[4][5] After college, in 1986, Powers started writing about popular music and pop culture as a columnist at the San Francisco Weekly.

[6] From 2001 until May 2005, Powers was senior curator at the Experience Music Project (EMP) in Seattle, which later became Museum of Pop Culture (MoPOP).

[9] Powers wrote regularly for Pop & Hiss, the Los Angeles Times' music blog, in addition to other features and news articles.

[12] Powers has written for The Record, NPR's blog about finding, making, buying, sharing, and talking about music, since April 2011.

[13] The project sought to reconstitute the canon of American popular music by publishing a list of the 150 greatest albums by women and a related series of essays, audio features, and events.

[14][15] Powers is also the Nashville correspondent for World Cafe, regularly recording sessions with local and regional Southern musicians.

Club described the project as "us[ing Powers'] personal experiences to define how youth culture (what she calls bohemianism) has changed over the years (though she lingers mostly on the '80s).

[27][28][29] In August 2017, Powers published the book Good Booty: Love and Sex, Black & White, Body and Soul in American Music.

Powers is married to Eric Weisbard, a music critic and professor of American studies at the University of Alabama.