Whether it’s the Islamic State, the Ku Klux Klan – or, yes, even American political parties – groups use music in many of the same ways, for many of the same reasons.
Has Chris Brown been made a scapegoat for domestic violence?
Marcel Antonisee/EPA
Chris Brown may be denied entry into Australia due to his violent past. Is this political posturing, or genuine support for survivors of domestic abuse?
Jockeying for power in the rap world: earlier this summer Drake and Meek Mill traded barbs.
Drake (on left): Steve Marcus/Reuters; Meek Mill: Kevork Djansezian/Reuters
Taking a lyrical swing at another rapper is part and parcel of the genre. So why the profound backlash when Meek Mill accused Drake of not writing his own lyrics?
Donald Trump provoked the ire of REM frontman Michael Stipe this week after he played an REM hit on the campaign trail. In this push-pull between politicians and musicians, let’s revisit the music.
We’ve learned a lot about how music can help with pain and a score of other clinical problems. But with chronic pain affecting a quarter of us, it’s an area that has received too little attention.
Hearing HITnRUN as a ‘concept album’ rather than a collection of tracks, gives a different feel to the more awkward moments.
AAP Image/NPG Records
For some, this album will be a good-natured happy-go-funky tour through Prince’s famously diverse stylistic interests. Others will find some of the tracks poorly executed, or a bit passé.
James Franco as Alien, gangsta and gangsta rapper, from Harmony Korine’s Spring Breakers (2012)
miguelvaca/flickr
There is a muscular, tattooed man holding a machine gun. He is in front of an expensive sports car, with gold chains around his neck and what looks like a Rolex on his wrist. The man is standing proudly…
The classical music world is marking the 150th anniversary of Finnish composer Jean Sibelius with concerts across Finland and in Australia too. But who was the man behind the music?
Psychedelia is too often dismissed as a product of the decade and the drugs, but the phenomenon has a far richer history than that of the swinging 60s.
Music is culturally - and not racially - ingrained.
Reuters/Andrew Winning
Why is this film being released now? Is it in response to the Black Lives Matter movement spreading across the US via social media, in turn a response to racist police violence in Miami Gardens, Ferguson, Baltimore?
Ice Cube and his bandmates had a point, albeit one mired in controversy.
Eva Rinaldi
Some pain might have been avoided (and probably less money made) if a simple basic fact had been acknowledged from the beginning: Fuck tha Police is meant to be funny.
Hynde’s analysis of her experience boils rape down to an encounter between two individuals with equal social power.
REUTERS/David Moir
American singer Chrissie Hynde provoked outrage this week by suggesting scantily-dressed women make themselves targets for sexual assault. Her comments play into pervasive cultural myths about rape.
Hip-hop artists such as American rapper Method Man are often accused of creating music than incites anti-social behaviour.
Jazmin Million/Flickr
Often we form opinions of music because of how aggressive, depressing or joyful we perceive it to be. But studies into the effects of different music genres on listeners’ moods throw up some surprises.
Who needs clubs when you can dance in the street?
Facundo Arrizibalaga/EPA
The real age of the rave was the early 90s, when politics and partying combined to extraordinary result. And once again we find ourselves in hard times …
To the uninitiated, extreme metal can be an impenetrable wall of guitar-based noise.
Florian Stangl. Picture of Morbid Angel.
For many people, their knowledge of extreme metal mainly springs from the nefarious activities of a small group of Norwegian musicians in the 1990s. But there’s more to this genre than meets the eye.
The electronic band STS9 is known for having intoxicating light shows accompany their live performances.
Shannon Tompkins/flickr
Why do certain songs and colors make us feel a certain way?
American rapper Tyler the Creator cancelled his Australian tour following a campaign by feminist grassroots activist group Collective Shout.
Pemberton Music Festival/ Mark C Austin
Arts activism isn’t new, but online activist movements are changing the way it gets done. In this anonymous virtual landscape, does activism democratise social relations, or nurture inequality?