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Why the Black National Anthem Is Lifting Every Voice to Sing

Scholars agree the song, endowed with its deep history of Black pride, speaks to the universal human condition.
by Janelle Harris Dixon via Smithsonian on August 10, 2020

Somebody Died, Babe: A Musical Cover-Up of Racism, Violence, and Greed

Beneath the popular folk song, “Swannanoa Tunnel” and the railroad tracks that run through Western North Carolina is a story of blood, greed, and obfuscation.
by Kevin Kehrberg, Jeffrey A. Keith via The Bitter Southerner on August 4, 2020

Dylan, Unencumbered

"How long can it go on?"
by Katrina Forrester via n+1 on August 3, 2020
Photo of KRS-One superimposed on photo of NY subway station in the Bronx

How KRS-One’s ‘Sound of Da Police’ Went From Anti-Cop Anthem to Theme Song and Back Again

The 1993 song reinvigorated the rap legend’s career — and against all odds became a Hollywood (and police) favorite
by Eric Ducker via Medium on July 25, 2020
Demonstrators against police brutality.
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The Explicit Anthem of Anti-Racist Protest

Rap group N.W.A. understood vulgarity and controversy were necessary to draw attention to police brutality.
by Felicia Angeja Viator via Made By History on June 22, 2020
Dr. Dre.

The Complicated Truths of Dr. Dre’s ‘The Chronic’

No rap album has quite the mythology attached to it—as a game changer, a king maker, a genre expander. But legends aren’t exactly fact.
by Justin Sayles via The Ringer on April 20, 2020
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Coronavirus Has a Playlist. Songs About Disease Go Way Back.

Coronavirus songwriting has gone as global as the pandemic itself, creating a new genre called pandemic pop. It’s a tradition with a long history.
by Anthony DeCurtis via Retro Report on April 17, 2020

‘Baby, It's Cold Outside' Was Controversial From the Beginning

Here’s what to know about consent in the 1940s, when the song was written.
by Olivia B. Waxman via TIME on December 5, 2019

William S. Burroughs and the Cult of Rock ‘n’ Roll

From Bob Dylan to David Bowie to The Beatles, the legendary Beat writer’s influence reached beyond literature into music in surprising ways.
by Casey Rae via Longreads on June 11, 2019

Baby, Christmas Songs Have Always Been Controversial

Long before “Baby, It’s Cold Outside,” holiday songs played a part in the War on Christmas.
by Neil J. Young via The Atlantic on December 24, 2018

The Most Important Album of 1968 Wasn’t The White Album. It Was Beggars Banquet.

It saved the Rolling Stones, altered the trajectory of music history, and turns 50 this week.
by Jack Hamilton via Slate on December 6, 2018

'I'm Feeling Bad About America'

The sick history of the U.S. campaign song.
by J. W. McCormack via The Baffler on November 1, 2018
Painting of the mouth of a cave.

Down in the Hole: Outlaw Country and Outlaw Culture

Country music has often stood, as it were, with one foot in and one foot out of the cave.
by Max Fraser via Southern Cultures on October 16, 2018
Colorful illustration of Larry Norman, haloed by yellow.

The Unlikely Endurance of Christian Rock

The genre has been disdained by the church and mocked by secular culture. That just reassured practitioners that they were rebels on a righteous path.
by Kelefa Sanneh via The New Yorker on September 17, 2018
Two posters of the "We Can Do It!" posters with Rosie the Riveter hang on a wall.

Rosie the Riveter Isn’t Who You Think She Is

While the female factory worker is a pop icon now, the “We Can Do It!” poster was unknown to the American public in the 1940s.
by Erick Trickey via Retropolis on September 3, 2018
The Dead Kennedys band.

America Needs a Definitive History of Dead Kennedys…And Here’s Why It Won’t Happen

"I pledge to laugh / At the Flag / Of the United States of America..."
by Will Greer via Tropics of Meta on July 30, 2018

John Wesley Harding at Fifty: WWDD?

Bob Dylan's confessional album resisted the political radicalism and activism of 1967.
by Anthony Chaney via U.S. Intellectual History Blog on June 13, 2018

The Historical Roots of Blues Music

The blues is not "slave music," but the music of freed African Americans.
by Lamont Pearley Sr. via Black Perspectives on May 9, 2018

Agriculture Wars

On country music as a lens through which to trace the corporatization of American farming.
by Nick Murray via Viewpoint Magazine on March 12, 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

Wouldn’t You Love to Love Her?

A biography of Stevie Nicks does little to dispel the magic.
by Emily Gould via Bookforum on January 3, 2018

The Music I Love Is a Racial Minefield

How I learned to fiddle my way through America's deeply troubling history.
by Michael Mechanic via Mother Jones on December 21, 2017

Here's What Benjamin Franklin Scholars Think About Lin-Manuel Miranda's Ode to the Inventor

Fact-checking the lyrics of Miranda's new song.
by Olivia B. Waxman via TIME on December 15, 2017
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
family Thanksgiving meal

The Dark and Divisive History of America’s Thanksgiving Hymn

How a beloved song with origins in 16th-century Europe captures both a holiday's spirit of unity and a country's legacy of exclusion.
by Neil J. Young via The Atlantic on November 23, 2017

The Monitor: The Punk Album that Predicted Our Politics

How Titus Andronicus drew on Civil War lore to frame contemporary social divides.
by Alex Sayf Cummings via Tropics of Meta on November 4, 2017

Joni Mitchell: Fear of a Female Genius

One of the greatest living artists in popular music still isn’t properly recognized.
by Lindsay Zoladz via The Ringer on October 16, 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
Illustration of the folk hero, John Henry, face down with a hammer in his hand.

A History of American Protest Music: This Is the Hammer That Killed John Henry

How a folk hero inspired one of the most covered songs in American history.
by Tom Maxwell via Longreads on October 4, 2017
Otis Redding

Five Magnificent Years

A recent Otis Redding biography examines what was and what could have been, 50 years after tragedy struck.
by Geoffrey O'Brien via New York Review of Books on September 10, 2017
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