Articles Tagged with #music
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Chord and Discord
Six Strings
Growing up in Ohio, far from the homeland of her parents, a girl puzzles over her identity, until the strings of a sitar create a connection.
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Naming Today
Like a Lead Balloon
As anyone who’s struggled to start a band, get shows, record music, and become a certified rock star knows, coming up with a name is half the challenge. A linguistic take on how we name bands today.
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Soundbox
Les Ambassadeurs du Mali
Timbuktu’s annual Festival in the Desert was ready to rock as a “Festival in Exile.” Now, with liberation, it is a festival in limbo. A listening guide to what should be heard outside Timbuktu when the fighting is over.
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Book Cover Songs
When Writers Sing
Sometimes covers of songs can feel more genuine than the original recorded versions. At a time when Glee is under fire for stealing covers and Justin Bieber is covering himself, one author tries his hand at covering a fictional musician from his new novel.
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The View From the Lighthouse
Right Here Waiting
After frequenting a local haunt where nobody knows his name, a Chicago writer makes new friends, rips on Richard Marx online, and then suddenly lands a real live celebrity musician at their door.
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The Music Box
Playing Johnny Ace
A young crooner’s untimely, macabre death left questions for those who would follow—musicians and fans alike. Was it suicide? Was it a hit? A listener’s query into one star’s place in the history of early rock and roll.
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Albums of the Year
The Top 10 Albums of 2012
A year’s worth of music listening, whittled down to the core. Because in the end, there can be only 10.
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The Holidays Desk
Liner Notes for Christmas
Christmas is a time for family and friends and very weird songs that only get played once a year. Eleven holiday songs researched and fact-checked to explain their appeal, including the mystery behind endorphins solely released by Mariah Carey.
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TMN Weekender
The Getaway
TMN contributor and musical omnivore Patrick Ambrose brings together my two favorite escapes: good tunes and good writing. If you, too, need to get away for a bit during the...
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We Were the Kids, Too
For the Price of a Dime
Since the 1980s, changing social mores, rising gas prices, and advancing technology have resulted in an information gap just screaming to be studied (with video clips). A guide to demystifying songs from the ’80s for later, digitally native generations.
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Letters From London
Rhythm in Disguise
Musical therapists can improve patients’ cognitive functioning and motor skills. But sometimes the battle is to keep a mind intact. Avant-garde composition and EKG techno in a London care center.
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Palliative Measures
Songs in the Key of Death
America’s funeral parlors rely on one man to provide the theme music for your grandmother’s memorial service, the pop radio for your cousin’s wake. Welcome to “semi-spiritual” ambient music and the stuff of contemporary mourning.