Music Reviews & Criticism

In the twentieth century, Appalachian migrants seeking economic opportunities relocated to southwestern Ohio, bringing their music with them. Betwe...

No band in recent history has divided listeners' opinions as much as Radiohead. Are they the Beatles of the twenty-first century, or is their music...

In the twentieth century, Appalachian migrants seeking economic opportunities relocated to southwestern Ohio, bringing their music with them. Betwe...

Is It Still Good to Ya? sums up the career of longtime Village Voice stalwart Robert Christgau, who for half a century has been America's most wide...

For half a century, Leonard Cohen was one of the most influential songwriters of our time, reconciling literature and poetry with popular music. Wo...

Stravinsky in the Americas explores the pre-Craft period of Igor Stravinsky''s life, from when he first landed on American shores in 1925 to the ...

The winner of the 2006 IPPY Award for best non-fiction book from the South (presented by the Independent Publishers Association), the Mojo Triangle...

NPR Best Books of 2017In this sweeping history of popular music in the United States, NPRs acclaimed music critic examines how popular music shapes...

Microgroove continues John Corbett's exploration of diverse musics, with essays, interviews, and musician profiles that focus on jazz, improvised m...

U2 planted the seeds for The Joshua Tree during an existential journey through America. As Irishmen in the 1970s, the band grew up with the belief ...

More than 40 years after her death, the legend of Maria Callas, La Divina Assoluta, remains unsurpassed. Much has been written about her sensationa...

He is known as the Mark Twain of American songwriting, a man who transformed the everyday happenings of regular people into plainly profound statem...

NOW A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER, HIP-HOP (AND OTHER THINGS) is about, as it were, rap, but also some other things.It's a smart, fun, funny, insight...

Daniel Albright was one of the preeminent scholars of musical and literary modernism, leaving behind a rich body of work before his untimely passin...

Simply put, Billy Boy Arnold is one of the last men standing from the Chicago blues scenes raucous heyday. Whats more, unlike most artists in this ...

The Who were one of the most popular and influential rock groups of the 1960s and 1970s.Revered by fans, they became a world-class act, securing th...

There's no template for making it as a globally successful pop group. Some of the ingredients remain constant and beyond the music, there's a mix'n...

Shelved for over 20 years, Sam Cookes Live at the Harlem Square Club, 1963, stands alongside Otis Reddings Live in Europe and James Browns Live at ...

In Janelle Monáes full-length debut, the science fiction concept album The ArchAndroid, the android Cindi Mayweather is on the run from the authori...

Were all familiar with the image of a fierce and scowling Beethoven, struggling doggedly to overcome his rapidly progressing deafness. That Beethov...

*Includes an exclusive new chapter*'Excellent' Guardian'Hugely enjoyable' Irish Times'Dazzling' LRB 'Fascinating' New Statesman 'An absolute must-r...

I thought it was a great cultural movement, the music, the look, they're things that have shaped who I am... Paul Weller The skin-suede era was...

One of the music world's pre-eminent critics takes a fresh and much-needed look at the day Dylan went electric at the Newport Folk Festival, timed ...