Why Go Low When You Can Go High?
Why has pop music moved away from lower male voices? They can be heard as more mature, seductive, and thus potentially dangerous.
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When the Piano Man Picks Up a Guitar
Billy Joel is a pop stylist before anything else, but his jazzy sensibilities make his songs sound slightly different than the rest.
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Billy Corgan’s Wall of Sound
On “Siamese Dream,” Billy Corgan creates a fullness of sound and texture that wallops the listener with a tidal wave of fuzzed-out arena rock
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Stupid Pop Star Tricks: Pat Boone’s “In a Metal Mood…”
Pat Boone’s metal album was head-scratching but harmless fun. That doesn’t make it any less strange.
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Albums You Might Not Know: Robbie Robertson’s “Contact From the Underworld of Redboy”
In 1998, Robbie Robertson explored his Indigenous roots with an ambitious and rewarding album.
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A Year After Going Electric, Bob Dylan’s Transformation Was Still Making Waves
The Timothée Chalamet Bob Dylan biopic doesn’t tell the whole story. The “Judas” jeers happened in Manchester in 1966.
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The Only Christmas Album You Need
Bad Religion’s “Christmas Songs” celebrates a time when Christianity wasn’t merely performative.
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The Case Against Pop Christmas Music
Adam Carlson shares his thoughts on how pop Christmas music is ruining the holidays.
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New Jack Swing: The Subgenre That Revlolutionized R&B and Hip-Hop
New jack swing took over pop R&B for nearly a decade and pop music would never be the same.
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Who Writes a Song About a Car Crash?
The phenomenon remains a strange footnote in the history of American pop music.
Who Writes a Song About a Car Crash? Read More »