music industry — Bunk History

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Motown Records advertisement for the Dynamic Superiors.

Trapped in Motown’s Closet

The intersection of Black music and queer identity.

by Mark Anthony Neal via Medium on June 2, 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

Book cover of "Cold War Country" by Joseph M. Thompson.

Big Government Country

Connie B. Gay and the roots of country music militarization.

by Brock Schnoke via UNC Press Blog on April 11, 2024

The album cover of "Cowboy Carter" released by Beyonce in 2024

Cowboy Carter and the Black Roots of Country Music

Beyoncé is following in the footsteps of many Black musicians before her.

by The Birthplace of Country Music Museum via Teen Vogue on March 29, 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

"A Grain of Sand" record

Charting the Music of a Movement

Galvanized by an act of racial violence, the band A Grain of Sand brought a new version of Asian American activism and identity to the folk music scene.

by Oliver Wang, H. M. A. Leow via JSTOR Daily on March 11, 2024

A bedroom decorated with Bob Marley merchandise and the Jamaican flag.

Bob Marley’s ‘Legend’ Is One of the Bestselling Albums Ever. But Does It Tell His Full Story?

After 40 years and more than 25 million copies sold, what story does ‘Legend’ tell us about Bob Marley and the people listening to it?

by Eric Ducker via The Ringer on February 14, 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

Vinyl disc of "Love, Love, Love" by Ted Jarrett

The Black Songwriter Who Took Nashville by Storm

Before Tracy Chapman’s “Fast Car” won song of the year at the CMAs, hit maker Ted Jarrett’s music topped the country charts.

by Robert M. Marovich via Zócalo Public Square on January 31, 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

Miles Davis.

Not Not Jazz

When Miles Davis went electric in the late 1960s, he overhauled his thinking about songs, genres, and what it meant to lead a band.

by Ben Ratliff via New York Review of Books on January 13, 2024

A musician wearing a Moog hat and playing a Moog synthesizer in a recording studio

The Sounds of Science

The Moog synthesizer was one of the most influential inventions in 20th-century sound. With the recent sale of the Asheville-based company, a new era begins.

by Reanna Cruz via The Bitter Southerner on October 31, 2023

Tupac shirtless in the shower, wearing gold chain and covered in soap suds

Why Tupac Never Died

It’s because the rapper’s life and work were a cascade of contradictions that we’re still trying to figure him out today.

by Hua Hsu via The New Yorker on October 23, 2023

Billy Joel and Bruce Springsteen .

How the American Suburbs Created Bruce Springsteen and Billy Joel

The musical culture of the New York metropolitan area, combined with themes of suburban life, suffuse the legends' music.

by Jim Cullen via Made By History on October 13, 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

Man spinning record player with woman in the background

Making Music Male

How did record collecting and stereophile culture come to exclude women as consumers and experts?

by Ashawnta Jackson, Roy Shuker, Keir Keightley via JSTOR Daily on July 24, 2023

Jason Aldean Can’t Rewrite the History His Song Depends On

That history has nothing to do with culture wars, and everything to do with what real justice looks like in the United States, and who has access to it.

by Nicole Hemmer via CNN on July 20, 2023

Puff Daddy performs at his annual White Party.

Hip-Hop’s Midlife Slump

It’s been 25 years since Puff Daddy went to the Hamptons. What’s changed?

by Xochitl Gonzalez via The Atlantic on July 3, 2023

Henderson Thigpen, Deanie Parker, Bobby Manuel, and Eddie Floyd, the songwriters of Stax.

The Secret Sound of Stax

The rediscovery of demos performed by the songwriters of the legendary Memphis recording studio reveals a hidden history of soul.

by Burkhard Bilger via The New Yorker on May 29, 2023

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.

by Hanif Abdurraqib via The New Yorker on April 26, 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

A techno DJ.

The Battle Over Techno’s Origins

A museum dedicated to techno music has opened in Frankfurt, Germany, and many genre pioneers feel that Black and queer artists in Detroit have been overlooked.

by T. M. Brown via The New Yorker on April 14, 2023

Sha-Rock tells her story to a crowd at the Bronx Music Heritage Center, 2023.

"You Gotta Fight and Fight and Fight for Your Legacy"

Sha-Rock claims her place as the first female MC in hip-hop history.

by Sidney Madden, Rodney Carmichael, Mano Sundaresan via NPR on March 23, 2023

Early phonograph.

How the Phonograph Created the 3-Minute Pop Song

And how streaming is changing it again.

by Clive Thompson via Medium on February 25, 2023

Ollie Brown holding Rolling Stone magazine.

What Was the Music Critic?

A new book exalts the heyday of music magazines, when electric prose reigned and egos collided.

by John Semley via The New Republic on November 18, 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

Bad Bunny performs for the 2022 MTV Video Music Awards.

Bad Bunny and the Political History of Reggaeton

The genre is the product of migration, rebirth, and the struggle to be heard.

by Catherine Osborn via Foreign Policy on September 2, 2022

The four members of Creedence Clearwater Revival.

How CCR, “The Boy Scouts of Rock and Roll,” Took California and the Country by Storm

Creedence Clearwater Revival’s unique blend of traditional and progressive sensibilities.

by John Lingan via Literary Hub on August 9, 2022

Four women (L7) sit on a bench together wearing jeans and jackets.

The Women Who Built Grunge

Bands like L7 and Heavens to Betsy were instrumental to the birth of the grunge scene, but for decades were treated like novelties and sex objects.

by Lisa Whittington-Hill via Longreads on June 29, 2022

A juke joint on the circuit in Clarksdale, Mississippi, 1939

Inside the ‘Chitlin Circuit,’ a Jim Crow-Era Safe Space for Black Performers

It's where legends like Tina Turner and Ray Charles launched their careers.

by Adrian Miller via Atlas Obscura on June 28, 2022

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