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.
Brahms’ piano quartet in G minor was composed for a piano, a violin, a viola and a cello.
kkmarais/Flickr
For those on Rolling Stone's list of 100 Greatest Artists, their life expectancy is on par with the people of Chad, the nation with the lowest life expectancy in the world.
A Grateful Dead fan wears a shirt commemorating the band’s farewell tour.
Stephen Lam/Reuters
Fifty years ago, in the first half of 1965, the British invasion was officially under way – at least, in music. It seemed like all the biggest hits on the American pop charts came from British bands. Ever…
The US version of the Rollings Stones’ 1965 LP Out of Our Heads featured Satisfaction.
LucienGrix/flickr
Fifty years ago, the Rolling Stones released their breakthrough single (I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction, which debuted in the US during the first week of June 1965. The band’s previous singles had done well…
BB King performs in Hamburg, Germany in this 1971 photograph.
Heinrich Klaffs/flickr
The band's first US hit wasn't 'Satisfaction.' Released in March 1965, 'The Last Time' possessed stylistic flairs that would predict the band's future success.
Through his music, Lead Belly rejected the stereotype that country music was the domain of white artists, while blues music was reserved for blacks.
Tamiment Library/Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives
Lead Belly: The Smithsonian Folkways Collection depicts the fully-formed artist – a blues musician, yes, but also a performer of string-band, country and pop songs.
Ma Rainey was one of Paramount Records’ most popular artists.
JP Jazz Archive/Redferns
My daughter came home from school orchestra rehearsal one day and said: Daughter: We are learning a great new song by Bach: Brandenburg Concerto No. 5. Me: Song, darling? I’d call it a piece. Daughter…
Drummer Nick Mason and guitarist David Gilmour dug into recording sessions from 1994’s The Division Bell to mine material for their professed last album: The Endless River
anyonlinyr/Flickr
For a band that once sang “Every year is getting shorter / Never seem to find the time” – which followed an explosion of alarm clocks – Pink Floyd’s songs always seemed to take their time. During the band’s…
Country music’s soaring popularity in the Northeast isn’t so much a novelty as it is a rebirth.
US Navy
This past June, radio conglomerate Clear Channel (now known as iHeartRadio) announced it was converting Boston’s 101.7 FM to a country station. The story they told the Boston Globe was a familiar one…
Yeah, I love Harry Belafonte, me.
Steve Parsons/PA Wire
To call Mike Read’s recently withdrawn UKIP calypso an appropriation of “black” culture is to do a disservice to the cultural traditions usually identified under that name. Still, something grates about…
Remarkably, Rodriguez has not released any new material since his first two albums in the early 70s.
Wikimedia Commons
Searching for Sugar Man (2012) brought worldwide attention to the music of Detroit singer-songwriter Sixto Rodriguez. The academy award-winning documentary focused on the efforts of South African fans…
