Pop
Something special
Bob Dylan has always toyed with audiences. He plays what he wants, how he wants, letting his mood dictate tempo…
Something special
A reliable metric for measuring pop success is hard to find these days, as Michael Hann noted in these pages…
Blasts from the past
Oh, nostalgia – so much better than it used to be! You’d never have guessed pop music was once the…
Fallen idols
The definition of ‘pop star’ in the Collins English Dictionary is unambiguous: ‘A famous singer or musician who performs pop…
Spark of genius
Lindsey Buckingham, at 72, still has cheekbones that cast shadows. He has the upright shock of hair, too, though now…
Elvis on the Eurostar
It would be easy to be a little dismissive of George Ezra. A wholesome late twentysomething hailing from the rock…
Force of nature
Few forms of music have colonised the world like metal and hip-hop. Wherever you go you will find these two…
Sorted for Es and wizz
Let me introduce you to the two poles in pop and rock. One is marked by authenticity, musicianship, a certain…
Vintage whine
The American Whine is one of the key vocal registers in rock and roll. You can trace that thin disaffected…
Woodstock this wasn’t
One learns the strangest things at festivals. That, for instance, this summer has been a bit of a blackcurrant disaster…
What a way to go
The greatest pleasure of writing about pop music – even more than the free tickets and records, nice as they…
Queen B
You feel a little sorry for Renaissance, the first solo album by Beyoncé in more than six years. It just…
Sons of a preacher man
A few years ago, I spoke to Mick Jagger and asked him which of the (relatively) new crop of rock…
Indie heaven
‘Well, it’s just not Glastonbury, is it?’ said my daughter aggressively, when told that our yurt featured an actual bed,…
Miracle in an evening gown
When Motown first packaged up a roster of artists and songs that could be embraced by a non-black audience, no…
The borrowers
‘Version’ is an old reggae term I’ve always loved. It refers to a stripped-down, rhythm-heavy instrumental mix of a song,…
The real deal
One of the biggest talking points in pop these past couple of years has been how successful old musicians have…
Imperial measures
At the turn of this century, looking back on the late 1980s when the Pet Shop Boys could do no…
Oops! He did it again
Every so often, Jason Pierce drifts into focus. It happened at the end of the 1980s, when his then group…
Skin in the game
Drummers are patient chaps, in the main. Think of Ringo in Peter Jackson’s recent Beatles docuseries, Get Back. Lolling around…
The perfect pop star
Dua Lipa’s second album, Future Nostalgia, was released at the least promising moment possible: 27 March 2020, the day after…
The essential Wellerness
You don’t need to be a historian of pop to realise that having been part of a huge manufactured group…
Toxic testosterone
Squaring up to the prospect of a new Red Hot Chili Peppers album, I’m reminded of a vintage quote by…
Family entertainer
Stormzy occupies a curious place in British pop culture right now. He’s the darling of liberals for all his good…
Her dark materials
It took a moment to realise Keeley Forsyth was there. There were already three musicians, faint figures on a dark…
