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Gladys Knight and the Pips performing on "The Ed Sullivan Show"

The Misunderstood Talent of Gladys Knight

Gladys Knight and the Pips have always been more beloved by fans than by music historians, but they are essential to the evolution of soul.
by Emily J. Lordi via The New Yorker on August 13, 2021
Sly Stone performing in front of crowd

What the Harlem Cultural Festival Represented

Questlove’s debut as a director, the documentary "Summer of Soul," revisits a musical event that encapsulated the energies of Harlem in the 1960s.
by David Hajdu via The Nation on July 29, 2021
A black and white photograph of a person playing the guitar.

My Father, Cultural Appropriator

The daughter of Buddy Holly's bandmate reflects on the defensiveness some white people have about the roots of rock 'n' roll.
by Sarah Curtis via Los Angeles Review of Books on June 5, 2021

What's Going On? 50 Years Ago, The Answer Was Bigger Than Marvin Gaye

In 1971, a wave of Black artists released explosive new work that put its politics front and center.
by Mark Anthony Neal via NPR on May 21, 2021
Marvin Gaye

How Marvin Gaye Earned a Tryout for the Detroit Lions

On the 50th anniversary of ‘What’s Going On,’ a look back on Gaye's onetime dream to become a professional football player.
by Justin Tinsley via Andscape on May 21, 2021

A Lover’s Blues: The Unforgettable Voice of Margie Hendrix

Remembering the woman who outsang Ray Charles.
by Tarisai Ngangura via Longreads on September 2, 2020
Cartoon by Joey Perr; a man in a top hat and holding a monacle studies a sign broadcasting Ella Fitzgerald as music notes fill the air.

What’s Going On

The vexed history of "Night Life" in the New Yorker.
by Phillip Golub via The Drift on May 22, 2020
Solange and Beyonce Knowles at the MTV Video Music Awards, 2007.

‘Give It Up For My Sister’: Beyonce, Solange, and The History of Sibling Acts in Pop

Family dynasties are neither new nor newly influential in pop.
by Danielle Amir Jackson via Longreads on May 20, 2019

Aretha Franklin’s Revolution

The soul singer was an architect of the civil-rights movement as much as a witness to it.
by Vann R. Newkirk II via The Atlantic on August 16, 2018
Aretha Franklin

Aretha Franklin Was the Defining Voice of the 20th Century

No one else sang as well as her, and no other singer changed popular music as much as her.
by Jack Hamilton via Slate on August 16, 2018
Frankie Lymon on stage.

Teen Idol Frankie Lymon's Tragic Rise and Fall Tells the Truth About 1950s America

The mirage of the singer's soaring success echoes the mirage of post-war tranquility at home.
by Jeff MacGregor via Smithsonian on January 4, 2018

In Memory of Otis Redding and His Revolution

The legacy of the talented singer, songwriter, and producer who died at age twenty-six.
by Jonathan Gould via The New Yorker on December 10, 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
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

How Rock and Roll Became White

And how the Rolling Stones, a band in love with black music, helped lead the way to rock’s segregated future.
by Jack Hamilton via Slate on October 6, 2016

Soul Survivor

The revival and hidden treasure of Aretha Franklin.
by David Remnick via The New Yorker on April 4, 2016
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
Buffy of the Fat Boys playing turntables in 1985.

Questlove’s Personal History of Hip-Hop

An elegiac retelling of rap's origins, "Hip-Hop Is History" also ends with a sense of hope.
by Bijan Stephen via The Nation on August 27, 2024
Grandmaster Flash, DJ Kool Herc, Afrika Bambaataa and Chuck D.
partner

Hip-Hop's Black Caribbean Roots

The relationship between the DJ and his MC derived from a Jamaican “toasting” tradition and its related “sound clash” culture.
by Alex La Rotta via Made By History on November 6, 2023
Billy Joel and Bruce Springsteen .
partner

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
A man wearing sunglasses holding a sign

Kool Herc and the History (and Mystery) of Hip-Hop's First Day

Even as the world celebrates hip-hop turning 50, the debate over rap's birth date spins on.
by David Browne via Rolling Stone on August 11, 2023
Willie Mae Thornton

'Why Willie Mae Thornton Matters' Explores the Legacy of the Black Musician Who Made 'Hound Dog' a Hit

Willie Mae “Big Mama” Thornton lived an unapologetic life that transcended genres and gender norms beyond her bluesy hit song and the “Elvis moment.”
by Daja E. Henry, Lynnée Denise via The 19th on June 27, 2023
A mural of a Black musician wearing a pinstripe suit, hat, and playing guitar.

The Devil, the Delta, and the City

In search of the mythical blues—and their real urban origins.
by Alan Pell Crawford via Modern Age on October 17, 2022
Black and white photo of Mavis Staples, looking upward, hands raised.

The Gospel According to Mavis Staples

A legendary singer on faith, loss, and a family legacy.
by David Remnick via The New Yorker on June 24, 2022
Speakers address a crowd from a truck with a "WDIA March of Dimes" sign.

How Black Radio Changed the Dial

Black-appeal stations were instrumental in propelling R&B into the mainstream while broadcasting news of the ever-growing civil rights movement.
by Ashawnta Jackson, Bala James Baptiste, Tanya Teglo, Richard S. Kahlenberg via JSTOR Daily on May 30, 2022
A collage of significant people from the time like the Beatles and Elvis.

How Americans Re-Learned to Think After World War II

In ‘The Free World: Art and Thought in the Cold War,’ Louis Menand explores the poetry, music, painting, dance and film that emerged during the Cold War.
by Carlos Lozada via Washington Post on April 16, 2021
Book Cover for Smokin' Joe: The Life of Joe Frazier

A New Biography of 'Smokin' Joe' Frazier, a Champ with the Common Touch

Allen Barra reviews Mark Kram Jr.’s Smokin’ Joe, a biography of Joe Frazier.
by Allen Barra via The National Book Review on October 23, 2020
partner

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

Odetta Holmes’ Album One Grain of Sand

Odetta’s artistry was a weapon in the Civil Rights struggle, and was crucial to the era’s politics.
by Matthew Frye Jacobson via Longreads on May 22, 2019
Elvis Presley performing to a crowd of fans reaching toward him

How Christianity Created Rock ’n’ Roll

Rock music owes much of its claim to coolness to the Christian faith.
by David Hajdu via Public Books on June 21, 2018
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