The recent furor from senior academics in response to a public lecture about the whiteness of music education reflects a longstanding race problem in music — it’s time to address this.
It may seem counter-intuitive to turn to Leonard Cohen’s ‘depressing’ songs during times of grief and uncertainty. But he shows there is always a reason to keep on keeping on.
Samantha Morton in Code 46.
BBC Films, BBC, Kailash Picture Company
His single Yeke Yeke was the first African song to pass a million in sales, but it’s meaning was best understood in Guinea, home of the griot and kora star.
Emblues Beer Band in the streets of São Paulo, Brazil.
Photo by Daniel Bacchieri
Busking has long been a way for musicians to gain performance experience and garner a following. Digital platforms are powerful tools that can transmit local artists to global audiences.
Surf music was born in 1960. Its twangy instrumentals can be traced through many artists from The Shadows and Fleetwood Mac to Australia’s The Sunnyboys and The Cruel Sea.
Peter Hook at a recent Joy Division Orchestrated performance at London’s Royal Albert Hall.
VDImages & Yannis Hostelidis
The music alone, despite its unquestionable majesty, cannot entirely explain the enduring appeal of a band that existed for barely two years before its lead singer took his own life.
David Bowie in the film clip for Space Oddity: the song would become an anthem for space exploration with an enduring appeal.
YouTube
Fifty years ago, on July 11, 1969, David Bowie released Space Oddity. With its adventurous orchestration, unsettling harmonics and melancholy narrative, the now classic song captured a moment.
Kate Miller-Heidke performs Zero Gravity during the Grand Final of the 64th annual Eurovision Song Contest: an oddball, meteoric and sincere performance.
Abir Sultan/EPA
Long known as a spectacle of quirky Euro-kitsch, this year’s contest more closely resembled singing TV shows such as The Voice. Notable exceptions, however, were Iceland’s Hatari and our own Kate Miller-Heidke.
The Walker Brothers performing in 1965.
Starstock/Photoshot
Leonard Cohen’s letter to his former girlfriend on her death bed became a viral phenomenon. But the words that circulated on social media were a paraphrased version, not his own.