How Underground FM Radio Saved Rock
This is what happened when college-age music enthusiasts raided empty FM radio studios and played whatever turned them on.
gospel
Unlike Her Music ‘I Am: Céline Dion’ Is Not a Mournful Drama
Unlike how her subject’s music can be, Irene Taylor’s biography I Am: Céline Dion is not a mournful drama. That doesn’t mean it’s easy.
Immersed in America: The Creation of Elvis Presley
We know how Elvis Presley’s story reflects on American history, its music and mythology, but how did America help to create Elvis?
Holy Rollers: American Pentecostalism’s Musical Offspring
First-born Holy Rollers of American Pentecostalism include rebels Sister Rosetta Tharpe, B.B. King, Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Little Richard and Ray Charles.
When Record Labels Blasted Through the Barriers in Segregated America
While their motives were more mercenary than musical, American small record label impresarios could hear the barriers falling between the races right before their ears.
The Many Sounds of Bob Dylan’s Voice
Are Bob Dylan’s improved vocals in his later years a deliberate aesthetic choice? Has he re-focused his attention on the art of singing?
All Things Reconsidered/Culture/Featured: Top of Home Page/Features/History/Music/Music Features/Performing Arts/Visual Arts
Bob Dylan’s Art Is Best Served Naked
As Bob Dylan learned, only through baring of one’s soul does one show the way forward, providing both a glimpse into the other and perhaps the shape of things to come.
Bob Dylan’s ‘John Wesley Harding’ Was No Friend to the Poor
Bob Dylan’s 1967 album John Wesley Harding is more about what it is not than what it is. Does that hold true for the mythology of John Wesley Hardin himself?
A Hero’s Homecoming: Jon Batiste Steals the Show at New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival
A show with this many moving pieces could easily have devolved into chaos, but in Jon Batiste’s hands, it was a wonderfully diverse, talented vision of what America can be at its best.
Iris DeMent Creates Songs for a Better World on ‘Workin’ on a World’
While Iris DeMent may moan against the world’s evils in Workin’ on a World, the album offers an optimistic message. We can change the world!
Hiding in Plain Sight: Bob Dylan’s ‘Good As I Been to You’ at 30
Good As I Been To You was warmly received by critics, but a Bob Dylan album of covers with a stripped-down, rough-edged acoustic aesthetic did not satisfy fans’ hunger for new Dylan material.
Featured: Top of Home Page/Features/Lists/Music/Music Features/PopMatters Picks/The Best Music of 2022
The 10 Best Progressive Rock/Metal Albums of 2022
The best progressive rock albums are profoundly ambitious and forward-thinking, music that’s immense, expansive, and mind-blowing, with dramatic elements.