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Articles on Popular music

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Now and Then finds a place alongside Beatles’ songs like We Can Work it Out or Girl which move between major-key and minor-key sections. A still from the song’s video. (YouTube)

Now and Then: How composition choices made John Lennon’s music memo into a Beatles song

For their “last single” Now and Then, the remaining 2023 Beatles kept John Lennon’s chorus, but changed where it fell. This necessary “repair” meant losing some of Lennon’s most touching passages.
America’s overnight summer star, country singer Oliver Anthony, performs in Moyock, N.C., on Aug. 19. (Kendall Warner/The Virginian-Pilot via AP)

How this summer’s hit ‘Rich Men North of Richmond’ was appropriated by both the right and left

Although its content is essentially libertarian, the No. 1 song of the summer in the U.S. resonates with both some Democratic supporters and those on the Trumpist right.
Puerto Rican singer Residente performs in Havana in 2010. His back reads, ‘We receive flowers and bullets in the very same heart.’ STR/AFP via Getty Images

Street scrolls: The beats, rhymes and spirituality of Latin hip-hop

Latino artists have been forging their own paths in hip-hop for decades, giving voice to young peoples’ pain, faith and demands for change.
Elements affecting the popularity of songs change over time and should be continuously explored, say data science researchers. (Shutterstock)

Can big data really predict what makes a song popular?

Whether we’re talking songs that are popular on Spotify, or were Billboard hits through the ‘40s up to recent years, popularity cannot be attributed solely to quantifiable acoustic elements.

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