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Jimi Hendrix

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Hendrix performing at Woodstock

Rewinding Jimi Hendrix’s National Anthem

His blazing rendition at Woodstock still echoes throughout the years, reminding us of what is worth fighting for in the American experiment.

Fifty Years Ago, Hendrix’s Woodstock Anthem Expressed the Hopes and Fears of a Nation

It also inspired my own scholarship on the national anthem.
Jimi Hendrix performing at Woodstock.

The Beautiful Sounds of Jimi Hendrix

“Hendrix used a range of technological innovations...to expand the sound of the guitar, to make it ‘talk’ in ways that it never had.”
A series of photographs of Joni Mitchell

Joni Mitchell’s Youthful Artistry

A new release records the musician’s early metamorphosis—unmoored, broke, living for a time in an attic—when her lodestar was her big, strange, unwieldy talent.

How Rock and Roll Became White

And how the Rolling Stones, a band in love with black music, helped lead the way to rock’s segregated future.
A turntable and records.

What’s Old is New Again (and Again): On the Cyclical Nature of Nostalgia

Retro was not the antithesis to the sub- and countercultural experiments of the 1960s, it grew directly out of them.
Little Richard holding his arms out at a performance.

What Little Richard Deserved

The new documentary “I Am Everything” explores the gulf between what Richard accomplished and what he got for it.
Collage of CIA director Richard Helms, Jimi Hendrix, and redacted Project MK-Ultra documents.

The Secret Black History of LSD

Research on psychedelics has been riddled with medical racism and exclusion but it hasn’t stopped Black people from finding creativity and solace through drugs.
Sly Stone performing in front of crowd

What the Harlem Cultural Festival Represented

Questlove’s debut as a director, the documentary "Summer of Soul," revisits a musical event that encapsulated the energies of Harlem in the 1960s.
Dr. Lawrence Matsuda portrait, 2015, Painting by Alfredo M. Arreguin

Japanese Internment, Seattle in the 50s, and the First Asian-American History Class in Washington

Lawrence Matsuda talks about his family history, his experiences of discrimination, and his work in bilingual and Asian American representation in education.
Picture of DeFord Bailey holding a harmonica amplified by a gourd.

The Unsung Black Musician Who Changed Country Music

From the moment DeFord Bailey stepped onto a stage in Nashville, country music would never be the same. Decades after his death he finally got his due.
Photo of a large crowd at the Altamont Festival, 1969.

What Happened to Rock and Roll After Altamont?

Buzz Poole on the Grateful Dead's “New Speedway Boogie,” and the true end of the Sixties.
Woman kneeling on stage playing air guitar.

How Air Guitar Became A Serious Sport

Air guitar competitions may seem rather new, but this sport has a long, evolving, and sometimes surprising history.

When Aretha Franklin’s ‘Star-Spangled Banner’ Drew a Torrent of Racial Abuse

Racist critics declared that Franklin ‘crucified’ the anthem at the 1968 Democratic National Convention.

The Forgotten Story of Pure Hell, America’s First Black Punk Band

The four-piece lived with the New York Dolls and played with Sid Vicious, but they’ve been largely written out of cultural history.

John Wesley Harding at Fifty: WWDD?

Bob Dylan's confessional album resisted the political radicalism and activism of 1967.

Prayers for Richard

Reflections on the life of Little Richard, the star who mistook a satellite for a ball of fire.