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Music and art will always go together as artwork can be as much a part of a record as the sound. Music fans have always taken pleasure from looking again and again at old album covers.
Gospel music has always had a major influence on R&B, with many of the biggest soul singers having started their vocal careers in gospel church choirs.
Rock clubs come and go, but there was only one CBGBs, the hallowed club for the New York punk scene that spawned many major music superstars.
A question of boundaries lays at the heart of music censorship, but artists have always pushed back, fighting for the freedom to express themselves.
While both the US and UK continue to claim the land rights, punk has proved an agent of change on a far wider scale, and its impact has been felt in all corners of the globe.
Whether it’s joyous escapism, political anger or a personal spiritual quest that provides fuel for a great album is not of importance. What matters, as Coltrane said, is wanting “to speak to a listener’s soul”.
The notion of DIY music stretches back to 19th-century flutes made from bird bone, through punk anarchy and the digital revolution.
Great songs are a compelling soundtrack to our inner worlds, and any list of key singles will be personal rather than definitive, but the 45 45s in our playlist still inspire and delight.
We celebrate the iconic recording studios – Sun, Motown, Abbey Road – that have become almost as famous as the musicians who have recorded there.
The music festival never really went away. Headliners may come and go, but music lovers will always yearn to retreat to an open field with their favourite band – and 100,000 other people.
21st-century vocal successes are proof that, as musical revolutions have risen and fallen, the desire to sign as a group remains. And there's nothing that can move listeners more than the human voice.
It emerged from just one island in the Caribbean, but reggae music has become a worldwide phenomenon – so pervasive that you might not even know it’s there.
Many people mistake pop music as disposable. But from the blues to The Beatles, some of the most important artistic statements have been wrapped up in the world’s most popular songs.
From the Cavern Club to childhood homes and the inspiration for ‘Strawberry Fields’, this is a guide to the must-see sites in The Beatles’ Liverpool.
Worldwide changes during the Summer Of Love hit an interesting funnel in New York City in what had been a traditional centre for artists in the jazz, rhythm’n’blues and early rock’n’roll communities.
