music
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'I just want to shatter everything'Having stormed the charts and ruled the festival season, Héloïse Letissier talks pop, pansexuality - and the power of an alter ego -
Joseph CallejaThe tenor loves the Beatles, gets cosy to Nat King Cole and would have loved to sing with von Karajan
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‘We were never famous, so we’re still getting old’Indie survivors Teenage Fanclub and their sweet, sunny, smart songs still have a fervent following. So what has prompted the sadness on their new album? -
Music’s teenage talentFrom hip-hop to punk, yacht rock to indie, we bring you the young artists creating waves around the globe
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Directors, drag queens and knitwear prodigies: the culture-makers inspiring BjörkIn this exclusive interview, as her exhibition Björk Digital opens in London, Björk reveals the artists making an impression on her
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Five hidden gems from Nick Cave’s catalogueAs Double J kicks off Nick Cave Week, the station’s Henry Wagons dissects some of Cave’s lesser-known triumphs
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Jerry Heller, former NWA manager, dies aged 75Heller co-founded Ruthless Records and helped launched West Coast gangsta rap movement, working with artists from JJ Fad to Elton John
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Freddie Mercury's modest London home gets blue plaqueNeighbours in suburb of Feltham remember noisy neighbour who became flamboyant Queen star
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South African opera house accused of exploiting black singersChorus members were dismissed after challenging discrepancies in pay for appearing abroad in opera set in colonial Africa
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Margo Price review – honky tonk’s new queen of heartacheMargo Price’s bleak backstory and terrific songs make it hard to understand why she’s been overlooked for so long
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The shapeshifting savvy selector behind world music 2.0Musician and writer Jace Clayton’s book, Uproot: Travels in 21st-Century Music and Digital Culture, celebrates the world’s music in its glorious variety
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AIM review – fearless but fragmented global popThe renegade rapper takes aim at haters and the refugee crisis on an admirable but scattershot fifth – and supposedly final – album
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Jeffery review – inconsistent but worth perseveringAppellations and hype notwithstanding, Thug’s latest brings gems on unconventional beats, alongside run-of-the-mill, sex-boast trap fodder
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Fatboy Slim webchat – post your questions nowThe superstar DJ and producer is joining us to answer your questions in a live webchat from 1pm BST on Tuesday 6 September – post them in the comments
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How grime gave a voice to a generationA new music evolved in east London in 2002 – the sound of an angry but optimistic black Britain. A new book looks at grime’s evolution, and its new wave
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video
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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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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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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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‘They wanted to pit me against Nicki Minaj – I wasn’t feeling that’The rapper learned how to make music in a Solihull youth club – now, after a false start, she’s working with Timbaland and is the toast of US hip-hop. ‘Basically,’ she says, ‘I’m on the up’
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Indie's dark star tackles 'the complicated mess of being a woman'She made her name with angsty alt-country, but now she’s tired of being blue. The singer-songwriter discusses her new album and why it’s bigger than gender and sex
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‘I sound like a nervous wreck who hates doing this’Their track Pompeii was one of the biggest hits of the decade but the Londoners still think they look like ‘competition winners’ when they hit the red carpet. Will their new album Wild World change that?
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‘I’m fighting for everyone, regardless of sex’The Tobagonian calypso star on touring with Bob Marley, her battles against sexism and exploitation, and enjoying an unlikely career boost at the age of 76
quizzes
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How well do you know this week in pop history? Take our quiz to find outWho was unamused at 2003’s MTV Video Music awards, how many ‘baby’ songs came out in 1963 and how did Guns N’ Roses make the skies less friendly?
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How well do you know your Reading and Leeds festival history – quizDo you know who the first act to get coins thrown at them was? Or how many times the Red Hot Chili Peppers have headlined?
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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
in pictures
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Rock's iconic landmarksWith Prince’s Paisley Park complex due to open to the public, here’s a whistlestop tour of locations known for their musical significance – from the evocative Joshua Tree to the miserable M5 motorway near Portishead
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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
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
Sean Paul 'Drake and Bieber do dancehall but don't credit where it came from'