music

Stories 381 - 400 | << Prev   Next >>

'Free Pussy Riot Fest' Flouts Officials' Warnings

Band's lawyers set for interrogation over earlier protests

(Newser) - St. Petersburg officials warned against it, but supporters of Pussy Riot held a fundraising concert in the band's honor anyway. Some 1,000 people attended the "Free Pussy Riot Fest" in Vladimir Putin's native city, even after firefighters said they'd shut down the hall over safety...

YouTube's Musical Dads Sign With Sony

'The Piano Guys' are five Mormon fathers

(Newser) - They're five Mormon dads from Utah. They love to do quirky, instrumental covers of pop songs and put them on YouTube. And Sony just signed them, reports USA Today . "This is kind of freaky—miraculous, really," says one of the members of The Piano Guys, who have...

Post-Surgery John Mayer: I Won't Talk for Months

And no singing for half a year: blog

(Newser) - We won't be hearing from John Mayer for awhile. In a post on his tumblr blog , the singer announced: "Silent for the next few months, no singing for probably six, but all signs point to this being the last step in getting to perform again." Mayer canceled...

Taliban Beheads 17 Over Afghan Music Event

Victims were celebrating with instruments, dancing

(Newser) - Taliban insurgents beheaded 17 men and women yesterday for participating in a music event in Afghanistan's Helmand province, officials report. The decapitations occurred after people gathered for a celebration, and were playing music and dancing, according to the chief of the Musa Qala government. They were apparently punished for...

Beck's Next Album: You Play the Songs, Not Him

Album will be released as sheet music only

(Newser) - If you want to hear Beck's new album, you better learn how to play a musical instrument. He'll be releasing Beck Hansen's Song Reader in December not as a CD, vinyl record, or digital files, but as … sheet music. "The Song Reader is an experiment...

Putin: Go Easy on Punk Band Pussy Riot

Defense hopes for 'softened' prosecution

(Newser) - As a court decides the fate of Russian punk trio Pussy Riot, Vladimir Putin is having his say—and he doesn't sound hugely concerned about the band's protest in Russia's top cathedral . Though there was "nothing good" about the protest, "I don't think that...

More Pianos Getting Sent to the Dump

Beloved instruments are being burned for firewood

(Newser) - Imagine the cacophony: More pianos are being thrown out these days in a mangle of legs, keys, and twisted wire, reports the New York Times . Why the unceremonious dumping? Well, their value is plummeting, electronic keyboards are more affordable, and music education is suffering from budget cuts. "Instead of...

Goodbye Snoop Dogg, Hello Snoop Lion

Snoop adopts new monicker for reggae album

(Newser) - Snoop Dogg is branching out into new musical styles and more intimidating animal pseudonyms. His Snoopness is about to release a reggae album, under the new monicker Snoop Lion, Rolling Stone reports. His first single, "La La La," is available now, and according to his website, "Snoop...

Law Prof: Jay-Z's Lyrical Legal Advice Is Wrong

Don't let '99 Problems' be your guide

(Newser) - Jay-Z's smash hit "99 Problems" may be fun to listen to, but don't get your legal advice from it. The rapper's perspective on the law is way off in parts, says a professor who authored a law review article analyzing the lyrics line by line. "...

&#39;Girl From Ipanema&#39; Turns 50
 'Girl From Ipanema' Turns 50 

'Girl From Ipanema' Turns 50

'Perfect' bossa nova song is 2nd-most recorded of all time

(Newser) - She may be tall and tan and lovely, but "The Girl From Ipanema" isn't so young anymore. Fifty years ago, though, the song came from out of nowhere, suddenly putting Brazil onto the pop culture map and turning bossa nova into a craze, reports the Wall Street Journal...

Scientists Turn Star Data Into Reggae

Reggae-rock group Echo Movement composes astral melody

(Newser) - What do stars in outer space sound like? Try listening to the 6-second melody (note: that's a .wav file) that will be used on a track due this fall by the reggae-rock group Echo Movement. The band wanted to create its own space jam, so it asked researchers at...

