Music News

Francisca Gavilán plays the Chilean musician and visual artist Violeta Parra in the film Violeta Went to Heaven.

Music & Culture

In 'Violeta Went To Heaven,' A Folk Icon's Tempestuous Life

6:39pm July 13, 2013

by Betto Arcos

Violeta Parra has been called mother of the Latin American folk movement, and her work as a visual artist has been shown at the Louvre. The Chilean icon, who committed suicide at 49, is the subject of a new film.

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Toshi Seeger with her husband, folk singer Pete Seeger, in 2009.

Music & Culture

Toshi Seeger, Wife Of Folk Singer Pete Seeger, Dies At 91

6:30pm July 11, 2013

by Elizabeth Blair

The couple shared a lifetime of collaboration. She died Tuesday, just shy of their 70th wedding anniversary.

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Chinese pianist Fei-Fei Dong, 22, performs at the 14th Van Cliburn International Piano Competition in Fort Worth, Texas. The Juilliard School graduate student is among six musicians chosen for the final round.

Music & Culture

The Cliburn Competition After Van

10:26pm July 03, 2013

by Bill Zeeble, KERA

Founded in 1962, the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition continues this year without the presence of its iconic namesake. But organizers and contestants believe the contest — as well as its high standards and ability to boost careers — will remain.

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Underlying the sweetness of Kyu Sakamoto's unexpected hit song "Sukiyaki" was a story of sadness and loss.

Music & Culture

Bittersweet At No. 1: How A Japanese Song Topped The Charts In 1963

9:22pm June 28, 2013

by NPR Staff

Fifty years ago, Kyu Sakamoto was the face of a new postwar Japan: a clean-cut, 21-year-old pop idol. But professor Ian Condry says that underlying the sweetness of the hit song "Sukiyaki" was a story of sadness and loss.

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Beyonce in her most recent Pepsi ad, which premiered her song "Grown Woman."

Music & Culture

The Beyonce Experiment: How Far Can She Go?

5:08pm June 28, 2013

by Ann Powers

As a pop star, no one comes close to dominating culture and conversation the way Beyonce does. Because she exerts such control over her image — from advertisements to films, politics to pop songs — should we think of her differently?

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Bobby "Blue" Bland performs on stage at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival in New Orleans, in 1989.

Music & Culture

Remembering The Multidimensional Music Of Bobby 'Blue' Bland

6:10pm June 24, 2013

Bland's music is the kind that can school anyone about the incomprehensible depths of love, the importance of dignity and the promise of the kind of good life that really might be within reach.

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Violinist Amandine Beyer holds Mozart's own violin backstage at Boston's Jordan Hall on Monday.

Music & Culture

Playing Mozart — On Mozart's Violin

1:21pm June 24, 2013

by Anastasia Tsioulcas

Hearing — and holding — Mozart's own instruments is a thrill like no other. The great composer's violin and viola, which are only pulled out of storage in Salzburg about once a year, are in the United States for the very first time. And the magic they wield is undeniable.

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When played on the radio in 1963, songs like Big Joe Turner's "Shake, Rattle and Roll" were code to Birmingham youths, telling them to assemble.

Music & Culture

Shake, Rattle And Rally: Code Songs Spurred Activism In Birmingham

7:11pm June 21, 2013

by NPR Staff

In 1963, civil rights activists wanted to recruit more of the city's young people to the cause. The way to their hearts was often through DJs and music.

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Blake Morgan's songs were played some 28,000 times over a 90-day period on Pandora, earning $1.62 in royalties.

Music & Culture

Pandora Buys A Radio Station, Songwriters' Group Calls It A 'Stunt'

4:40pm June 15, 2013

by Laura Sydell

This week, the Internet radio broadcaster bought a radio station in Rapid City, S.D., in an effort to get the more favorable royalty rates given to terrestrial broadcasters. But the move has songwriters and composers up in arms.

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Boards of Canada's new album is titled Tomorrow's Harvest.

Music & Culture

Boards Of Canada Tap A Devout Following To Push New Album

5:53am June 13, 2013

by Sami Yenigun

By leaking details of its new release through codes and numbers, the Scottish electronic duo worked the press game backwards.

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