It’s time to scrap the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
This self-congratulatory country club of popular music is outdated and irrelevant – resigned to playing catch-up with our culture.
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Britain is scared of jazz
Ezra Collective is the first ever jazz band to win the Mercury Prize – lifting a curse on a genre…
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Corinne Bailey Rae’s radical return
The industry feared her new album, Black Rainbows, would alienate white audiences. She made it anyway.
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Drill music is the real global Britain
We think of the UK’s cultural exports along the Harrods airport concession model, but rappers are also doing their bit.
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John Niven’s chronicles of chaos
The author on the hedonism of Britpop and the long shadow of his brother’s suicide.
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In The Last Waltz it’s Joni Mitchell who mesmerises
Martin Scorsese’s film may be about the Band, but when Joni plays you feel the confidence burning off her like…
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Muna’s anti-capitalist pop
The queer pop band has two focuses: making music, and making sure success doesn’t turn them into “evil landlords”.
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Drake’s poetry collection isn’t literature
The Canadian rapper’s boastful new book is merely a marketing tool for his music.
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At Gunnersbury Park, Boygenius’s eerie, melancholic songs became festival singalongs
At a 25,000 strong gig, the band’s delicate melodies, close harmonies and elaborate guitar riffs were performed with ease, wit…
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Why is Taylor Swift re-recording her old albums?
The singer’s decision to release new recordings of her old albums reflects a bitter struggle over music rights.
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A piece of Freddie Mercury
The singer’s possessions – from draft lyrics to his Tiffany moustache comb – should sell for over £6m at auction.…
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We must resist the hype machine
Our critical culture is grossly overinflated with positive and promotional content. But popular is not always best.
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Lana Del Rey: a great American poet
She began her career as a conventional, if self-aware, pop star. Her recent records are the work of a singer-songwriter…
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England will always get Sinéad O’Connor wrong
Only Ireland could have produced a protest singer like her.
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The strange corporate rebirth of NME
The music magazine is back in print, but has no editor-in-chief and isn’t on news stands. It’s a “marketing tool”,…
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Two nights in Manchester, and my summer is complete
A sublime evening of torch songs, and managing not to ruin Maxine Peake’s one-woman show – that’s my idea of…
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Inside the “psychopathic” battle for Taylor Swift tour tickets
Buying new SIM cards, taking time off work, and spending hours on hold: UK Swifties explain the all-consuming experience of…
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The Ballad of Darren is one of Blur’s best records
The band’s new album, like all their greatest work, is suffused with melancholy.
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Joe Dunthorne on Black Sunday by Cypress Hill: “My favourite way to get blazed”
From the Long Players series: writers on their most cherished albums.
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The women classical music forgot
Leah Broad’s Quartet restores the pioneering work and colourful lives of Britain’s finest female composers.
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