Instrumentals were once common at the top of the pop charts, hitting a peak in the 1950s and 60s. They’re […]
The 70s began with earnest album rock, spent far too much time under the mirror-ball of disco, and ended in […]
So many great albums were released in 1971. This is the standout. Motown’s biggest star stopped doing love songs and […]
A new documentary tries to explain why so much great music came out in just one year. 1971: The Year […]
Rock and pop music has always been dominated by songs in English, recorded by bands from Britain and the US. […]
Songs usually stay in one key, one scale or set of notes that are in harmony with each other. The […]
Phil and Don Everly used to sing on their dad Ike’s radio show when they were just kids. They were […]
Charlie Watts was a young boy when he heard jazz drummer Chico Hamilton playing the brushes on a Gerry Mulligan […]
We’ve been tracking the evolution of popular music, dropping in to the first year of each decade since the 40s. […]
In 1960s Texas, a band called Moving Sidewalks was a big deal, playing psychedelia to groovy people in Houston, opening […]
At the tail end of the 1970s, we first heard Rickie Lee Jones, who had an Australian hit about some […]
We’re observing how music changes decade by decade. We started in 1941 – ten years later, the big bands were […]
Tom Jones is 81. An Elvis-like sex symbol in 60s Britain, and thus, easily lampooned. But Tom has one of […]
1971 was a great year for music. The rise of the singer-songwriter, the shift from singles to albums. There was […]
The story is well known of popular music in 1969. The utopian Woodstock festival, the murderous unravelling at Altamont. There […]
Carole King co-wrote the soundtrack of the early 1960s, but none of us knew her name. With then husband, Gerry […]
