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Going Beyond the Neutron Dance with Ruth Pointer of the Pointer Sisters
Ruth Pointer reflects on her multi-faceted career with the Pointer Sisters, honors the memory of her sister Bonnie, and shares the joy found in her music -- and fashion.
17 Jul 2020
Music
Unite and Fight! England's Punk-Reggae Hybrid
When Bob Marley went to London in 1977 he discovered, documented, and reveled in the punky reggae party.
15 Jun 2020
Music
Is 'Murder Most Foul' Dylan's State of the Union Address?
The implication of Bob Dylan's "Murder Most Foul", expressed with an understated passion, is that in 2020, it may not be just the music or even the president that has died.
19 May 2020
Music
Nicki Minaj Is the Greatest Rapper of the Decade Bar None
2020 and it's finally time to acknowledge Nicki Minaj's right to G.O.A.T. status, as the best female rapper AND the best rapper of the past ten years — no gender preposition required.
11 May 2020
Music
Punk and Metal: Frenemies for Life
Worlds collided when punk and metal realized they were opposite sides of the same coin.
27 Apr 2020
Music
Punk Hybrids: Wham! Bam! Glam-Punk!
Glam Punk is "Rock 'n' roll with lipstick on," sneered John Lennon.
17 Feb 2020
Books
Love Songs: The Hidden History (Excerpt)
What do evolutionary biology and its founding father, Charles Darwin, have to do with love songs? As it turns out, quite a lot. Enjoy this excerpt of Ted Gioia's Love Songs: The Hidden History, courtesy of Oxford University Press.
Ted Gioia
14 Feb 2020
Music
The New Old Flower-Power Fantasy of Greta Van Fleet
If Greta Van Fleet are that wonderful horrible thing called zeitgeisty, that zeitgeist is defined by desire to escape to a fantasized past where the battles were cleaner and the battle lines simpler than today's appear to be.
06 Feb 2020
Music
How the Staple Singers Became the Soul of Protest Music
The Staple Singers' Stax recording, Come Go with Me, captures their transformation from the church-wrecking gospel highway to the soul-filling pop charts.
27 Jan 2020
Books
Stephen Tow's 'London, Reign Over Me' Is a Must-Read Tour of '60s British Rock
Historian Stephen Tow's London, Reign Over Me is an insightful, thorough, and welcoming exploration of '60s-era British rock.
Jordan Blum
24 Jan 2020
Music
Punk Hybrids: Back in the Garage
Punk's idea(l)s may have been fostered in Art schools, but its musical foundations were cultivated in garages.
13 Jan 2020
Books
The Curmudgeonly King of Noir Chronicled in 'Notes From the Velvet Underground: The Life of Lou Reed'
Howard Sounes' Notes From the Velvet Underground is a beautifully considered book, with enough detail about the life and career of Lou Reed for the geeks, enough context for the historians, and just enough juicy stuff for everyone else.
11 Dec 2019
Books
Music History, the Conspiracy Theory: On Ted Gioia's Music: A Subversive History
Although enjoyable in that sweeping big picture kind of way, there is nothing subversive to be found in Ted Gioia's Music: A Subversive History.
10 Dec 2019
Books
'God Save the Queens' Addresses the Gender Imbalance in the Story of Rap
Kathy Iandoli's personable history, God Save the Queens, shows how women in rap face up to the battles.
02 Dec 2019
Books
Irving Berlin: New York Genius (By the Book)
Exploring the interplay of Irving Berlin's life with the life of New York City, noted biographer James Kaplan offers a visceral narrative of Berlin as self-made man and witty, wily, tough Jewish immigrant. Enjoy this excerpt of Kaplan's book, Irving Berlin: New York Genius.
James Kaplan
05 Nov 2019
Film
The Spitfire Rumble of the Rolling Stones: Director Oliver Murray on 'The Quiet One'
For director Oliver Murray, music exists in the air, but the emotional archives of former Rolling Stones bassist Bill Wyman gives viewers a tactile experience of this band's story in The Quiet One.
08 Jul 2019
Books
By the Book: 'Solid State: The Story of Abbey Road and the End of the Beatles'
In Solid State, acclaimed Beatles historian Kenneth Womack offers the most definitive account yet of the writing, recording, mixing, and reception of Abbey Road. (excerpt)
26 Jun 2019
Film
The Kid Is Alright: Andrew Slater's 'Echo in the Canyon'
Music documentary Echo in the Canyon beautifully captures Jakob Dylan's search for the best lessons in collaboration from pioneering California Sound supergroups.
