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Photograph of Redd Velvet (born Crystal Tucker) who started her career as a classically trained singer.

Keeping The Blues Alive

Is blues music a thing of the past? A festival in Memphis featuring musicians of all ages and nationalities shouts an upbeat answer.

by Touré via Smithsonian on August 26, 2016

Photograph of a children's choir singing within the outlines of the United States.

How “Fifty Nifty United States” Became One of the Greatest Mnemonic Devices of All Time

How you, your friends, and Lin-Manuel Miranda all learned this catchy, state-naming tune.

by L. V. Anderson via Slate on November 30, 2015

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

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.”

by Adam Shatz via New York Review of Books on January 9, 2014

Black and white photo of Charlie Rich on a hammock.

Dear Charlie

Charlie Rich, the tragic soul man whose legacy was largely forgotten after his brief period of fame.

by Joe Hagan via Oxford American on January 7, 2014

Painting of Woody Guthrie smoking a cigarette while playing a guitar.

Woody Guthrie: Folk Hero

Guthrie challenged the commercial aesthetic of the pre-rock era through a performance style that was almost combatively anti-musical.

by David Hajdu via The New Yorker on March 21, 2004

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

Ella Fitzgerald at the Newport Jazz Festival in Newport, Rhode Island, 1970.

The Genius of Ella Fitzgerald

She remade the American songbook in her image, uprooting the very meaning of musical performance.

by Sam Fentress via The Nation on May 28, 2024

Steve Lawrence and Eydie Gormé.

Slouching Towards Tax Day

How did taxes become something we "do"?

by Brian Domitrovic via Law & Liberty on April 15, 2024

Michael Knott playing guitar

Michael Knott, Who Changed The Course of Christian Rock, Dies at 61

An entire industry wouldn't exist without him, yet few know his name. In his songs, Knott challenged the faithful to examine their faults and hypocrisies.

by Lars Gotrich via NPR on March 14, 2024

Two elderly Black women.

How the Memory of a Song Reunited Two Women Separated by the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade

In 1990, scholars found a Sierra Leonean woman who remembered a nearly identical version of a tune passed down by a Georgia woman’s enslaved ancestors

by Joshua Kagavi via Smithsonian on February 29, 2024

Ambrotype of African American Woman with Flag—believed to be a washerwoman for Union troops quartered outside Richmond, Virginia

Home Front: Black Women Unionists in the Confederacy

The resistance and unionism of enslaved and freed Black women in the midst of the Confederacy is an epic story of sacrifice for nation and citizenship.

by Thavolia Glymph, Matthew Wills via JSTOR Daily on February 4, 2024

Leonard Bernstein smoking a cigarette

The Bernstein Enigma

In narrowly focusing on Leonard Bernstein’s tortured personal life, "Maestro" fails to explore his tortured artistic life.

by Philip Clark via New York Review of Books on January 17, 2024

Shirley Horn in a publicity shot, 1960.

How to Take It Slow

Following the rhythm of Shirley Horn.

by Lauren Du Graf via Oxford American on December 5, 2023

The Fisk Jubilee Singers.

How the Negro Spiritual Changed American Popular Music—And America Itself

In 1871, the Fisk University singers embarked on a tour that introduced white Americans to a Black sound that would reshape the nation.

by Vann R. Newkirk II via The Atlantic on November 13, 2023

Members of the Wu-Tang Clan.

'Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers)' Turns 30

How the album pays homage to hip-hop's mythical and martial arts origins.

by Marcus Evans via The Conversation on October 31, 2023

Lou Reed, January 1, 1970.

Lou Reed Didn't Want to Be King

Will Hermes's new biography, "Lou Reed: The King of New York," tries—and fails—to pin the rocker down.

by Hannah Gold via The Yale Review on October 16, 2023

Lou Reed with sunglasses on. A glare reflects off of the sunglasses.

The Least-Known Rock God

A new biography of the Velvet Underground founder, Lou Reed, considers the stark duality of the man and his music.

by Will Hermes via The Atlantic on October 8, 2023

Album cover for “Tim,” the "Let It Bleed" edition, by The Replacements.

The Replacements Are Still a Puzzle

The reissue of “Tim” shows both the prescience and the unrealized promise of the beloved band.

by Elizabeth Nelson via The New Yorker on September 21, 2023

An illustration of Lucinda Williams in a storm with debris in the air behind her.

Lucinda Williams and the Idea of Louisiana

An exploration of the family stories, Southern territory, and distortions of memory that Lucinda Williams' songwriting evokes.

by Wyatt Williams via The Bitter Southerner on September 5, 2023

The Sugarhill Gang's Wonder Mike, Master Gee and Hen Dogg in November 2019.

The Unlikely Origins of ‘Rapper’s Delight,’ Hip-Hop’s First Mainstream Hit

The Sugarhill Gang song remains one of rap's most beloved. But it took serendipity, a book of rhymes, and an agreement to settle a lawsuit for it to survive.

by Kim Bellware via Retropolis on August 8, 2023

American blues singer and guitarist Leadbelly performs for a room full of people, 1940.

Is the History of American Art a History of Failure?

Sara Marcus’s recent book argues that from the Reconstruction to the AIDS era, a distinct aesthetic formed around defeat in the realm of politics.

by Lynne Feeley via The Nation on July 31, 2023

Mural depicting bluesman John Dee Holeman and friends playing on the front porch of a house.

The Living Legacy of the Piedmont Blues

The music that grew out of Durham's tobacco manufacturing plants influenced some of the most widely recorded musicians of the last 65 years—and still does.

by Marc Farinella via The Assembly on July 14, 2023

Diners conversing at French restaurant.

Crème de la Crème

How French cuisine became beloved among status-hungry diners in the United States, from Thomas Jefferson to Kanye West.

by Kelly Alexander, Claire Bunschoten via Aeon on July 7, 2023

Newspaper clipping from an Abolitionist paper

The Hypocrisy of This Nation!

How abolitionists viewed the American flag.

by Matthew J. Clavin via Lapham’s Quarterly on June 14, 2023

The Ferguson Unit Rhythmeer Band plays at the Jim Ferguson Unit in Madison County, Texas.

The Blues Behind Bars: How Southern Prisons Shaped American Music

Incarcerated musicians have crafted some of the most iconic songs in American music history while prisons reap the profits.

by Zeb Larson via Scalawag on June 8, 2023

A man pressing a button on an early IBM computer.

How an IBM Computer Learned to Sing

The IBM 7094 anticipated the future of music—and also sounded like the Auto-Tuned pop stars of today.

by Ted Gioia via The Honest Broker on March 26, 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

A portrait of Joe Hill.

Joe Hill Was Killed for Singing Labor’s Song

The labor troubadour Joe Hill was executed by a Utah firing squad for a crime he almost certainly didn’t commit.

by Cal Winslow via Jacobin on November 19, 2022

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

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