Back Talk: Billy Bragg
Christine Smallwood
British punk rocker and activist Billy Bragg talks about his new album and the politics and economics of free online music.
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A Wink and a Leer
Jess Harvell
Nick Cave's self-lacerating sense of humor helps him avoid being just another pretentious old rocker.
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Her Good Thing
Nathaniel Friedman : Film
The versatile vocalist Mable John, now a novelist and minister, has come a long way since the 1960s soul era that made her (almost) famous.
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An Ayler in My House
Nick Stillman : The Short of It
A glossy and ragged musical declaration of love.
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Bugalú Sounds
Oliver Wang : Latinos
If you're curious to learn more about the bugalú, check out these five albums.
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Boogaloo Nights
Oliver Wang
A new generation rediscovers the freewheeling rhythms of the Nuyorican bugalú.
2007
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Chaos, Clocks, Juxtapositions
With the release of the Dylan pastiche I'm Not There, Todd Haynes revises our cultural memory by adjusting familiar clichés.
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In Our Orbit
Edward Said's musical predilections capture the full complexity of the master theorist.
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News From Nowhere
Hip-hop star M.I.A. broadcasts the sound of those with one foot in the First World and the other in the global South.
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Sound Check
The history of twentieth-century music charts the rise of modern masters like Duke Ellington and John Adams.
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Jena: Take Your Nooses Down
A schoolyard fight in Jena, Louisiana, fueled by hateful symbols of the Jim Crow era, prompted John Mellencamp to write this song. Watch the video.
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Political Punk: Rage Against the Band
Now with a major label, political punk rockers Against Me! have released what may be the year's best album. But have they sold out?
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Farm Aid Raises a Vision
What began as an attempt to help financially strapped farmers in the Reagan years has grown into a visionary political and social movement rooted in the agrarian values of the American Revolution.
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Arthur: The Little Magazine That Could
You thought Arthur was gone for good? The indie magazine beloved for its music coverage and antiwar politics will resume publishing this summer.
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On the Porch in the Seventh Ward
As the New Orleans Jazz Fest unfolded, a down-home celebration, bright with beads, sequins and feathers, took place in the city's poorest neighborhoods.
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Hip-Hop's E-Z Scapegoats
Dave Zirin & Jeff Chang : Racism & Discrimination
There's a big difference between the misogynous hip-hop produced by big media and the hip-hop that moves a generation.
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Moving On Up
Jay-Z, self-styled savior of hip-hop, is the face of the new establishment.
2006
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The Last Lennon File
Jon Wiener : Freedom Of Information Act
The controversy over newly released files on John Lennon is less about Lennon than about excessive government secrecy.
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Suga Mama, Politicized
Beyoncé Knowles's sexed-up club jam B'Day is also an odd, urgent, dissonant and disruptive personal and political statement.
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The Day the Music Died
It's the end of the world as we know it: Tower Records, the last great CD emporium, is closing, victim of the iPod and MP3 revolution. As Wal-Mart and other big-box stores pick up the slack, will niche music also perish?
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Down by Law
Todd Snider has a songwriter's flair for the absurd--and he's morphed from a barroom wiseacre to a keen observer of life at the workaday fringes of Bush's America.
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A Rebel in Defense of Tradition
As composer Steve Reich turns 70, he is winning recognition from the classical establishment for the creativity and power ever-present in his music.
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P-Funk Politics
As hurricane season began in earnest, Ray Nagin, who famously declared New Orleans a "chocolate city," began his second term as mayor. What better time to appreciate the way George Clinton, America's should-be poet laureate, has funked up politics?
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Anthems of Outrage
Kevin McCarthy : George W. Bush Administration
The crankily contrarian Neil Young has a knack for making music that reflects the times. Living With War, his blistering attack on the Bush presidency, marks the turning of a cultural tide.
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The Composer's Craft
In Stravinsky, the Second Exile, Stephen Walsh chronicles the composer's late years, disentangling the realities of his life and work from the published assertions of a self-serving assistant.
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Yumi, Yumi, Yumi
Patricia J. Williams : Migration & Immigration
Why is it that We the People are so obsessed with whether singing our national anthem in Spanish is an affront to our union?
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Satellite Dylan
As a satellite radio DJ, Bob Dylan is reaching a new generation of fans, who admire his music but, unlike earlier admirers, do not see him as a prophet.
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Songs of Protest
As the war in Iraq causes more devastation, courageous musicians are using song to move a nation.
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Joe Strummer, Terrorist?
Antonino D'Ambrosio : Increased Security After 9/11
What does it mean that a man was arrested on suspicion of terrorism for singing the lyrics of the Clash's classic "London Calling"?
