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How "This Land Is Your Land" Went From Protest Song to Singalong

Woody Guthrie’s “This Land Is Your Land” has lost a bit of its protest oomph—in part because of a decades-long denial of its later verses.
by Mark Allan Jackson, Erin Blakemore via JSTOR Daily on June 15, 2017
Guitar Shorty sitting on a bench outside of a house, and playing guitar while smoking a cigar.

Put on my Clothes and Look Like Somebody Else

The life of Guitar Shorty was a mixture of facts, lies and fantasy. He was a blues musician who lived far outside mainstream society.
by Sarah Bryan via Oxford American on April 17, 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 The Hutchinson Family Singers Achieved Pop Stardom with an Anti-Slavery Anthem

"Get Off the Track!" borrowed the melody of a racist hit song and helped give a public voice to the abolitionist movement.
by Tom Maxwell via Longreads on March 7, 2017
Bob Dylan and The Band performing on stage

The Brotherhood of Rock

The story of how The Band, in Robbie Robertson's words, "acted out an ideal of democracy and equality."
by Greil Marcus via New York Review of Books on March 2, 2017
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
Joe Hill.

Remembering the Life and Music of Labor Agitator Joe Hill, Who Was Executed 100 Years Ago Today

A musician who released a tribute album of Joe Hill's songs discusses Hill's music, politics, and legacy.
by David Cochran, Bucky Halker via In These Times on November 19, 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
Black and white image of a long road with a car in the distance.

Living in the Shadow of Your Father’s Iconic Song

Sarah Curtis: “Maybe we’ve just learned what my teenage daughter does not yet fully know: that to be held to a law is often to be loved.”
by Sarah Curtis via Literary Hub on October 9, 2025
LAPD Chief Daryl Gates in 1991.

When Antipathy to the LAPD’s Chief Was the Great Unifier

A memoir explores L.A.'s political culture after the Rodney King beating.
by Danny Goldberg via Truthdig on October 3, 2025
Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band performing at Nationals Park in Washington, DC.

The Springsteen Generation

How the Boss provided a 50-year-long soundtrack for the last of the Baby Boomers.
by David Corn via Mother Jones on August 21, 2025
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
Trent Reznor

Knots, Ties, and Lines: “The Downward Spiral” at Thirty

Nine Inch Nails, the Manson Family, and the contradictions of Los Angeles.
by Gianni de Falco via Cleveland Review of Books on July 16, 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
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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
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