The Slants in concert/Tommy Byrd/Flickr
Have American companies just been given the green light to deploy “edgy” branding that goes way too far?
Michael Jackson sings during the opening performance of a 13-city U.S. tour in 1988.
AP Photo/Cliff Schiappa
The story of African-American music is a story of eclipsing expectations and subverting norms.
Bob Dylan in 1991.
Xavier Badosa
Bob Dylan said songs are meant to be sung not read, and he has a point. Songs and poems obey different rules.
In the work of many rappers today, the legacy of Tupac Shakur lives on.
Lucas Jackson/Reuters
Tupac’s sensitivity, intelligence and creativity confronted the hostile forces that antagonized black youth across the country in the 1970s and 1980s.
via shutterstock.com
A podcast on what music does to our brains, and why it moves us.
Singing helps us remember information.
Flickr/Martin Abegglen
Because of the way our brains work, we can remember songs and rhymes much more easily than just words or letters. The ABC song teaches kids the basics of the English language.
Stormzy. Chris J. Ratcliffe/PA Wire/PA Images
Who are the ‘macho boasting idiots’ now?
Shutterstock/NataliaDeriabina
Vinyl is one thing but digital plug-ins which claim to emulate the analogue sound are a rose-tinted step too far.
MP3 compression of digital audio files made music more portable.
Shutterstock?Roger Jegg Fotodesign Jegg.de
The MP3 audio file transformed the way we accessed music online. So what does it mean now that licensing and support for the popular format is to end?
The Sex Pistols perform in Memphis, Tennessee during their 1978 American tour.
Associated Press
Banned from the BBC, denied its rightful place on the charts, ‘God Save the Queen’ – released 40 years ago this month – remains one of the most controversial protest songs of all time.
Nine “Muses” in Renaissance dress enjoy music-making on a pastoral Parnassus, on a painted virginals lid of c.1540.
Girolamo Romanino, National Gallery, London
Modern music fans like to surround themselves with images representing their musical tastes – and so did Renaissance Italians.
Data from what we download and listen to can now be mined to create and promote future songs.
'Music Men' via www.shutterstock.com
Does musical taste even matter anymore? Or does a data-driven feedback loop – where what you enjoy in the past shapes what you hear today – influence what you’ll like in the future?
Composing a symphonic landscape: Caspar David Friedrich’s 1818 oil painting, Wanderer above the Sea of Fog.
Wikimedia Commons
With An Alpine Symphony, Richard Strauss achieved something remarkable: the painting of the German alps, complete with cow meadows and waterfalls, in sound.
Tommaso Lizzul via Shutterstock.com
Doing away with the study of musical theory and notation will simply entrench elitism in the music world.
Melbourne’s Flinders Street station is transformed into a stage for the 2013 White Night.
Gav Owen/Flickr
Melbourne may be the self-proclaimed music capital of Australia, but industry data suggests Sydney may have the upper hand. Meanwhile the UN recognises Adelaide as the country’s only city of music.
Deize Tigrona at the 2016 Back2Black music festival.
Midia Ninja/flickr
By singing frankly about sex and life on the streets, the pioneering women of Rio de Janeiro’s funk scene are redefining what feminism sounds like.
Brahms’ piano quartet in G minor was composed for a piano, a violin, a viola and a cello.
kkmarais/Flickr
The 29-year old Johannes Brahms had his first major public success with his piano quartet in G minor, but not everyone gave it glowing praise.
Bananarama // PA/PA Archive/PA Images
We need to look beyond the music industry to understand the rise of the comeback.
Pexels.
When the classroom is your dance floor.
Northfoto/Shutterstock
A year after Prince’s death, fans the world over are still coming to terms with the loss of an uncompromising musical and cultural visionary.