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Taylor Swift performing on stage.

Has Pop Music Got Less Melodic? I’ve Immersed Myself in 70 Years of Hits – This is What I’ve Found

A new study claims that songs have become less complex. But the magic of these short, sharp tunes can’t be so easily distilled.
by Tom Breihan via The Guardian on August 5, 2024
Jailhouse Rock (1957).

How Has Music Changed Since the 1950s?

A statistical analysis of how music composition evolved over time.
by Daniel Parris via Stat Significant on July 10, 2024
Espresso by Sabrina Carpenter surrounded by African American artists' records.

The Song of the Summer Is Actually the Song of 1982

Sabrina Carpenter’s “Espresso” is one of several recent hits bringing back the genre that never got a name.
by Dan Charnas via Slate on June 4, 2024
The Go-Go's on July 30, 1981. From left, Kathy Valentine, Charlotte Caffey, Jane Wiedlin, Belinda Carlisle, and Gina Schock.

We Got the Beat

How The Go-Go’s emerged from the LA punk scene in the late ’70s to become the first and only female band to have a number one album.
by Lisa Whittington-Hill via Longreads on January 16, 2024
An uncredited performer with a member of the Delta Rhythm Boys in Give Me Some Skin (1946).

Jammin’ in the Panoram

During World War II, proto–music videos called “soundies” blared pop patriotism from visual jukeboxes across American bars.
by J. Hoberman via New York Review of Books on September 2, 2023
Keyboard, microphone, and mixer in a music studio.

How the Billboard Hot 100 Lost Interest in the Key Change

One of the key changes—pun intended—to the pop charts in the last 60 years is the demise of key changes. What happened?
by Chris Dalla Riva via Tedium on November 9, 2022
"Defining the '90s Music Canon" over TLC and Spice Girls album covers.

Defining the ’90s Music Canon

Which songs will future generations use to characterize the decade?
by Matthew Daniels via The Pudding on July 1, 2020
Sasha Geffen next to their book

Pop Music Has Always Been Queer

Sasha Geffen’s debut book reveals that the history of pop music is a history of gender rebellion.
by Tal Milovina via The Nation on April 8, 2020

Why are Pop Songs Getting Sadder Than They Used to Be?

The most popular songs today are sadder than they were 50 years ago: can cultural evolution explain this negative turn?
by Alberto Acerbi, Charlotte Brand via Aeon on February 4, 2020
Steve Dahl beside the dumpster full of records collected for Disco Demolition Night

Disco Demolition: The Night They Tried to Crush Black Music

When a DJ called on listeners to destroy disco records in a Chicago stadium, things turned nasty.
by Alexis Petridis via The Guardian on July 19, 2019
Solange and Beyonce Knowles at the MTV Video Music Awards, 2007.

‘Give It Up For My Sister’: Beyonce, Solange, and The History of Sibling Acts in Pop

Family dynasties are neither new nor newly influential in pop.
by Danielle Amir Jackson via Longreads on May 20, 2019
Drawing of people dancing on a dance floor

A Data-Led Theory to Generationally Divided Dance Floors

Some age groups are more likely to recognize certain songs than others.
by Matthew Daniels, Liana Sposto via The Pudding on February 17, 2019

How Auto-Tune Revolutionized the Sound of Popular Music

An in-depth history of the most important pop innovation of the last 20 years, from Cher’s “Believe” to Kanye West to Migos.
by Simon Reynolds via Pitchfork on September 17, 2018

Every Song of the Summer Since 1958

Each year there is one undeniable 'song of summer.'
by MetroLyrics via YouTube on August 24, 2017

Prince's Epic 'Purple Rain' Tour: An Oral History

Members of the Revolution look back on Prince's massive, awe-inspiring 'Purple Rain' tour in our exclusive oral history.
by David Browne via Rolling Stone on June 22, 2017
Silhouettes of people dancing at a techno music festival with colorful laser lights.

Machine Soul

A history of techno.
by Jon Savage via Hyperreal Music Archive on June 1, 1993
Collage of popular culture references from 2008 onward.

That Feeling You Recognize? Obamacore.

The 2008 election sparked an outburst of brightness and positivity across pop culture. Now hindsight — and cringe — is setting in.
by Nate Jones via Vulture on August 20, 2024
Bottom half of a red sheet music cover with the words "Sung by Aida Overton Walker with the Smart Set Co" written on it with a portrait of Aida to the right

Sheet Music Covers for the Gotham-Attucks Company, ca. 1905–1911

Beginning in 1905, one star-studded song-publishing company would push the aesthetic limits of how Black popular music was shown to the public.
by Dorothy Berry via The Public Domain Review on February 1, 2024
The male-dominated field of pop songwriting.

Women are Superstars on Stage, but Still Rarely Get to Write Songs

Songwriting credits since 1958, broken down by gender.
by Chris Dalla Riva, Ashley Cai via The Pudding on July 20, 2023

Why Do Modern Pop Songs Have So Many Credited Writers?

How modern songwriting evolved into a game of aggressive credit—even for the people who didn’t technically do the composing.
by Chris Dalla Riva via Tedium on February 4, 2023
original

The Life of Song

What the surprising career of Bob McGrath teaches us about popular music.
by Kathryn Ostrofsky on December 14, 2022
Rob McKuen infront of a background composed of spines of his books.

Fifty Years Ago, He Was America’s Most Famous Writer. Why Haven’t You Ever Heard of Him?

He sold 60 million books and 100 million records. Then he disappeared.
by Dan Kois via Slate on October 10, 2022
Bar chart of different musical genres on a timeline of when they were popular.

A Timeline of African American Music: 1600 to the Present

An interactive visualization of the remarkable diversity of African American music, with essays on the characteristics of each genre and style.
by Portia K. Maultsby via Carnegie Hall on May 25, 2022
Photo of Danyel Smith.

Danyel Smith Tells the History of Black Women in Pop Music

The author discusses Whitney Houston, Gladys Knight, racism in magazines, and why she’s so hopeful for the future of music and writing.
by Emily J. Lordi, Danyel Smith via The New Yorker on April 17, 2022
Portraits of Dean Dixon, William Grant Still, and Margaret Bonds, three African American classical musicians.

A Prophecy Unfulfilled?

What a new book and six companion videos have to say about the fate of Black classical music in America.
by Mark N. Grant via The American Scholar on April 2, 2022
A photo of Fontella Bass repeated as if it's a frame in a filmstrip.

Can't You See That I'm Lonely?

“Rescue Me,” on repeat.
by David Ramsey via Oxford American on December 7, 2021
An astronaut on the moon with the MTV flag planted.

Watch the First Two Hours of MTV’s Inaugural Broadcast

MTV's 1981 broadcast was advertised to be as important as the moon landing.
by Ted Mills via Open Culture on August 6, 2021
Ronald Reagan and popular musicians from 1980s, black and white collage with colorful shapes

I Want My Mutually Assured Destruction

How 1980s MTV helped my students understand the Cold War.
by Tom Nichols via The Atlantic on May 8, 2021
Vanilla Ice in front of an American flag

The Rise and Fall of Vanilla Ice, As Told by Vanilla Ice

Thirty years after "Ice Ice Baby," Robert Van Winkle is ready to talk about it all—his rise, his fall, and that infamous night on the balcony.
by Jeff Weiss via The Ringer on October 6, 2020

The My Generation: An Oral History Of Myspace Music

Myspace changed the way we discovered music and fell apart after conquering the world.
by Michael Tedder via Stereogum on March 30, 2020
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