Wilco’s record label refused to release their fourth studio album. The band responded by letting people hear it online for free. That record, Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, would find a new label and a lasting…

Suzanne Vega recorded a song with nothing behind her voice. That exposed vocal would help engineers tackle a problem that changed how people carried and shared music. The song was “Tom’s Diner.” Its u…

Put on 10cc’s “I’m Not in Love” and listen behind the lead vocal. There is a vast, floating cloud of voices, as though an enormous choir has gathered somewhere just out of sight. The band built that s…

Keith Jarrett arrived in Cologne exhausted, disliked the piano waiting for him and nearly abandoned the concert. That evening would become one of the most celebrated recordings of his career. Before T…

A damaged guitar. Months of emails. A rejected request for $1,200 in flight vouchers. Canadian musician Dave Carroll had a familiar customer-service problem. He answered it with something much harder …

You recognise the guitar within seconds. You know the melody. You might even hear a promise of lasting devotion. Then the songwriter describes the song as sinister. Released on The Police’s 1983 album…

The Shaggs made one of the most divisive records in rock. Kurt Cobain counted it among his favourite albums. Some listeners hear a strange kind of brilliance; others struggle to understand the appeal.…

Most bands want listeners to turn the volume up. In 2014, American funk band Vulfpeck asked its fans to go to sleep. The group had released an album called Sleepify: ten tracks containing no audible m…

Chuck Berry’s “Johnny B. Goode” has one of the strangest places in music history: NASA sent it into space. Alongside music by Bach and Beethoven, it became part of a message designed for an audience t…

Imagine hearing a song you love and being unable to find out who made it. You can replay it, share it and ask around, but the name never appears. Now imagine that question occupying music fans for 17 …

Two notes can make an empty stretch of water feel dangerous. Before a fin breaks the surface, before anyone screams, the music in Jaws has already suggested what might be underneath. You are watching …

Someone picks up a guitar and starts playing. You recognise one song, then another, then a third. Their hands barely seem to change position. It feels as though they have found a shortcut through your…

You might never have searched for the Amen break, but you may already recognise it. The same brief drum performance connects records by N.W.A., David Bowie and Oasis. Its journey offers an extraordina…

Picture this: it is 1:17 a.m. You put on a song you have heard a hundred times. Suddenly, you notice a breath before the chorus, a guitar lingering behind the vocal, a line that seems to describe some…

19 October 2026 · News analysis YouTube Music began rolling out labels for songs made primarily with generative AI on 14 October 2026. The disclosure appears on the player page, where listeners can ta…

Radio Paradise and KEXP are clear options for online music streams selected by people. Kallitone offers a different route through blind listener voting, while NTS provides human-curated radio shows. B…

A song on the radio helped signal the overthrow of a dictatorship. A painting became part of a refugee relief campaign. A television drama brought millions of viewers into the story of a family losing…

You have sung the same chorus for ten years. In the car. In the shower. At a concert, with the confidence of someone who could replace the lead singer at short notice. Then a friend asks one devastati…

The singer reaches one note. A choir enters. The drums finally arrive after a long, quiet build. Suddenly, a shiver runs across your skin. You know the recording has done nothing more than move air, b…

You close the video. You put your phone away. Twenty minutes later, the same few seconds are still playing in your head. You cannot remember where you left your keys, but apparently your mind has enou…