All articles tagged with #music history
Joni Mitchell officially became a U.S. citizen on Tuesday, ending a 62-year residency in the country. The 82-year-old singer-songwriter announced the news via social media, sharing photos and video from her swearing-in ceremony. This move grants her voting rights in the United States, a right she previously lacked despite decades of living in California.
Joni Mitchell has officially become a U.S. citizen, ending a 62-year residency in the country. The 82-year-old singer-songwriter announced the news via Instagram, sharing photos of her swearing-in ceremony. The move follows her 2024 public criticism of President Trump and coincides with the upcoming midterm elections. While she retains her Canadian ties, this decision grants her voting rights in the United States. The news also resolves a recent controversy where the New York Times excluded her from a list of American songwriters due to her previous citizenship status.
A collection of 63 unheard Oasis recordings, valued between £1.2m and £1.6m, has been withdrawn from an upcoming auction after the band filed a legal injunction. The archive, known as 'The Desk Tapes,' was compiled by sound engineer Huw Richards between 1994 and 2001 and includes live performances and soundchecks. While the band opposed the sale, related memorabilia such as tour itineraries and instruments will still be auctioned.
Dolly Parton’s Life of Many Colors Museum opened on September 29 in Nashville, featuring a restored wedding dress found in a trunk and interactive 'Dolly-grams.'
Ten unreleased tracks from David Bowie's early career, recorded under the name Davie Jones in the mid-1960s, are being released for the first time. Discovered by archivist Alec Palao a decade ago within producer Shel Talmy's archives, the collection includes raw demos and remastered songs. While BBC highlights the historical significance of finding these 'visceral' recordings, The Guardian criticizes the music as flimsy and derivative of 1960s peers. The release, titled 'The Shel Talmy Recordings,' is distributed by Parlophone with royalties going to Bowie's estate.
A new book reveals the evolution of Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody—from an early line about war and the bare-bones idea of a “Cowboy Song” to the naming debate over Queen vs Build Your Own Boat, plus Mercury’s sleep-writing habit, the purchase of a grand piano, and nearly 200 vocal overdubs in three weeks, culminating in the six-minute hit that topped charts and later rebounded into pop culture via Wayne’s World and the 2018 film.
An essay tracing Dolly Parton’s I Will Always Love You from its origin as a goodbye to Porter Wagoner to Whitney Houston’s cover, arguing Parton’s version offers a deliberate, loving ending that empowers new beginnings and reshapes the author’s understanding of endings and agency.
Billboard highlights 12 artists whose very first Billboard Hot 100 entry peaked at No. 2, but who never charted there again, detailing each act's peak, the rivals that blocked a No. 1, and brief notes on their subsequent careers.
Billboard’s staff-curated list crowns the 100 favorite No. 2 peaks in Hot 100 history, drawn from 542 runner-ups across decades. The feature explains why each song stalled one spot from No. 1 (often due to stiff competition or timing), notes historical Near-Misses, and even hints at moments where a No. 2 later finished No. 1 on a different Billboard list, all tied together with a Spotify playlist featuring all 100 tracks.
Slipknot’s lineup has evolved dramatically since 1995: core members like Sid Wilson and Shawn Crahan remain, while several co-founders and early players left over the years (Gray, Jordison, Colsefni, Brainard, Jones, Weinberg, Fehn). Recent additions—Alessandro Venturella, Michael Pfaff (Tortilla Man), and Eloy Casagrande—along with a mystery sampler/keyboardist, reflect the band’s ongoing reinvention.
David Clayton-Thomas, the husky-voiced frontman of Blood, Sweat & Tears whose brass-driven hits like Spinning Wheel helped define late-1960s rock, died at 84 in Toronto; the cause was not disclosed. A Canadian-born artist who rose from a turbulent youth to fame, he led the band to two Grammys before leaving in 1972 and later pursued a solo career, leaving a lasting legacy on horn-rock and popular music.
A countdown of 25 legendary musical duos, detailing how each pairing—from Simon & Garfunkel to Hall & Oates to a wide range of collaborations—shaped genres, delivered enduring hits, and influenced generations across rock, pop, soul, and folk.
A sweeping obituary roundup listing the deaths of dozens of notable musicians and music-industry figures from across rock, jazz, reggae, funk, and pop, with brief notes on their careers and enduring legacies.
Rolling Stone catalogs Bruce Springsteen’s long-running Dylan tribute, detailing 13 Dylan songs Springsteen has performed in concert from the early 1970s to 2026. The piece traces highlights like It Takes a Lot to Laugh, It Takes a Train to Cry; Chimes of Freedom; a 2003 Shea Stadium moment where Dylan joined Springsteen for Highway 61 Revisited; rare takes on songs such as Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door and Like a Rolling Stone, plus 2008’s Mr. Tambourine Man and a 2026 closing performance of I Shall Be Released. It also notes Dylan’s own onstage Dancing in the Dark in 1990 as a counterpoint to this ongoing cross-Generational exchange between two iconic songwriters.
Rolling Stone curates a definitive, genre-spanning list of the 100 greatest guitar solos, arguing that a solo should define the song rather than merely repeat the melody, with jazz excluded and both long epic and concise turns celebrated as landmark six-string moments.