What Makes Music Scary?
 What Makes Music Scary? 

What Makes Music Scary?

An evolutionary biologist thinks it's nonlinear noises

(Newser) - Why exactly does the Jaws theme send a chill down our spine? What makes Darth Vader's entrance music so unsettling? In short, why does certain music freak us out? Evolutionary biologist Daniel Blumstein thinks he has the answer. Blumstein hit on the idea while observing baby marmots, who would...

Screw &#39;Fascist&#39; iPods, Get Vinyl
 Screw 'Fascist' iPods, Get Vinyl 
opinion

Screw 'Fascist' iPods, Get Vinyl

Author of 'Go the [bleep] to Sleep' says analog is still king

(Newser) - Some things have never been improved upon, and if you ask Adam Mansbach (author of the hit book Go the f--- to Sleep) one of them is the vinyl record. "Vinyl is democratic, as surely as the iPod is fascist," Mansbach declares in Salon . "Vinyl spins like...

World's Oldest Instrument Discovered in Cave

Flutes may have helped early humans endure bitter cold

(Newser) - Researchers have identified two flutes made from mammoth ivory and bird bone as the world's oldest musical instruments, the BBC reports. Discovered in a cave in southern Germany, the flutes were likely fashioned 42,000 to 43,000 years ago, when early humans used them for religious ritual or...

Wow Google Moog Doodle Honors Synth Pioneer
 Google Moog Doodle Wows 

Google Moog Doodle Wows

Playable mini-synth 'most ambitious doodle yet'

(Newser) - Google has honored synthesizer pioneer Robert Moog with a doodle fans are calling its best ever. To mark what would have been Moog's 73rd birthday, Google's homepage features a fully playable version of his famous synth, complete with 19 knobs and a recording device. "We had a...

Loud Music Linked to Risky Behaviors



 Loud Music Linked 
 to Risky Behaviors 
study says

Loud Music Linked to Risky Behaviors

Increased likelihood of smoking pot, drinking: Study

(Newser) - Just like your parents always feared, listening to loud music may actually be bad for you. A new study finds that teens and young adults who use ear buds to listen to music at the "risky" level of 89 dBA for at least an hour each day were nearly...

What You Didn't Know About Donna Summer

To her entourage, she was always 'The Queen'

(Newser) - The passing of Donna Summer has inspired a range of thoughtful retrospectives ; now ABC News points out a few little-known facts about the Queen of Disco.
  • She stopped singing the orgasmic "Love to Love You Baby" in 1979 as she re-devoted herself to Christianity. "If I were to
...

Donna Summer Was &#39;Queen of Pop&#39;
 Donna Summer 
 Was 'Queen 
 of Pop' 
tributes

Donna Summer Was 'Queen of Pop'

Don't just limit her to disco, say critics

(Newser) - Following today's news of Donna Summer's death, critics and fans are lining up to pay their respects to the Queen of Disco. A few highlights from around the Web:
  • Queen of Disco? "A more appropriate title would have been Queen of Pop," writes Melinda Newman at
...

'Godfather of Go-Go' Chuck Brown Dead at 75

DC's funk pioneer is gone

(Newser) - Chuck Brown, who created the "go-go" genre of funk in DC in the 1970s and remained a mainstay of black Washington's culture ever since, has died at age 75, reports the Washington Post . A snippet from the paper's obituary, by Chris Richards:
  • "Like a DJ blending
...

One of Louis Armstrong's Final Concerts Made Public

He performed for National Press Club in 1971

(Newser) - One of the final live performances by Louis Armstrong will be released to the public for the first time. The recording is of a concert on January 28, 1971, at the National Press Club in Washington. The legendary trumpeter was a featured act at the concert, held less than six...

Stories 381 - 400 | << Prev   Next >>