music
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Endless first-listen review – brilliantly confoundingFrank Ocean’s visual album mixes the avant garde with the accessible – but is it the precursor to an imminent pop collection? -
‘I have a lot of money, but I still feel broke’Discovered by Justin Bieber and feuding with Drake, Lanez is the latest Canadian to make a splash, with a hybrid sound he describes as ‘swavey’
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How the world plugged into the electric guitarMusical instruments come and go, but 70 years after it was first designed the electric guitar looks like a survivor. So why does its combination of wires, valves and transistors strike a chord? -
PC Music's Danny L Harle teams up with Carly Rae Jepsen – watch their video hereSuper Natural teams up the maker of Call Me Maybe with one of PC Music’s leading lights
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‘Snooker Loopy is an albatross around my neck’The snooker great-turned-leftfield selector picks his top tunes, from Autechre to Chas and Dave
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Brasil Music Exchange - Episode FiveBrasil Music Exchange brings you the best new music direct from Brazil! This episode features cover versions of vintage classics and long-lost gems by the new generation. Our ever diverse playlist goes from samba to ska, choro to forró. Playlist highlights include the traditional Bahian choir As Ganhadeiras de Itapuã, São Paulo young guns Bixiga 70 and the deep treasure that is Goma-Laca.
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I’ve been here for hours: Kanye West fans queue for exclusive clothing launch – videoFashion aficionados and Kanye West fans queue up in east London on Friday to gain entry to a pop-up shop dedicated to Kanye West’s latest album The Life of Pablo
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Kanye West fans queue for hours to get into Life of Pablo pop-up shopStore in Old Street, east London, is one of 21 around the world open for only three days to sell items tied to latest album
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Metallica announce their first studio album for eight yearsHardwired … to Self-Destruct will be released on the band’s own label on November
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A stark vision of the future set to striking electronicaThe multimedia performance of the Mercury-prize nominated protest album Hopelessness is an at-times transcendent theatrical experience
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Novelist review – rabble-rousing MC makes grime politicalThe south London MC combines breathless rhyme schemes with insightful, rabble-rousing analysis – and even threatens to run in the next election
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Pure and Simple – toning down the schmaltz … a bitThe country legend’s latest isn’t quite the kind of back-to-basics project that gave Johnny Cash’s late career such a boost, but it’s a step in that direction
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#RIPMileyCyrus and the rise of online fan warsOnline audiences cultivated by pop stars are using hashtags as weapons to harm rival idols. No wonder stars such as Justin Bieber are becoming wary of social media …
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Sia is being sued by Israeli fans for a lack of banter – but is on-stage wit a must?Fans in Israel were unsatisfied with the Cheap Thrills singer’s show due to a lack of between-song chat – but banter only works in the right hands
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video
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Stevie Wonder tells crowd 'black lives matter' in wake of shootings – videoStevie Wonder performed in London’s Hyde Park on Sunday, and he urged the crowd to choose ‘love over hate’ and proclaimed that black lives matter
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Paloma Faith: 'Musicians are scared to speak out' – videoPaloma Faith tells Owen Jones that she thinks few musicians discuss politics because of the abuse directed at them on social media
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Lady Gaga and the Dalai Lama call for kindness in a violent world – videoThe singer and Tibetan spiritual leader attended a conference in Indianapolis on Sunday hosted by the US Conference of Mayors that focused on bringing more kindness to a violent world
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Has Brexit put a downer on Glastonbury? Reaction from festival-goers – videoJohn Harris talks to Glastonbury revellers waking up to a damp day on Friday and the news that Britain had voted for Brexit
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Pianist Ludovico Einaudi’s haunting iceberg performance to draw attention to Arctic plight – videoThe Italian pianist Ludovico Einaudi, renowned for his career composing scores for television and movies, gives a haunting performance among the icebergs of the Arctic
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Led Zeppelin win copyright case over intro to Stairway to Heaven – videoLed Zeppelin musicians Robert Plant and Jimmy Page have won a lawsuit brought by the estate of guitarist Randy Wolfe, which alleges that the introduction sequence of the famous hit Stairway to Heaven was copied from Taurus, by Wolfe’s band Spirit
