music

The first time I can vividly recall Swag Surfin’ was during Howard University’s inauguration ball for President Obama. That occasion, which would have been in January of 2009, doesn’t align with the official release date of “Swag Surfin’…

Like a lot of people in my generation, I heard Dick Dale’s “Misirlou” for the first time in the opening credits of Quentin Tarantino’s “Pulp Fiction.” It was 1994, I was fourteen, and my friend Bobby, who had both a license and a car,…

It seems likely that the drummer Hal Blaine—who died on Monday, at age ninety, of natural causes, at his home, in Palm Desert, California—has done more to quicken my heartbeat than any other American musician. By his own estimation, he…

“Relatability” has long been a word deployed to both acknowledge and undercut the relationship between fans and the musicians they love. When Drake’s début commercial mixtape, “So Far Gone,” was released, in February, 2009, he was…

Madame Tussauds debuts its Miley Cyrus wax figure atop a wrecking ball at The Venetian on March 9th, 2015, in Las Vegas, Nevada.(Photo: Isaac Brekken/Getty Images)As a new Supreme Court case reminds us, hip-hop is often intensely…

These are our top picks for the weekend of March 8th-10th. For more event listings and reviews, check out Goings On About Town.Photograph Courtesy Siah Armajani / Rossi & RossiArtThe Iranian-American sculptor, Conceptualist, and…

In June, 1948, the H.M.T. Empire Windrush docked in the Port of Tilbury, near London. Among its passengers were approximately eight hundred West Indian workers, mostly from Jamaica, who had come in response to England’s postwar labor…

The Jonas Brothers are back! And, as someone who is definitely both young and cool, I’d be more than happy to give you a brief tutorial on the history of the group. These three heartthrobs (Nick, Jeremy, and, I want to say . . . Baxter?)…

"Live Nation is incredibly proud to be a partner of Vet Tix, and we're honored to have helped over one million service members and their families create life-long memories together at our concerts…

"I've seen how sensuality and sexuality are stripped from those that go above a certain size, and I want to end that."(Illustration: Jules Pools)"We're from the Bay," Rayana Jay announces proudly. She's telling me about her musical role…