The point in history when Mario captured the hearts, minds, and ears of North American video game players can be traced to a specific device: the Nintendo Entertainment System.
To understand what the West really sounded like we can follow the life of one of its noisiest residents: Mary “Bloody Knife” Porter.
When hearing "Soul Bossa Nova," it’s difficult not to think of Austin Powers. But the song’s history is richer than meets the ear.
Who was Lars Fykerud? Why was he saying goodbye to America? How did a song about America end up among those about Norwegian waterfalls and mountains?
Spandex fabric, disco music, Reebok sneakers, and celebrities like Jane Fonda. Each of these points back to a time, a sound, and a distinct cultural moment: the aerobics craze of the 1980s. But what was the aerobics craze? What was its music and how did it sound?
What kind of music do you think about when you think about the Southern U.S.? Your answer might include country music, bluegrass, the blues, or southern rock–but you probably didn’t think of Mexican music! The U.S. South has a growing Latinx community that has brought with them many Spanish-language music traditions.
In 1887, Thomas Edison wrote about a new machine: the phonograph. He described how the machine worked and what this [...]
Shardé Thomas began learning to play the fife at the knee of her grandfather, the great Otha Turner. Turner was [...]
Listening to the band Lakeside’s #1 R&B hit “Fantastic Voyage” in 1980, one can hear lead singer Mark Wood chant that [...]
Legends of the Seminole Tribe of Florida have been passed down orally from one person to the next. Sometimes these [...]
Img. 1: The Pace Jubilee Singers, ca. 1930, with Charles H. Pace in the back row on the far left. [...]
Rhiannon Giddens. (Credit John Peets) Blending traditional folk music with Black musical traditions, Grammy-award winning Rhiannon Giddens has made Black [...]
Omar Ibn Said, 1850s. (Public Domain) On May 27, 2022, Rhiannon Giddens and Michael Abels debuted a new opera called [...]
Count Basie at the piano in 1955. (James J. Kriegsman, CC) The city of Kansas City, Missouri, is known around [...]
The “Grecian urn” ladies in the movie, The Music Man (1962) Meredith Willson’s Broadway musical, The Music Man, has been [...]
Samantha Bumgarner, fiddler, banjoist, and guitarist from Asheville, North Carolina, 1937. (Library of Congress) A “music revival” takes place when [...]
Hog-Eyed Man, composed of Rob McMaken (dulcimer) and Jason Cade (fiddle), play Old-time music at the Kennedy Creek Old Time [...]
Illustration of sailors singing sea songs, British National Maritime Museum at Greenwich In December 2020, a Scottish singer named Nathan [...]
University of Michigan Jazz Band members discuss their instruments with interested spectators after a workshop. Photograph courtesy of Lanny Austin. [...]