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The most talked-about man in music – interview
His new album Channel Orange was rushed out a week early to rave reviews, then he made headlines worldwide by blogging about his sexuality
interviews
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De La Soul’s Pos: ‘Who’s going to buy dog headphones?’The hip-hop legends will be on the next Gorillaz album, can’t speak French and know a dud Kickstarter when they see one
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'Stalin sent grandad to Siberia'The pop star behind Nine Million Bicycles left Georgia when she was nine years old. Now she’s returned to record with the Gori Women’s Choir. We joined the singer to hear about family struggles – and how she is ‘learning how to sing again’
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Meet the punk rockers who are ready to 'bleed for you'Don’t be fooled by the bowties: Philly’s finest might just be the most raucous band of the moment… if they can hold it together
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On ageing, mistakes and why Israel and Iran are twin brothersAt 73, the conductor is still lobbying presidents and bellowing at the violins in five languages. But has his passion project – an orchestra of players from across the Middle East – achieved any real change? We meet him in Buenos Aires
quizzes
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From Beyoncé in Chelmsford to Keith Moon – do you know this week in pop history?Car crashes, Cher and and space rock – test your knowledge
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Pop quiz: from funeral songs to Fleetwood Mac – do you know this week in music history?We’re talking loved ones, Led pollution and new livers – test your knowledge
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From Craig David to Coronation Street – do you know this week in pop history?It was the week Jimmy Webb was born, and Pink Floyd released their first album – but how well do you know your music history?
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From Top of the Pops to AC/DC – do you know this week in music history?It’s our weekly test of the byways of pop – and today is a test of your knowledge on angry Swiss crowds, Carole King and the best ‘gay albums’ ever
in pictures
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Forty years of A Midsummer Night's Dream at GlyndebourneHow Glyndebourne has tackled the Benjamin Britten opera, from Peter Hall’s 1981 production to the latest revival, which will debut on 11 August
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A look back at Woodstock - in picturesA collection of photographs, exhibited in Camden’s Proud Galleries from 28 July until 11 September, and taken by Baron Wolman, document a journey ‘three days of peace and music’ which took place at Woodstock during the summer of 1969
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Jewish pop – in picturesFrom superstar cantors to Streisand and CBGB’s roster of rebels, Jews have played an influential part in the rise of popular music. The new exhibition Jukebox, Jewkbox! charts the highs of Yiddish theatre, punk politics and Israeli folk
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How to remake a Blue Note jazz albumThe vinyl revival continues. Founded in 1978, Music Matters Jazz is dedicated to re-releasing new pressings of historic Blue Note jazz titles. Each of the reissued albums is restored and remastered from the original analogue master tapes
you may have missed
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10 songs in the key of 2016The blistering revenge of a superstar scorned, an anthem to the rise of gender fluidity... Observer and Guardian writers to pick the songs that most reflect the state of music – and the world – right now
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'I thought my music was beautiful all along'She was subjected to decades of vilification. Now everyone from Gaga to Sparks are lining up to pay tribute. How does the 83-year-old artist feel about the world catching up to the Yoko Ono sound?
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Why working-class voices are music to Darkstar's earsWhy did these two men hang around Huddersfield railway station asking young people what they did today? Electronic duo Darkstar explain their most daring LP yet
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The women with triple-A access to the 60sIn 1969, Rolling Stone shocked the world with an issue about the rock ‘supergroupie’. A new book tells all
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'I like everything people say about me – you gay, you a punk, you can't rap, you're the hardest'Atlanta’s Young Thug is the gender-fluid, surrealist rapper who’s being anointed as hip-hop’s next titan. Don’t know what to make of him? You’re not the only one
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Blur: 'We used to take it in turns to punch each other'Back in Hong Kong, where they recorded their album The Magic Whip, Damon, Graham, Alex and Dave talk about falling out and making up, the state of British pop music and why 90s Britpop was a wasted opportunity
Metallica Hardwired review – brutal riffs and precise playing signal a return to form
News Metallica announce their first studio album for eight years