The legendary singer took on a saint-like aura for some fans.
Articles on Popular music
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An estimated 5.7 billion people listen to music. But there’s a lot we still don’t understand about why certain songs affect us the way they do.
In his lyrics, the folksinger and herald of US postwar social struggles described his era. In some ways, it resembles our own.
The visionary arranger thought of himself as a storyteller, not just a sound engineer.
Onyeka Onwenu, Nigerian musician, political activist and documentary maker, died on 30 July 2024.
Combining elements of traditional and modern music has created rhythms that are unique to Senegalese music.
Let It Be lets us see how the narrative of The Beatles as a band has been woven into popular music, and wider history since it was made.
Introspection, argument, exploring paradoxes: These are hallmarks of great artists, not just philosophers.
Composer and conductor John Williams has shown for more than 60 years how music can take movies to new heights.
The work remains a crowd favorite. But more and more scholars are starting to see ‘Rhapsody’ as a whitewashed version of Harlem’s vibrant Black music scene.
For their “last single” Now and Then, the remaining 2023 Beatles kept John Lennon’s chorus, but changed where it fell. This necessary “repair” meant losing some of Lennon’s most touching passages.
Modern music education is giving students more and more opportunities to create their own tracks.
Jim Croce’s brief time in the national spotlight was enough to put a bevy of songs in heavy rotation on radio stations – and on stage in the hands of a lengthy A-list of fellow musicians.
Although its content is essentially libertarian, the No. 1 song of the summer in the U.S. resonates with both some Democratic supporters and those on the Trumpist right.
A professor of modern Catholicism looks back at the ways the iconic Irish singer steeped herself in religion, even as she criticized its institutions.
Latino artists have been forging their own paths in hip-hop for decades, giving voice to young peoples’ pain, faith and demands for change.
Willie Nelson is an icon who rose to the top of an industry by challenging it – showing that you can be a counterculture figure and activist while remaining as American as apple pie.
In his music, he positions himself within the people’s struggles and identifies with them.
Pop composer Burt Bacharach died on Feb. 8, 2023, at the age of 94. He left a legacy of classic songs beloved by generations.
Songs of the season – sacred and secular music alike – sometimes acknowledge that Christmas isn’t all joy.
Top contributors
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Adjunct Senior Lecturer, School of Creative Practice, Queensland University of Technology
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Associate Professor, Music Industry, RMIT University
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Reader in Music, Politics and Society, Newcastle University
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Professor of Religious Studies, Michigan State University
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Faculty of Arts, The University of Melbourne
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Senior Lecturer in Journalism, Monash University
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Personal Chair, Literary Studies, Deakin University
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Professor of Visual and Material Culture, University of Brighton
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Professor of Writing and Literature, Deakin University
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Professor in Cultural and Social Analysis, Western Sydney University
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Senior Lecturer in Music, Newcastle University
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Assistant Professor of African and African Diaspora Studies, The University of Texas at Austin
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Senior Lecturer, The University of Melbourne
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Senior researcher, Centre for Social Change, University of Johannesburg
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Lecturer, Department of Music, University of York