Music & Culture

The Royal Shakespeare Company is releasing albums of the music commissioned for its productions of many of the plays in this first collected edition of William Shakespeare's works.

Music & Culture

The Royal Shakespeare Company Releases Music From Its Archive

1:14pm October 12, 2014

by Ari Shapiro

For more than a century, the Royal Shakespeare Company has commissioned music for plays. Its archive tracks the way music changes over time and across many productions.

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Neil Young Writes Of His Love Affair With Cars

1:14pm October 12, 2014

Neil Young loves his cars so much he wrote a second memoir, Special Deluxe, devoted to them. He speaks with NPR's Ari Shapiro about music, the environment and, of course, automobiles.

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Mary Lambert's new album is called Heart On My Sleeve.

Music & Culture

Mary Lambert: 'You Change People's Opinions By Opening Your Heart'

6:33pm October 11, 2014

by NPR Staff

As a gay Christian, Mary Lambert says singing the hook on Macklemore's "Same Love" is the best introduction she could have hoped for. She speaks with NPR's Arun Rath about finding her own audience.

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Miles Teller and J.K. Simmons face off in Damien Chazelle's impressive drumming-as-sport film, Whiplash.

Bang The Drum Ever Faster In The Different Sports Arena Of 'Whiplash'

8:56am October 10, 2014

by Tomas Hachard

Damien Chazelle's heart-pounding teacher-student drama, Whiplash, sets a combination of a sports film and a genius tale like The Social Network in the world of jazz drumming.

The music on U2's new album, Songs of Innocence, reaches back toward the moment when the band was first building an audience.

Music & Culture

The Dream Of Ridiculous Men

12:54pm October 09, 2014

by Ann Powers

For four decades, U2 has delivered huge rock songs and taken shots for being too serious. The band's new album, Songs of Innocence, provides a key to its long search for universal significance.

"I was slapping myself in the face," singer Doug Seegers says of his recent success. "I kept saying, 'Am I dreaming? When am I going to wake up and go back to living under the bridge?' "

Music & Culture

Homeless In Nashville, Huge In Sweden

10:01am October 09, 2014

by Vince Pearson

After decades in obscurity, country singer Doug Seegers went from down-and-out to up-and-coming in an instant.

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English singer Morrissey performs during the Nobel Peace Prize concert in Oslo in December. The musician told a Spanish newspaper, in a stoic discussion about his health, that he has undergone treatments related to cancer.

Music & Culture

Singer Morrissey Says He Has Had Cancer Treatment

1:58pm October 08, 2014

by Bill Chappell

"I have had four cancer-scrapings, but so what. If I die, I die," the English musician and former leader of The Smiths wrote in an email interview with a Spanish-language newspaper.

Music & Culture

On Fania Records And The Music That Made It Matter

12:22pm October 08, 2014

by NPR Staff

Fifty years ago, a New York musician and his lawyer friend started a small record label that would become a global brand, taking salsa music from New York clubs to the rest of the world.

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Music & Culture

One Final Offering From John Coltrane

3:35pm October 07, 2014

by Kevin Whitehead

Eight months before he died of cancer, John Coltrane played a concert at Temple University in Philadelphia that proved too much for some listeners.

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Rebecca Rivas, a reporter for the St. Louis American newspaper, captured video of the Ferguson protest at the St. Louis Symphony concert Saturday night.

Music & Culture

A Ferguson Protest Brings New Meaning To Brahms' Requiem In St. Louis

6:30pm October 06, 2014

by NPR Staff

To protest the shooting death of Ferguson, Mo., teenager Mike Brown, audience members at a St. Louis Symphony concert unfurled banners and stood to sing an old union song.

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