In early September 1994, Whigfield released her single Saturday Night. It appeared from nowhere and echoed everywhere. As songs go it seemed quite innocuous. But its catchy wafer-thin sound actually represented…
Perfect for every stressed Christmas shopper.
Ollyy/Shutterstock
The festive season music charts are some of the most competitive of the year, and so Christmas is all about singles. This was especially the case in 2014, which saw the X-Factor’s Ben Haenow trump Band…
Chestnuts roasting on an open fire, Jack Frost nipping at … zzzzzz snooooore. It’s that time of year again, and at the risk of promoting bah humbug over chestnuts roasting, I’m very Ebenezer Scrooge when…
During the summer I visited the Louvre in Paris. I wanted to see the Mona Lisa but wasn’t quite prepared for the iconic power of the image. Standing in front of the picture reminded me of a rock concert…
‘Real Love’, originally written by John Lennon, gets us hooked on Monty.
John Lewis
There’s no holding back now: the gloves are well and truly off in the run up to Christmas as major advertisers continue their fight for a slice of your seasonal spend. Over the past few weeks, audiences…
Gluck’s Iphigenie en Tauride is a milestone in opera history – and Pinchgut’s production is marvellous. Photo: Keith Saunders.
Pinchgut Opera
In any Opera History 101 course, Christoph Willibald Gluck (1714-1787) is cited as one of the most influential figures in the development of opera. And, of course, this is true. Gluck’s operas, and his…
Do Yourself a Favour recently celebrated the 40th anniversary of the music show Countdown.
ABC
Are there lessons to be learnt from the success of the seminal Australian music program Countdown, and the ways in which it bolstered the Australian music industry during the 70s and 80s? Do Yourself a…
Singer, songwriter, poet and writer, Steve Kilbey has recently released his memoir, Something Quite Peculiar.
debra/Flickr
Bassist and lead singer of The Church, Steve Kilbey is one of Australia’s most prolific musicians. The band released their 25th album, Further Deeper, in October and will play The Queenscliff Music Festival…
Breakdown was an interactive audiovisual dance performance at Ears Eyes and Feet in May this year, Austin Texas.
Rodrigo Carvalho, Yago de Quay, Sunny Shen
Computers have shaken up how we create and listen to music, and there is more radical transformation to come. The potential for digital music to be interactive is leading to new ways to experience and…
ABC Radio plans to cut back on the number of concerts recorded on Classic FM.
Ryan Egan/Flickr
Today, in a statement to his staff, ABC Managing Director Mark Scott said: ABC Radio plans to cut back on the number of concerts recorded on Classic FM. This is a prudent efficiency measure that still…
Kiss your lunchtime web surfing plans goodbye, because I guarantee that whatever page you were planning to visit next, you will instead want to go to YouGov. We know that your musical taste tells everyone…
Keeping the neighbours happy is what rock’s all about … kind of.
Maria Nayef/Flickr
As high-density urban living becomes more common in Australia’s larger cities, many live music venues are under increasing pressure to restrict noise levels. In an industry that’s already feeling the pinch…
Band Aid is an apt name, addressing the symptoms of the Ebola crisis rather than the underlying reasons.
EPA/ Hannah McKay
It really doesn’t matter if you don’t like this song. It doesn’t matter if you hate the artists. What matters is that you buy the record. So said the Irish songwriter Bob Geldof last weekend, in anticipation…
Jimi Hendrix is a member of the so-called 27 Club – a very exclusive club, as it turns out.
EPA/Eduardo Miranda
I refuse to join any club that would have me as a member. – Groucho Marx Now he’s gone and joined that stupid club. I told him not to … – Kurt Cobain’s mother upon hearing of the death of her son What…
Rock ‘n’ roll is never just about the music.
EPA/ Abir Sultan
The Rolling Stones are currently nearing the end of their seventh (and quite possibly last) tour of Australia and – despite cancelling the Hanging Rock gig due to Mick Jagger’s throat infection – are still…
The ‘EasyJet set’ get on inexpensive flights each weekend for some techno tourism.
EPA/Michael Hanschke
Some 25 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall – on November 9 1989 – Berlin is a utopia for many people. In otherwise precarious and uncertain lives, Berlin holds out the hope of pursuing creative work…
A surgeon performing a lithotomy on a patient, c. 1747.
Wellcome Library
You don’t have to be a horror fan to be well acquainted with some of the 20th century’s classic slasher movie music. Even if you’ve never sat through Psycho, you could probably immediately recognise the…
When was the last time that you sat down and listened to someone telling you a story? I don’t mean your latest TV box-set instalment, gripping as it might be, or a beer-fuelled pub anecdote. I mean the…
Johnny Cash’s pertinent social commentary is likely to be lost in Tex Perkins’ translation Far From Folsom.
AAP/Dean Lewins
Last week, Sydney Festival launched its 2015 program – under Belgium born director Lieven Bertels – and it was revealed that Australian rocker Tex Perkins will recreate Johnny Cash’s 1968 Folsom Prison…
Musicians such as Amy Winehouse die young at much higher rates than the rest of the population.
EPA/Andy Rain
Art is a cry of distress from those who live out within themselves the destiny of humanity … Inside them turns the movement of the world; only an echo of it leaks out – the work of art Arnold Schoenberg…