Today’s Big Story

Dance Music Is Booming Again

What’s different with the tunes this time around? Apparently, a lot.

Can you hear it? That building, repetitive thumps of bass … the steady building of a beat … dance music is back. And like so many cultural pendulum swings, we can thank (or blame) the pandemic. According to culture writer Foster Kramer, who wrote a deep dive into the sonic revival for the New York Times, people emerged from COVID lockdowns primed to hit the floor. Now online platforms are bringing fresh sounds and budding stars to bigger audiences worldwide.

Festival lineups are jam-packed with D.J.s—Coachella further leaned into dance music culture in 2025, as the electronic acts stole the spotlight and left lasting impressions across both April weekends. And some of the biggest names in pop music (everyone from Beyoncé and Charli XCX to Drake) have made dance music-inspired or adjacent albums. Of course, it’s usually at this point—when the “newspaper of record” sees fit to write about it—that the comedown starts.

But it will take more than a newspaper feature to quiet the drum beats, literally. Because this moment is different from that in decades past. “Fueled by socioeconomic, cultural and technological changes, dance music and club culture have built on the progress of the past to leave a footprint deeper than we’ve seen before,” writes Kramer. “As costs skyrocket for live instrumental acts to hit the road, a touring D.J. needs to travel with only a USB stick full of music. The continued evolution of D.J. hardware and software has softened the learning curve (and entry price) for beginners, while expanding possibilities for seasoned performers. And digital platforms like Boiler Room—the hugely popular video series that pioneered the de facto online D.J. video format—have changed the trajectory of what it means to be an electronic music artist or fan.”

Philip Sherburne, a veteran music journalist and owner of an indie music label, says Boiler Room has been an enormous force, bringing all kinds of electronic dance music from all over the world to people in their bedrooms, no matter where they are. And he makes a good point. Previous generations logged time in record shops and found parties via fliers. Now, those worlds are a swipe away, chopped up and served algorithmically, in bite-size, hyper-compelling clips. And it’s also helping the entire spectrum of sounds get out of their niche.

That range is another significant distinction of this moment—no single style of dance music has surged to popularity over the others. Hard techno, Afro house, drum and bass, more classic “tech house” and U.K. garage … they’re all different, and they’re all finding audiences these days.

Can Trump’s Executive Order Lower Drug Prices?

The president’s plan for prescription costs contains threats but few teeth

President Donald Trump is taking aim at something many Americans worry about. He announced an executive order geared toward forcing drug companies to match the lower prices paid in other developed countries, but it’s largely an exercise in applying leverage, rather than actual policymaking. And it may not amount to much, experts are saying.

Trump said drugmakers would have to cut their U.S. prices to the level paid by other developed countries—or face consequences. “If necessary, we'll investigate the drug companies, and we'll, in particular, investigate the countries that are doing this,” he said. He also said that the U.S. market would be opened to imports from other countries. But there are few details as to how he plans to accomplish that. Axios points out that Trump appears to be adapting the playbook he’s used on universities over Gaza protests: “Threaten administrative actions that could be financially painful, set a deadline—in this case 30 days—and then see what happens.”

Experts said the plan lacks enough detail to determine whether patients would realize any tangible benefits and pointed out it is likely to face court challenges. The order did not state whether the administration would be seeking lower prices in Medicare, Medicaid or private insurance markets—or all of the above. “It reminds us of how in President Trump's first term he was ‘all bark, no bite’ on drug pricing,” Chris Meekins, an analyst at Raymond James, wrote in an investor note Monday.

Tesla’s Robotaxi Ambitions Hit Roadblocks

The automaker is denied its trademark and its plans have the attention of federal investigators

One of this year’s most highly anticipated events for both car and tech enthusiasts is the looming rollout of Tesla’s so-called robotaxi. For years, Elon Musk has touted the self-driving cars he’s promised the company will deliver. This has included pushing back its launch date, which he has claimed is necessary to allow engineers more time to develop the technology. But this has also sparked skepticism that his ambitious plans to corner the autonomous driving market will succeed, as rivals continue to introduce self-driving tech into their vehicles, both here in the States and China.

First, there were the criticisms that these EV taxis (due to debut next month) won’t be fully self-driving, as they’ll be assisted by a remote human operator—which means it’s not truly autonomous. Now Musk is facing a new obstacle, this time from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. Tesla’s attempts to copyright the name Robotaxi have run up against roadblocks, as the government agency argues that the name is too generic to trademark.

This is an initial refusal by USPTO’s examining attorney and is very particular for autonomous electric automobiles. A separate trademark application by Tesla for the term “Robotaxi” as it relates to its upcoming autonomous ride-hailing service is still under examination and has not yet received a similar rebuttal. And that’s not all: TechCrunch reports that federal safety investigators have sent Tesla a detailed list of questions before the rollout as part of an investigation into how the company’s “Full Self-Driving (Supervised)” software operates in low-visibility conditions.

Chimp Chatter

Chimpanzees use some features of language to talk to each other

I love learning more about wild animals and how much more nuanced and intelligent they are than what we originally gave them credit for … and here’s the latest example: Researchers have found two important building blocks of human speech in wild chimpanzees, one of our closest relatives.

No, they’re not exactly speaking, but they are talking to each other through grunts, barks, screams and pants—vocalizations that they combine like linguistic Legos to relay complex meanings when communicating, researchers report in Science Advances. Chimps, they found, “combine and flexibly rearrange pairs of sounds to convey different ideas or meanings”—an ability that investigators have not documented in other nonhuman animals. “This system may represent a key evolutionary transition between vocal communication strategies of other animals and the syntax rules that structure human languages.”

A separate study, published last month, provided similar evidence that bonobos, another primate, can also combine their calls to modify calls and form phrases. Together, these studies suggest both species evolved to develop fundamental building blocks of human language. As NBC News points out, both bonobos and chimpanzees are the species most closely related to humans in evolutionary history, which means all three species could have evolved from a common ancestor with this ability, a theory that could help researchers understand how human language developed.

Could This Company Do for Housing What Tesla Did for Cars?

Trust the timing.