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To call Mike Read’s recently withdrawn UKIP calypso an appropriation of “black” culture is to do a disservice to the cultural traditions usually identified under that name.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…
One of the most famous anthems of the First World War is 100 years old. Keep the Home Fires Burning was originally published on October 8 1914 under its original title, Till the Boys Come Home. Few songs…
It is the landscape of the interior that is most strongly associated with Sculthorpe’s music.
'Two movements - Peter Sculthorpe', a portrait by Danelle Bergstrom, 2008 Archibald Prize. AAP/ Supplied
Australia’s most distinguished composer Peter Sculthorpe (1929-2014) has left a magnificent legacy – his music. Sculthorpe pioneered a uniquely Australian sound. The distinctiveness of his music emerges…
Britten’s War Requiem was written to commemorate the bombing of Coventry Cathedral in World War II.
PA Second World War collection
The past may be a foreign country, but in terms of war, they do not do things differently there; death is death at any time and in any language. No other work in the Classical repertoire could be more…
What does the term “classical music” mean to us in the 21st century?
Scottish classical violinist Nicola Benedetti. AAP/ Dean Lewins
Classical music means more than one thing and explanation is in order. Sometimes I make the distinction between big “C” and little “c”, but even that doesn’t fully solve it. The starting point is this…
In the weeks leading up to the release of Jack White’s new album Lazaretto on June 10, a number of record shops around the world ran a promotional campaign that gave curious users the chance to experience…
I’ve got the brains, you’ve got the looks, let’s make lots of money.
Vivid
Pet Shop Boys are performing at Carriageworks in Sydney tonight and over the weekend as part of Vivid festival. Their live shows are described as incredible and dazzling, and after almost three decades…
South Australia’s answer to dolewave, Bitch Perfect.
Bedroom Suck Records
It must have come as a relief to many Australian musicians that maligned guitar-pop genre tag “dolewave” met an untimely end the other week. I imagine it would have been the only relief Australian musicians…
Justice Crew perform at Madame Tussauds Sydney, for the Australian launch of Michael Jackson’s Xscape album, May 2014.
AAP Image/Dan Himbrechts
Epic Records, in conjunction with the estate of Michael Jackson released the King of Pop Michael Jackson’s second posthumous album Xscape last week. To create the album Epic Records chairman and CEO L.A…
Music can be used as part of a ‘healthy process of self-regulation’.
Sascha kohlmann
We all know music can move us emotionally. But how does it impact on our behaviour? That relationship’s not immediately clear. A YouTube clip was doing the rounds on social media a while ago – the music…