05 Jun 2019
Books
Vivien Goldman's 'Revenge of the She-Punks' Doesn't Gloss the Reasons We Still Have to Rage
In her history of women in punk music, Revenge of the She-Punks, Vivien Goldman hefts the scene's virtues and the vices into one heap and concludes that some of it was necessary, some of it was fun, and some of it was evil.
21 May 2019
Books
'Pick Up the Pieces' Is a Primer in Music as Cultural Memory
John Corbett's writing is often poetic in Pick Up the Pieces: Excursions in Seventies Music, with each essay being a resonant reflection on the music, artists, scenes, and memories seemingly etched deeply in his being.
30 Apr 2019
Books
By the Book: Pick up the Pieces: Excursions in Seventies Music
In this excerpt of '70s music, Pick up the Pieces, John Corbett puts his critique of Kraftwerk's Autobahn to poetry and pogos with his conflict for the Clash and their album, The Clash.
29 Mar 2019
Books
By the Book: 'A Hidden Landscape Once a Week'
In this excerpt of a history of the UK music press, A Hidden Landscape Once a Week, Tony Stewart recalls his time as writer and deputy editor at NME (1971-85) — the strengths and pleasures of teamwork and the vital role of the visual in the energies of a rock paper.
22 Mar 2019
Books
'Half a Million Strong' Studies the Intersection of Crowds and Power at Rock Festivals
Gina Arnold's research into rock festivals in the US, Half a Million Strong, reveals that it's about the music, yes, but it's also very much about you.
20 Feb 2019
Music
New Wave: Turning Rebellion into Money
If 1977 was New Wave's breakout year, by 1979 it had become an industry force, all but replacing punk as a viable vehicle or term of currency.
14 Feb 2019
Books
You Can Feel the Venue's Heartbeat on Every Page of 'Showtime at the Apollo'
How do we measure the status of a performer's Holy Grail like the Apollo Theater in 2019? Ted Fox and James Otis Smith's beautifully realized, updated graphic history brings this rich history to life.
12 Feb 2019
Books
'Smash!: Green Day, The Offspring, Bad Religion, NOFX, + the '90s Punk Explosion'
Ian Winwood's story of how punk rock music came to be so popular in the '90s is sewn together like a patchwork quilt of unlikely rises to fame and the ordinary people whose dedication made it possible.
07 Nov 2018
Books
'A&R Pioneers' Highlights Unsung Pivotal Figures at the Birth of Recorded Pop Music
Well before artists were their own entrepreneurs and entrepreneurs became rock stars, A&R pros improvised a blueprint for the workings of the modern music industry.
30 Oct 2018
Books
'Novel Sounds' and the Southern Institution’s Rock 'n' Roll Problem
In Novel Sounds, scholar Florence Dore is interested in how a mass cultural phenomenon like rock 'n' roll can help illuminate realities about institutionalized high culture.
10 Oct 2018
Books
Chris Stamey's Homage to the New York Music Scene of the '70s
A Spy In The House of Loud works best on quiet stages, taking singular trips down clearly paved roads with definite endings.
06 Aug 2018
Music
'Black Cowboys' and 'The Best Country Blues You've Never Heard' Chart New Trails through Old-Time Music
Black music's past is a rabbit hole more than big enough for these two vastly different excursions into its secret riches.
18 May 2018
Books
Emo, Mascara Scars and All
The founder of Washed Up Emo brings together ten podcast interviews in print form to document the history of one of rock's most misunderstood genres.
19 Feb 2018
Books
'Live Wires' Offers Inconsistent but Interesting Electronic Music History
This work serves as a preliminary resource, but it's certainly not the definitive history of electronic music.
07 Feb 2018
Books
The Weirdos Are the Heroes in This Brief History of Electronic Music
Live Wires rips open the definition of 'electronic' to tell the story of the how those tapes and wires and transistors came to transform music into what we take for granted today.
29 Jan 2018
Books
A Brief History on the Creation and Life of Handel's 'Messiah'
Award-winning author Jonathan Keates whips up a brief but highly specialized work on why Handel's "Messiah" was so special from the start.
19 Dec 2017
Books
'The Great Jazz and Pop Vocal Albums' Is Not the Last Word on the Subject
Will Friedwald writes subjectively in The Great Jazz and Pop Vocal Albums, and is not afraid to be cheeky when he thinks audiences have misunderstood an artist or a release.
02 Oct 2017
Music
This Next Number Will Be a Blues: Son House, Endings, Restarts, and a Delta Triptych
If you haven't heard the 80th anniversary CD of Son House's first session, you have one of the most visceral, galvanizing musical experiences awaiting you.
Colin Fleming
12 Sep 2016
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