Lady Gaga and Lorde have both paid tribute to David Bowie in very different ways. Debating who did it better is rooted in an ideology of authenticity that pits rock against pop. In reality, Bowie embodied both.
While technological advances have rendered some products obsolete, they’ve also spurred the growth of niche markets that cater to people looking to reject mass-produced goods.
A short tour of Australia’s protest song history shows that protest music didn’t so much disappear as morph from the mainstream. In other words, it’s still very much with us.
Tim Minchin’s latest musical offering, Come Home Cardinal Pell, is provoking strong reactions because of its blunt and direct message to Cardinal George Pell. But in terms of song-craft, it’s a winner.
Most young people rely on music to make them feel better, and have had multiple experiences of this working. But if someone you know is struggling with mental health problems it’s worth having a chat.
Einstein, an accomplished violinist, claimed that, had he not pursued science, he would have been a musician. That’s worth reflecting on, in the wake of last week’s discovery of gravitational waves.
Music has always played a role in our understanding of the universe. Listening to gravitational waves confirms thousands of years of metaphysical investigation.
It seems obvious to say that opera “moves” people. But the question of “how” it moves people is far less straightforward. Cue a new research project pegged to Voyage to the Moon.
Molly Meldrum’s life is coming to the small screen with a two-part miniseries. How faithfully can we expect the show to reproduce history? Taking a look at the soundtrack might provide a clue.
Many have long forgotten the simple fact that Kanye West is one of the greatest producers of hip-hop in its history. A decade-long six-album streak of critically acclaimed albums rivals the greatest icons of pop.
If we listen to the songs of displaced Syrians, just as we listen to the songs of victims of the Holocaust, we connect to displaced communities’ creativity, ingenuity and imagination.
In the 1950s, Woody Guthrie lived in one of Fred Trump’s buildings. In newly discovered, never before published writings, Guthrie bitterly rails against the developer’s color line.
Bowie’s life has been under the microscope since he burst on the scene in 1969 with the smash hit, Space Oddity. We examine how the divided city of Berlin saved this extraordinary artist at his lowest ebb.
Paul Dalgarno, The Conversation and Madeleine De Gabriele, The Conversation
It’s another year in Arts + Culture, so in case you missed it we’ve collected all the best coverage of screen, theatre, music, books and culture in one place.
The hard numbers of sales, downloads, streams, and billboard charts seem to do all the work for us. But do these measures tell us anything meaningful about music’s nature and value in 2015?
The carol ‘Silent Night’ has been translated into 140 languages and renditions have been sung by everyone, from Bing Crosby to Chewbacca. This is the story behind its success.