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Grace Notes
Estonian composer Arvo Pärt's journey toward stillness has been halted by the roar and rawness of his latest piece.
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The Man Who Heard It All
Richard Taruskin's Oxford History of Western Music reviews the world of Western art music, expressing the magnificence and melancholy of its own age.
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The Color of Money
Four new books explore the politics, culture and racial awareness of the hip-hop generation.
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A Second-Line Revival
Storm-whipped New Orleanians returned to the city to join a joyful second-line parade, a revival of music that made real the triumph of the city's spirit.
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Music for the End of Time
A new biography examines the life and work of composer and theorist Olivier Messiaen, who moved French music out of the cafes and back to the cathedrals.
2005
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John Lennon Has a Legacy
: History
John Lennon opened up rock-and-roll to politics, and in an innocent, impulsive way, he worked for peace. When he died, his fans, no longer teenagers, mourned as though a President had been killed. From the December 20, 1980, edition of The Nation.
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Disco Inferno
Military detainees have been subjected to starvation, sleep deprivation and now Metallica and Britney Spears. Blasted at high volume, torture music has become a weapon of war, used to destroy the minds of Muslim detainees. It's time for musicians to speak up.
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Studs Terkel on Music
Still going strong at 93, Studs Terkel has produced yet another oral history, And They All Sang: Adventures of an Eclectic Disc Jockey.
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In Search of Sam Cooke
Robert Christgau : Cultural Criticism & Analysis
A womanizing gospel king and black-pride pop star, Sam Cooke led a short life filled with contradiction.
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Kanye West, Unplugged
NBC took offense when Kanye West took an unscripted swipe at President Bush during a benefit concert for hurricane victims. But somebody had to say it.
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Tramps Like Us
Eric Alterman : Bruce Springsteen
Thirty summers ago, Bruce Springsteen's Born to Run exploded the cynicism and complacency of a morally exhausted era and gave a new generation reason to believe in rock and roll.
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Born Again in the USA
Jody Rosen : Bruce Springsteen
In his latest album, Bruce Springsteen reaches for the Good Book.
2004
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Fortunate Son
Travis Morrison's Travistan will keep kids asking questions about music, politics and life.
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Eminem Aims at Bush
Sam Graham-Felsen : George W. Bush
"Mosh" could be one of the most overtly political pop music videos ever produced.
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Pay Attention
Hillary Frey : Presidential Election 2004
A conversation with Death Cab for Cutie's Chris Walla.
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Springsteen for Change
David Corn : Bruce Springsteen
The 2004 election does not merely pit red states against blue states; it places the cultural community against the Bush establishment.
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Signs of Our Times
Hillary Frey : Presidential Election 2004
Under the Radar magazine commodifies dissent--in a good way.
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Rockin' for the Free World
Hillary Frey : Presidential Election 2004
MoveOn.org joins forces with Lollapalooza to make change in November.
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Who Let the Punks Out?
The young and the angry mosh the vote for the November election.
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Men in Black
Several generations of doomy, bookish youth have grown up listening to the Cure.
2003
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Death and Glory
In our prefabricated culture, Warron Zevon, Johnny Cash and Joe Strummer stood out as icons of uncompromised integrity.
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Hors de Combat
Richard Goldstein : Cultural Criticism & Analysis
Irony is the new Communism, which is why an artist like Madonna can't get her message across.
2002
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Prick Up Your Ears
Savvy left-leaning artists are busy reinventing the protest music tradition, often beneath the radar.
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'Stakes Is High'
As the central marker of urban youth of color authenticity, rap music has become the key to the niching of youth culture.
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Kathleen Hanna's Fire
Hillary Frey : Feminism & Women
Emma Goldman would have loved a Le Tigre concert.
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Blowin' in a New Wind
Ani DiFranco has come a long way from her early neo-folkie outsider days.
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Ripped, Mixed-Up and Burned
Daphne G. Carr : Internet & New Media
America, poised for broadband Internet dominance, is at yet another communications crossroads.
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Singing to Power
Billy Bragg has to be the only popular musician who could score airtime with a song about the global justice movement.
2001
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Eminem--Bad Rap?
Richard Kim : Gay & Lesbian Issues & Activism
Eminem's lyrics may be more banal than exceptional in the way they invoke homophobic violence.
This week: A look at the advocacy group MoveOn.org at 10. Plus: Controversy in Africa over the indictment of the Sudanese President; Amy Alexander and Chris Rabb on the challenges facing minority journalists in their transition to the web; and The Nation's new sex column. (13mb mp3)
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