, metal, country, pop and adjacent film and streaming news. She writes direct, information-heavy pieces that foreground calendars, support acts, set times and programming structures, while also producing longer-form interviews, cultural stories and staff-pick recommendations that connect artists’ work, controversy and creative campaigns to how audiences encounter music and entertainment on the road, at festivals and on screens.