music

How Tina Turner Escaped Abuse and Reclaimed her Name

by Gillian Brockell

She escaped Ike Turner's abusive and controlling grasp with 36 cents in her pocket. Escaping the marriage required her to surrender all claim to their shared assets in exchange for the rights to use her stage name and have a second chance at stardom on her own. 

Critical (In)attention to Bad Bunny Headlining Coachella Latest Example of Dismissal of "Latin" Music Artists

by Petra Rivera-Rideau and Vanessa Díaz

At the fashionable California festival, the Puerto Rican artist took fans through a history of Latin American musical styles; the American press has too often ignored such history to portray performers as exotic, hypersexual, and foreign, instead of as part of a hemisphere-wide process of cultural creation and mixture. 

How (Some) of the Hip Hop Generation Learned Black History

Historian Pero Dagbovie traces shifts in hip hop's political messages and says that, to some extent the glorification of materialism replaced a focus on Black history and politics as the genre developed. 

An Unlikely Coalition Trying to Save a Nashville Black Landmark

A Nashville Elks lodge building was the 1960s home of a music club where superstars of Black music—and the yet-to-be famous Jimi Hendrix—played during the segregation era. Like many such landmarks, decades of highway building broke up the surrounding community and made the building endangered today. 

Prof. Hasan Kwame Jeffries on Consulting for Hip Hop at 50 Documentary

The Ohio State professor served as a consultant for the four hour documentary produced by Public Enemy's Chuck D, which begins January 31. 

Who Gets to Sing About Revenge in Pop Music?

by Jewel Wicker

Do the racial politics of musical genre explain why songs about revenge are celebrated in country music and turned into evidence for the prosecution against hip hop artists (even when the songs in question are fiction)?

The Unlikely Story of the 1960s Revival of Delta Blues Giant Son House

After shifts in African American musical styles, the Great Depression and the Great Migration consigned him to obscurity, Son House recorded live music in the 1960s. 

Exiting/In

by Francesca T. Royster

A family and community history in Black Nashville puts the rise of "Music Row" in the context of urban renewal projects that destroyed African American communities and institutions, and the unacknowledged Black presence in country music. 

Protege of Gospel Blues Great Reverend Gary Davis Seeks to Preserve Legacy

Stefan Grossman started studying Davis's fingerpicked style after the older man had settled in the Bronx in the 1960s. 

Stax Records Co-Founder Jim Stewart Dies at 92

Stewart's label in its heyday trailed only Motown Records as a purveyor of soul music, and the label's house bands created a distinctive and enduring style associated with Memphis. 

At 40, Springsteen's "Nebraska" Holds Up as a Harbinger of Rural Despair

"It sold poorly and due to its troubling themes, Springsteen did not take it on tour. Nebraska was left to speak for itself. Today, exactly 40 years after its release, that voice is no less disquieting."

Stevie Wonder's "Talking Book" at 50

Musical collaborators and artists later influenced by Stevie Wonder's declaration of musical independence explain the album's creation and impact. 

Steve Waksman on the History of Live Music in America

Waksman's new book explains how a live performance depends on the confluence of art and business. 

Loretta Lynn, Country Music Star Who Voiced Rural Resilience, Dies at 90

The singer expressed the endurance of hardship but also performed subversive and humorous takes on the changing mores reaching rural America in the 1960s and 1970s. 

Dangerous Rhythms: Jazz and the Criminal Underworld

by James Thornton Harris

T.J. English examines the relationship between jazz and organized crime in Prohibition America, and how the music moved on from the mob. 

Arena Rockin' The Vote?

by George Case

Dismissed, derided, or even deplored by critics, and out of step with the trends, arena rock acts still pack them in in much of America. Is it the sonic key to understanding Trumpism? 

Lamont Dozier, Part of Legendary Motown Songwriting Team, Dies at 81

With Brian and Eddie Holland, Dozier formed the formidable "HDH" songwriting partnership that turned out many of the biggest hits of the 1960s for The Supremes and The Four Tops among other Motown acts. 

Texas State Prof. Launches Harry Styles History Course

Louis Dean Valencia realized during the pandemic that icebreaking conversations with students about pop music opened up many avenues for discussing historical subjects including the politics of celebrity. 

Is a 23 Year-Old Named Kingfish Bridging the Past and Future of the Blues?

by Carlo Rotella

Although he came on the scene as a guitar hotshot, Christone "Kingfish" Ingram's artistic ambitions go beyond the bombastic soloing of the blues-rock genre and incorporate more of the traditional breadth of the blues as African American music. 

The Enduring Appeal of the BBC's "Desert Island Discs" – the Longest Running Interview Show

The famous and would-be famous have faced the dilemma of telling the world about themselves by listing the records (and luxury items) they'd want with them on a desert island; post-1951 episodes are now available as podcasts.