Music

Beginning with the Weathermen explosion in Greenwich Village and ending with punk, the seventies was the age of extremes; sex, drugs and, of course, rock 'n' roll.

Black Sabbath's Master of Reality has maintained remarkable historical status over several generations; it's a touchstone for the directionless, and common coin for young men and women who've felt excluded from the broader cultural economy.

'An incredible story of musical instruments, how they're made and what people make of them' - Keith Richards Everyone knows of the legendary quality and unbelievable price tag of a Stradivarius violin.

Breaking the global record for streams in a single day, nearly 10 million people around the world tuned in to hear Kendrick Lamar's sophomore album in the hours after its release.

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In contrast with many of their punk peers, Wire were enigmatic and cerebral, always keeping a distance from the crowd.

From a Los Angeles hospital bed, equipped with little more than a laptop and a stack of records, James "e;J Dilla"e; Yancey crafted a set of tracks that would forever change the way beatmakers viewed their artform.

What resonated about Endtroducing when it was released in 1996, and what makes it still resonate today, is the way in which it loosens itself from the mooring of the known and sails off into an uncharted territory that seems to exist both in and out of time.

A Catholic high school near Boston in 1985.

Asbury Park is one of the few true music scenes in the world.

The iconic Black rock band Living Colour's Time's Up, released in 1990, was recorded in the aftermath of the spectacular critical and commercial success of their debut record Vivid.

Pop music s a simple pleasure.

In 1978, Siouxsie and the Banshees declared 'We don't see ourselves in the same context as other rock'n'roll bands.

LRB BOOKSHOP'S AUTHOR OF THE MONTHONE OF THE GUARDIAN'S BEST BOOKS OF 2019'If you haven't read Bernhard, you will not know of the most radical advance in fiction since Joyce .

As immediately believable as they were cartoonish, as much an inner city cipher as a suburban boys gang, the foursome that made up the Pharcyde were the most relatable MCs to ever pass the mic.

In 1979, from the basement of a London squat, the Raincoats reinvented what punk could be.

Even at four in the morning, the strip clubs and watering holes surrounding the Honolulu studio were still hopping.

Looking for that definitive text that covers improvisation in all its diversity with clarity and ease?

Every now and then, a song inspires a cultural conversation that ends up looking like a brawl.

In 1991, a loose-knit collective released a record called Blue Lines under the name Massive Attack, splicing together American hip-hop and soul with the sounds of the British underground.

A discussion of White Limozeen, from Dolly's self-fashioning to a rigorous critique of her genre.

Posing more riddles than the average sphinx, with its decipherable answers pointing somewhere dark, Song Cycle was anything but passive.

It's hard to think of a solo female recording artist who has been as revered or as reviled over the course of her career as Tori Amos.

Sleater-Kinney's 1997 album Dig Me Out is built on Corin Tucker and Carrie Brownstein's competing guitars, Janet Weiss's muscular rhythms, and layered vocals that teeter between an urgent, banshee-like vibrato and a lower accompaniment.

All the Kings Horses and All the Kings Men: Love, Alienation and Reconciliation in a Big, BIG Mormon Family recounts the horrors of life in a family of fourteen and a childhood worthy of the title Irish Catholic but in this case "e;American Mormon.

'Squirm-inducing, excruciatingly honest and painfully funny' Joseph O'ConnorWe all went to school with friends who've turned out more successful than ourselves.

Born in 1953 to Anglo-Jewish/Nigerian parents, Pauline Black was subsequently adopted by a white, working class family in Romford.

Words like "e;inspiring,"e; "e;expansive,"e; and "e;moving"e; are regularly used to describe Sigur Ros's ( ), and yet the only words heard on the record itself are a handful of meaningless nonsense syllables.

From male bisexuality to religion in pop, Little Richard spent the 1950s pioneering ideas that are still too challenging for the mainstream.

It's hard to think of a solo female recording artist who has been as revered or as reviled over the course of her career as Tori Amos.

In this, the companion volume to his earlier autobiographical Apostate (1926), Forrest Reid continues his 'chronicle of a prolonged personal adventure'.

Though Nevermind was Nirvana's most commercially successful album, and the record that broke them - and the grunge phenomenon - internationally, In Utero has increasingly become regarded as the band's best album, both by the critics and the band members themselves.

For over a century the Wagners have presided over the Bayreuth Festival, playing host to many of the greatest and ghastliest figures in the arts and politics amidst family in-fighting and political controversy.

One Step Beyond isn't the best album in the world - it's not even the best album by Madness.

Grunge, also known as the 'Seattle sound', is the sludgy fusion of punk rock and heavy metal that emerged from the Pacific Northwest in the early part of the 1980s.

For a few decades now, They Might Be Giants' album Flood has been a beacon (or at least a nightlight) for people who might rather read than rock out, who care more about science fiction than Slayer, who are more often called clever than cool.

What is the world that Nine Inch Nails made, and what was the world that made Nine Inch Nails?

In over thirty years as one of the most original and charismatic figures in modern music, Prince Rogers Nelson has enjoyed huge success and courted considerable controversy.

Britney Spears barely survived 2007.

Dangerous is Michael Jackson's coming of age album.

Informational and inspirational.

A unique look at the history, adventures, myths and realities of this most legendary and powerful of bands, it is a labour of love based on hours of first-hand and original interviews.

Rid of Me joins Music From Big Pink by John Niven and Meat is Murder by Joe Pernice as one of three fictional titles in the 33 1/3 Series, and tells the story of Kathleen and Mary, two women who find themselves alone in a house in the middle of the dark, forbidden forest that borders their depressed valley town.

Finally, after all that waiting, The Future arrived in 1980.

'The sharpest memoir written by one of the Beatles' inner circle.

An exploration of Radiohead's game-changing album.

After his breakthrough with Ziggy Stardust and before his U.

Finally, a brilliant exploration of the German rock band Can's 1971 album Tago Mago.

In contrast with many of their punk peers, Wire were enigmatic and cerebral, always keeping a distance from the crowd.

So much, popular and scholarly, has been written about the synthesizer, Bob Moog and his brand-name instrument, and even Wendy Carlos, the musician who made this instrument famous.