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Bob Dylan performing on stage.

The Lines, They Are A-Changin’

Getting lost and found in the Bob Dylan archives.
by Justin Taylor via Bookforum on October 29, 2024
Eden Ahbez.

The Strangest Hit Songwriter in History

He wrote one of my favorite songs, but was so much more than a composer.
by Ted Gioia via The Honest Broker on June 12, 2024
Bruce Springsteen performing live onstage during the Born In the U.S.A. tour.

Bruce Springsteen’s Nebraska and Born in the U.S.A. Captured Two Sides of Reagan’s America

Springsteen's albums offer a tragic-romantic view of the working class in Reagan-era America.
by William Harris via Jacobin on October 10, 2023
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
Car interior with Chuck Berry reflected in side view mirror.

An Anthropologist of Filth

On Chuck Berry.
by Ian Penman via Harper’s on May 4, 2023
Connie Converse playing a guitar

The Lost Music of Connie Converse

A writer of haunting, uncategorizable songs, she once seemed poised for runaway fame. But only decades after she disappeared has her music found an audience.
by Jeremy Lybarger via The New Republic on April 24, 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
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
Test launch of an ICBM, reminiscent of a star with a long tail in the night sky.

“Do You Hear What I Hear” Was Actually About the Cuban Missile Crisis

The holiday favorite is an allegorical prayer for peace.
by Reba A. Wissner via Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists on December 22, 2021
Bob Dylan singing

Bob Dylan, Historian

In the six decades of his career, Bob Dylan has mined America’s past for images, characters, and events that speak to the nation’s turbulent present.
by Sean Wilentz via New York Review of Books on June 19, 2021
U.S. infantry in World War I

Songs of the Bad War

Some of the earliest and most powerful anti-war songs of the Sixties era don’t mention Vietnam, but rather World War I.
by Michael Brendan Dougherty via National Review on June 11, 2021
Carole King

'It Shook Me to My Core': 50 Years of Carole King's Tapestry

James Taylor, Roberta Flack, Tori Amos, Joan Armatrading, Rufus Wainwright and more on the 70s masterpiece.
by Dave Simpson, Laura Snapes via The Guardian on February 12, 2021
Carolers walking and carrying sheet music
partner

The Forgotten Civil War History of Two of Our Favorite Christmas Carols

Over time, the historic roots of some holiday music have been forgotten.
by Christian McWhirter via Made By History on December 23, 2020
A black and white picture of Bob Dylan

How Bob Dylan Wrote the Second Great American Songbook

The sale of the singer-songwriter’s catalogue is a reminder of his massive cultural legacy.
by Jeet Heer via The Nation on December 11, 2020
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.
by Margaret Talbot via The New Yorker on November 29, 2020
The five members of The Band in black and white

Is “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down” Really a Pro-Confederate Anthem?

The answer may lie in the ear of the beholder.
by Jack Hamilton via Slate on August 13, 2020
Janet Jackson performing.

How a White Nationalist Mass Shooting Inspired Janet Jackson’s Masterpiece

Thirty years ago today, Janet Jackson released “Rhythm Nation 1814," her most topical album yet and one inspired by a horrifying mass shooting.
by Stereo Williams via The Daily Beast on September 19, 2019

David Porter Takes Us to School

The man who wrote "Soul Man" gives a master class on how code-switching through music helped catalyze the Civil Rights Movement.
by Tonyaa Weathersbee via The Bitter Southerner on October 16, 2018

Reliving Johnny Cash's 'At Folsom Prison' at 50: An Oral History

Eyewitnesses to the Man in Black's legendary 1968 concerts at the California prison recall Cash's shining moment.
by Michael Streissguth via Rolling Stone on May 7, 2018

A Hardworking Man Named Bob McDill

The steady hand behind more than 30 No. 1 country hits.
by Jennifer Justus via The Bitter Southerner on February 8, 2018
Otis Redding

Inside Otis Redding's Final Masterpiece '(Sittin' on) the Dock of the Bay'

Co-writer Steve Cropper and other collaborators take a new look back at the legendary song, recorded just weeks before the singer’s tragic 1967 death.
by Stuart Miller via Rolling Stone on December 10, 2017

“Like Sonny Liston”: An Appreciation of Tom Petty

Patterson Hood argues that Tom Petty achieved perfection in his songwriting... time and time again.
by Patterson Hood via The Bitter Southerner on October 6, 2017

Chuck Berry Invented the Idea of Rock and Roll

The origins of rock and roll are unknown, but no one can deny the role Chuck Berry played.
by Bill Wyman via Vulture on March 18, 2017

How April 14th Came to Be ‘Ruination Day’

April 15 may be Tax Day, but for some, it’s the 14th of April that’s notorious.
by Gillian Welch, Julia Wick via Longreads on April 14, 2015
Mike Dirnt, Billy Joe Armstrong, and Tré Cool from the band Green Day.

How Green Day’s American Idiot Pitted Punk Against George W Bush

Twenty years ago, a trio of Calfornian stoners released a polemic against Republican America that politicised a generation.
by Pippa Bailey via New Statesman on September 30, 2024
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
Billie Holiday singing in a recording studio.

Decades After Billie Holiday’s Death, ‘Strange Fruit’ is Still a Searing Testament to Injustice

Christian and Jewish themes influenced the world of art around one of jazz’s greatest singers.
by Tracy Fessenden via The Conversation on July 15, 2024
Joni Mitchell.

How Joni Mitchell Pioneered Her Own Form of Artistic Genius

On the long and continuing struggle of women artists for recognition on their own terms.
by Ann Powers via Literary Hub on June 17, 2024
Johnny Cash and Waylon Jennings.

How Nashville Outsiders Changed Country Music Forever

An excerpt from the new book "Willie, Waylon, and the Boys."
by Brian Fairbanks via Nashville Scene on June 13, 2024
An up close photograph of Leonard Cohen.

Leonard Cohen: Hippie Troubadour and Forgotten Reactionary

As the legend of the singer–poet–sex symbol grows, fans rarely acknowledge his conservative streak.
by Simon Lewsen via The Walrus on April 17, 2024
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