Thanks to technology the DJ has become a musical God of sorts. Under post-capitalism, where we’re looking for a new way of understanding cultural objects, the DJ now plays a pivotal role.
Lady Gaga and Lorde have both paid tribute to David Bowie in very different ways. Debating who did it better is rooted in an ideology of authenticity that pits rock against pop. In reality, Bowie embodied both.
Since 2009, record sales have soared.
'Records' via www.shutterstock.com
While technological advances have rendered some products obsolete, they’ve also spurred the growth of niche markets that cater to people looking to reject mass-produced goods.
Missy Higgins is aiming for the heart with her protest song Oh Canada.
AAP Image/Dan Himbrechts
A short tour of Australia’s protest song history shows that protest music didn’t so much disappear as morph from the mainstream. In other words, it’s still very much with us.
Tim Minchin’s song-craft is direct yet sophisticated, and artfully constructed.
AAP Image/Dean Lewins
Tim Minchin’s latest musical offering, Come Home Cardinal Pell, is provoking strong reactions because of its blunt and direct message to Cardinal George Pell. But in terms of song-craft, it’s a winner.
Most young people rely on music to make them feel better, and have had multiple experiences of this working. But if someone you know is struggling with mental health problems it’s worth having a chat.
Einstein claimed that, had he not pursued science, he would have been a musician.
Robert and Talbot Trudeau
Einstein, an accomplished violinist, claimed that, had he not pursued science, he would have been a musician. That’s worth reflecting on, in the wake of last week’s discovery of gravitational waves.
Music has always played a part in investigating the universe.
Sonic visualisation of 'The Storm' by Peter Drach.
Music has always played a role in our understanding of the universe. Listening to gravitational waves confirms thousands of years of metaphysical investigation.
Attempts to explain opera’s affective power have a long history.
Photo: Keith Saunders. (L-R) Voyage to the Moon's Phoebe Briggs, Jeremy Kleeman, Emma Matthews, Sally-Anne Russell.
It seems obvious to say that opera “moves” people. But the question of “how” it moves people is far less straightforward. Cue a new research project pegged to Voyage to the Moon.
Samuel Johnson will play Molly Meldrum in Channel 7 miniseries Molly.
Image courtesy of Channel 7.
Molly Meldrum’s life is coming to the small screen with a two-part miniseries. How faithfully can we expect the show to reproduce history? Taking a look at the soundtrack might provide a clue.
Kanye functions as a mirror for the most visible and occasionally garish values of his time.
Charles Platiau/ Reuters
Many have long forgotten the simple fact that Kanye West is one of the greatest producers of hip-hop in its history. A decade-long six-album streak of critically acclaimed albums rivals the greatest icons of pop.
If we listen to the songs of displaced Syrians, just as we listen to the songs of victims of the Holocaust, we connect to displaced communities’ creativity, ingenuity and imagination.
Woody Guthrie lived in Fred Trump’s Beach Haven apartment complex for two years.
Nick Lehr/The Conversation
In the 1950s, Woody Guthrie lived in one of Fred Trump’s buildings. In newly discovered, never before published writings, Guthrie bitterly rails against the developer’s color line.
A still from the music video for Lazarus.
Columbia
Bowie’s life has been under the microscope since he burst on the scene in 1969 with the smash hit, Space Oddity. We examine how the divided city of Berlin saved this extraordinary artist at his lowest ebb.
It’s time to look back on a year of art and culture.
Blake Danger Bentley. Melbourne street art
Paul Dalgarno, The Conversation and Madeleine De Gabriele, The Conversation
It’s another year in Arts + Culture, so in case you missed it we’ve collected all the best coverage of screen, theatre, music, books and culture in one place.
John James Audubon’s American Flamingo (1838).
Sotheby's