It was a box office flop, panned by critics. But in using the songs of the Beatles to craft a story of Vietnam-era America, Julie Taymor reinvigorated the film musical.
Greatest pop songwriting team ever?
United States Library of Congress
Chances are your favourite band started out learning the trade at a pub or small club. Venues like this are under threat like never before.
During their 1962 residency at Hamburg’s Star-Club, the Beatles had the opportunity of a lifetime: opening for Little Richard.
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When a 14-year-old Paul McCartney watched Little Richard in the hit film ‘The Girl Can’t Help It,’ he couldn’t have imagined that the two would one day take the stage together.
Who broke up with whom?
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As the album celebrates its 50th anniversary, an expert in sound recording details how the band deployed stereo and synthesizers to put a unique artistic stamp on this iconic album.
There is a long list of bands that fell apart over artistic differences. But conflict between band members – and even some creative sledging – can be crucial to making better music.
John Lennon belts it out during The Beatles’ last concert, Jan. 30, 1969.
You Tube/The Beatles
Planned only a few days earlier, the Jan. 30, 1969 rooftop concert by the Beatles was their last. It is fitting the show included Billy Preston who symbolized their global collaborative efforts.
Fifty years after its release, the Beatles’ White Album continues to inspire and provoke creativity.
A copy of the original White Album signed by George Martin: his son Giles Martin and mix engineer Sam Okell have remixed the album on its 50th anniversary.
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Remixing a Beatles album might be seen as both artistically redundant and cynically commercial. But this remixed classic allows us to experience the album in a new way.
That year, the pillars of 1960s pop music released unfocused, confused albums.
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John Lennon’s Revolution was panned by the radical media as a ‘petty bourgeois cry of fear’ in 1968. Then, in 1987 it was claimed by Nike to be the controversial soundtrack of its most seminal advert.
Violent protests over the poor delivery of basic municipal services occur frequently in South Africa.
EPA/Kim Ludbrook
The Rolling Stones performing in Hamburg during the ‘No Filter’ European tour: the band’s legacy is entwined with the pioneers of black American music.
Morris Mac Matzen/Reuters
Pinching musical phrases and stylistic approaches has always been a part of art making and can be a respectful exchange. But shallow, ill-informed appropriation only perpetuates tired stereotypes.
California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation