music

What happens when the automation of music makes it too easy to create and too easy to consume?

Ann Powers’s deeply personal biography of Joni Mitchell looks at how a generation of listeners came to identify with the folk singer’s intimate songs.

Or maybe it was the cigars that gave us this New Year's Eve staple.

Johnny Cash wasn't the only superstar to play in prisons. Music, initially allowed as worship, came to be seen as a rockin' tool of rehabilitation.

Did the iconic three-note sequence come from Stravinsky, the Muppets or somewhere else? Our writer set out to – dun, dun duuuun! – reveal the mystery.

Pheasants? 'Dickory dock'? Toyland? Here's how a narrow slice of American history changed the holidays forever.

His communism brought the great American singer Paul Robeson trouble in the US, but helped make him a hero in China.

If your entire collection is on a streaming service, good luck accessing it in 10 or 20 years.

Bob Dylan's confessional album resisted the political radicalism and activism of 1967.

It was a time when promoters were telling women in music: “You can’t put two women on the same bill. People won’t come.”

The rise of recorded music left many musicians fearful of a takeover by "canned music."

“Mississippi Goddam” was an angry response to tragedy, in show tune form.

A look at the first year of the band originally known as Mookie Blaylock.

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

On the long and continuing struggle of women artists for recognition on their own terms.

He wrote one of my favorite songs, but was so much more than a composer.

Sabrina Carpenter’s “Espresso” is one of several recent hits bringing back the genre that never got a name.

“An Ideal for Living” explores the fascinating backstory of a mini music format.

How do fandoms gain their names?

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