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New legislation in Congress could drastically change music-industry economics. Musicians in the U.S. are not paid when their songs are played on the radio unless they wrote the songs, too. Only songwriters get radio royalties. Broadcasters are not happy.
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Many academics regard melody and rhythm as contributing to health in much the same way diet and exercise do. While the nation hyperventilates over health care, could music be as important as medicine, and at a fraction of the price?
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In order to feel for black radio stations as they fight against paying new royalties for the songs they play, I'd first have to like them. Although I grew up with urban music — R&B, hip-hop and neo-soul — I am proudly anti-Top 40/urban radio.
()The shimmering, white glove Michael Jackson wore when he premiered his trademark moonwalk dance in 1983 was auctioned off for $350,000 — plus tax — on Saturday.
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Augusto Pinochet integrated the musical genre cueca into his regime. For decades, Chileans associated the national music and dance with a dictatorship known for killing thousands of people. But today, young people in Santiago are recovering this music and making it their own.
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By Carrie Brownstein And it's naptime. (courtesy of The Patton Veterinary Hospital) It's hard to believe that we've reached the end. For the past two weeks, all of us — the NPR Music Team, a handful of outside contribut...
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Bon Jovi is at the top of the album charts this week, riding an unprecedented publicity push. His record label struck a deal with the conglomerate NBC Universal for an exclusive presence on their many TV networks, including appearances on Today, Inside the Actors Studio and The Tonight Show.
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Back in 2001, I sat in a San Francisco federal courtroom and watched a judge order Napster to shut down. The record companies won their battle against the world's first peer-to-peer file sharing service. But, as everyone now knows, it was a Pyrrhic victory; to reference another Greek myth, Napster turned out to be a Hydra.
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Music critic Tom Moon discusses NPR Music's list of "The Decade's 50 Most Important Recordings" — a roundup of the albums that changed the musical landscape in the last 10 years. Moon is the author of 1,000 Recordings to Hear Before You Die.
()Beth Ditto, lead singer from queer indie-disco group The Gossip, read Britney Spears' head-shaving in 2007 as an act of defiance. Spears wanted control over was her own body; her image.
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Indie isn't a genre any more than alternative was, but it denotes something important about the music in its tent — where it came from, where it might go.
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By Lars Gotrich It's been a good 10 years, Music Internet. At first, our love was forbidden — all your MP3 blogs were illegal. The RIAA would shut 'em down, and we'd keep making out in the backseat of our Napster sedan like hormonally addled teena...
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