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May 15, 2013 When 23-year-old musician Solomon "Sully" Omar left Denver for Afghanistan — his parents' homeland — his hopes for Kabul weren't high. But he discovered a music scene that was "alive and breathing," bursting with "crazy metal and dub step."

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February 21, 2013 Actually, it's all kinds of fruits and vegetables. A circuit board called the MaKey MaKey is allowing musicians to play music on produce, to awesome effect. Watch the video.

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January 11, 2013 Does music have a history? Why? Listening to Bowie, and reading Gary Marcus's Guitar Zero provoke commentator Alva Noë to wonder.

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December 11, 2012 He was responsible for making Indian classical music popular in the West, collaborating with artists as diverse as The Beatles and Yehudi Menuhin.

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October 4, 2012 With the slowing economy, professional orchestras and musicians are bargaining fiercely over wages and benefits. Two orchestras have locked out their musicians while others have agreed to play and negotiate.

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August 13, 2012 Wedding DJ Mary Nisi tries out Songza, an app that offers users ready-made playlists for almost any mood or situation. Nisi has one word of warning: Once you log in, she says, you may never put your phone down again.

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August 7, 2012 A group of some 60 volunteer musicians who play marches, jazz and show tunes have been giving free concerts for 27 years.

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May 1, 2012 On today's show, we bring you three Planet Money radio stories.

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April 11, 2012 With sensors that translate the motions of a bike — turning the handlebars, spinning the wheels, etc. — into customizable sounds, the Turntable Rider "is an epic bicycle accessory which converts a bicycle into a musical instrument," according to Cogoo, the company that created the device.

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December 18, 2011 Kurt Andersen writes in Vanity Fair about the recycling of culture, and specifically, how the 90s, '00s and today look incredibly similar. He's not wrong, says Sarah Handel. But it's also not entirely a bad thing.

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November 14, 2011 This month's music tip looks at vocalist Mfa-Kera and guitarist Mike Russell's latest album release, Talking Africa. The duo will be performing this Friday at Quasimodo.

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June 1, 2011 The new book, The Power of Music: Pioneering Discoveries in the New Science of Song, explores many questions including: Do other species enjoy music? The Thai Elephant Orchestra and Snowball the Cockatoo offer proof that they can.

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April 20, 2011 Aside from fancy eateries and concert venues, clothing stores also provide music from live musicians... Or, at least, Nordstrom does. But some in-store piano players are getting laid off in L.A. Could the reduction in these musicians signify a cultural change?

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