Bernie Taupin: good lyricist, bad writer
The songs he wrote with Elton John may be works of art. His bloated memoir is not.
ByPop music
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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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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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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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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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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Blur and the strange death of Britpop England
Their gig at Wembley Stadium was their biggest yet. But do the nostalgic guitar sounds of the 1990s have wider…
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Bruce Springsteen and the spectre of stardom
In 1981, the singer sensed his future fame – and retreated. Nebraska, his darkest and most personal album, was the…
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The abuse of the Bay City Rollers
Even if I hadn’t read the tabloid stories about the band’s struggles, they’d be top of my list in the…
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In the house of Harry Styles
The pop star’s fans have their tricks and traditions to make a stadium gig feel as intimate as possible.
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How Pulp launched the second summer of Britpop
A Tory government in crisis, cargo trousers on trend and indie anthems everywhere – at the band’s joyous reunion show,…
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Reuniting Everything But the Girl, pop culture’s high priest, and perfecting the art of the selfie
Now our album is being released, I feel like I could cry at any moment – while reaching for the…
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The great pop plagiarism boom
Ed Sheeran is defending another of his hit songs in court. Why are so many songwriters accusing each other of…
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Sam Smith and the return of the Satanic Panic
The conservative hysteria around pop music, sexuality and Satanism has a long history.
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How Busted defined the moody teen pop of the Noughties
The manufactured-yet-rebellious boyband exemplify the accelerated highs and personal lows of British music between the Millennium Bug and the smartphone.
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The magic of a Self Esteem concert
Rebecca Taylor’s empowering, maximalist pop comes alive on stage: this is an irresistible communal spectacle.
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From Roald Dahl to Ian Fleming, censorship is good for the book trade
Releasing bowdlerised books into a predictable storm of ridicule and then making the “classic texts” available is clever business.
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How the tabloids outed George Michael
A new Channel 4 doc explores the media’s glee at the singer’s arrest for “lewd acts” in 1998. But in…
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Burt Bacharach: a direct line to a lost musical world
The effect of seeing Bacharach live at the Royal Festival hall was to be hit by more top-40 songs that…
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