Articles
Winners of the 2025 Aga Khan Music Awards announced
Music to help us through difficult times
Multiple studies show that music can do wonders for our mental health. So which pieces do we turn to when times are tough?
Fear, control, violence: the darkness behind Phil Spector's legendary 'Wall of Sound'
His dazzling ‘Wall of Sound’ recording technique brought widescreen drama to pop music. But Phil Spector’s personal life was music’s darkest, most violent psychodrama
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Who was Ivor Novello? The Welsh songwriter and operetta composer who inspired The Ivors
UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer appears on BBC Radio 3's Private Passions
Chaos, death, black magic: 13 legendary rock addresses with dark pasts
From mansions with ghostly histories to studios steeped in sin, these are the haunted homes of rock ’n’ roll.
Élisabeth Pion wins 2025 Honens International Piano Competition
'Nebraska': how Springsteen forged beauty from America's dark underbelly
Quite unlike anything else from 1982, Bruce Springsteen’s Nebraska is a stripped-back, confessional masterpiece capturing America’s forgotten lives with haunting, intimate storytelling and timeless, darkly compelling narratives
Shock impact and religious zeal: how historically informed performance revolutionised classical music
Scandal, fraud and worse: rock's 19 most infamous managers, ranked
From manipulation and financial shenanigans to scandal and ego, these infamous rock managers shaped music – and sometimes ruined lives
The best streaming amplifiers on the market in 2025
The lost classic album that brought down a supergroup
The supergroup that burned bright, fell apart, and left one iconic album, leaving a legacy equal parts tension and brilliance
These 17 bands each left us just one unforgettable song
From jangling indie to late-’90s pop, these bands left their mark with a single unforgettable hit that defined then forever more
Why a besotted piano student held Liszt at gunpoint
13 bands who went huge... and then it wasn't fun anymore
They conquered the world — then fell apart. Thirteen rock bands who found fame and fortune - but lost the simple love of playing together
Ranked: 15 astonishing record labels that changed the face of rock
From Sun to Sub Pop, these 15 labels redefined rock, shaping sounds, scenes, and cultural attitudes across decades of music
Robbed from the grave: the mysterious tales of composers’ missing body parts
Steve Wright peers into the coffin as he investigates the deceased composers whose bodies continued to go on their own adventures
Suicides, debt, paranoia: the tragic tale of rock's most doomed band
They had the talent and the tunes, but not the luck. Badfinger’s story is rock’s most poignant, heartbreaking tragedy
Goodbye, Summer of Love: 15 albums that slammed the door on the Sixties
When the ’60s dream soured, rock got darker, stranger, and more truthful. These 21 albums chart the moment idealism met reality
Ivors Classical Awards 2025 names 34 nominees
The composers and librettists will compete in six categories with the winners announced at BFI Southbank on 11 November
Sophomore slumps: 15 second albums that squandered that debut magic
From rushed follow-ups to overblown experiments, these 15 'difficult second albums' prove that early success can be a tough act to follow
The most terrifying jump scares in classical music
Who needs visuals? The great composers are masters at getting us jumping out of our skins with just the terrifying force of music,
as Tom Service explains
They said WHAT? 15 rock stars who crossed the line
From drunken rants to political scandals, here are fifteen moments when rock’s biggest icons took rebellion too far – and paid for it
Sex, darkness, death: The Doors albums, ranked
Dark, seductive, and dangerous — The Doors’ albums ranked, from shadowy psychedelia to seductive, poetic rock masterpieces