• Music

    Music history

    “I Immediately Began to Weep.” How “Both Sides Now” Made Joni Mitchell a Superstar

    Henry Alford Recalls the Discovery and Debut of an Iconic Singer-Songwriter

     
    By Henry Alford  January 21, 2025
    Music Writing

    Listening To Africa: Three African Writers Discuss the History and Future of African Music

    By Literary Hub  December 5, 2024
    Inspiration

    Contemporary Poets Respond (in Verse) to Taylor Swift

    By Kristie Frederick Daugherty  December 4, 2024
    Theater

    How Stephen Sondheim Brought Neo-Impressionism to the Stage

    By Richard Schoch  November 19, 2024
    Musicians

    How a Young Michael Stipe Found Creative Camaraderie in Art School

    By Peter Ames Carlin  November 5, 2024
    The Hub

    Nobel Laureate Bob Dylan accidentally visited the world’s largest publishing trade fair.

    By James Folta  October 24, 2024
    Book Marks: What the Critics Are Saying
    The Hub

    On the enduring popularity—and appropriation—of Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah.”

    By Brittany Allen  October 22, 2024
    Entertainment

    How American Jews Created a Place For Themselves in Show Business

    By Richard Bernstein  October 9, 2024
    Music Writing

    How Chinese and Italian Opera Helped Her Write and Grieve

    By Liu Hong  September 23, 2024
    Music history

    A Musical Divorce: How Money Problems and a Bad Manager Tore the Beatles Apart

    Allan Kozinn and Adrian Sinclair on the Protracted End of a Band That Transformed Rock and Roll Forever

    By Allan Kozinn and Adrian Sinclair  December 13, 2024
    Storytelling

    On the Yemeni Jewish Tradition of Musical Storytelling

    By Ayelet Tsabari  September 12, 2024
    Ballet

    Page Turns: On Literary Translations on the American Ballet Theater’s Summer Stage

    By Emma Golden  August 16, 2024
    craft advice

    Setting the Tone: How Listening to Music Can Inspire Fiction Writers

    By Liz Riggs  July 11, 2024
    Musicians

    Why Play At All? On Perfectionism, Perseverance and Prodigies

    Lauren Aliza Green Reconsiders Her Abandonment of the Violin

    By Lauren Aliza Green  July 2, 2024
    Autofiction

    Generation Franchise:
    Why Writers Are Forced to Become Brands (and Why That’s Bad)

    By Jess Row  June 26, 2024
    Singer Songwriters

    How Joni Mitchell Pioneered Her Own Form of Artistic Genius

    By Ann Powers  June 17, 2024
    Blackness

    How Beyoncé’s “Formation” Embodies the Ethos of Black Womanhood

    By Catherine Joy White  June 14, 2024
    Ancestors

    Chasing Storms: Christiana Spens on The Ballad of Sir Patrick Spens

    “Eventually the storm is over. Like any passion or disaster, it must always pass.”

    By Christiana Spens  June 4, 2024
    Music

    “Is It All Over My Face?” The Story Behind Arthur Russell’s “Amazingly Explicit” Dancefloor Classic

    By Richard King  June 4, 2024
    Jazz

    In Honor of Duke Ellington: Here Are 15 Great Books About Jazz

    By Ed Simon  May 24, 2024
    Underreported

    A bunch of fake Kathleen Hanna biographies were released on the same day as her new memoir.

    By Brittany Allen  May 15, 2024
    Jazz

    How Black Female Jazz Performers Confronted a Racist and Misogynistic World

    Larry Tye on the Triumphs and Struggles of 20th-Century Jazz Women

    By Larry Tye  May 7, 2024
    Jane Austen

    Did Jane Austen Like Music? And Why Should We Care?

    By Gillian Dooley  April 29, 2024
    The Hub

    Sad about Pitchfork? Try one of these classic collections of music writing.

    By Brittany Allen  April 23, 2024
    Music history

    How Greenwich Village’s Iconic, Iconoclastic Music Scene Came to Be

    By David Browne  September 18, 2024
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