At a Mexican military base, Captain Eduardo Barrón picks up not a rifle but a microphone. Swaying boot-to-boot, he belts out a song as the sounds of trumpets and accordions roar from a band of a dozen camouflage-clad soldiers. The rhythmic style — known as a corrido — is recognizable to just about every soul...
Sound
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Amadou Bagayoko: The Blind Malian Musician Whose Joyful Songs Changed West African Music
Amadou Bagayoko (1954-2025), Malian guitarist, singer and composer of the famed duo Amadou & Mariam – known as “the blind couple of Mali” – passed away on 4 April in Bamako. He was 70. The married singers, who met when she was 18 and he 21, took traditional Mali music and blended it with western...
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Bob Dylan and the Creative Leap That Transformed Modern Music
The Bob Dylan biopic “A Complete Unknown,” starring Timothée Chalamet, focuses on Dylan’s early 1960s transition from idiosyncratic singer of folk songs to internationally renowned singer-songwriter. As a music historian, I’ve always respected one decision of Dylan’s in particular – one that kicked off the young artist’s most turbulent and significant period of creative activity....
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Fuji Music in Nigeria: New Documentary Shines Light on a Popular African Culture
Nigerian singer Síkírù Àyìndé Barrister (1948-2010) pioneered fújì, a Yorùbá genre of popular dance music. In February 2024, historian Saheed Aderinto’s documentary on the musician’s life and times premiered. The Conversation Africa’s Wale Fatade asked Aderinto about the film and the music it brings to our attention. What is fújì music? Fújì fuses Islamic philosophy...
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Pythagoras Was Wrong: There Are No Universal Musical Harmonies, New Study Finds
The tone and tuning of musical instruments has the power to manipulate our appreciation of harmony, new research shows. The findings challenge centuries of Western music theory and encourage greater experimentation with instruments from different cultures. According to the Ancient Greek philosopher Pythagoras, ‘consonance’ – a pleasant-sounding combination of notes – is produced by special relationships...
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Live Music Emotionally Moves Us More Than Streamed Music
How does listening to live music affect the emotional center of our brain? A study carried out at the University of Zurich has found that live performances trigger a stronger emotional response than listening to music from a device. Concerts connect performers with their audience, which may also have to with evolutionary factors. Music can...
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Music Painted on the Wall of a Venetian Orphanage Will Be Heard Again Nearly 250 Years Later
Imagine Lady Gaga or Elton John teaching at an orphanage or homeless shelter, offering daily music lessons. That’s what took place at Venice’s four Ospedali Grandi, which were charitable institutions that took in the needy – including orphaned and foundling girls – from the 16th century to the turn of the 19th century. Remarkably, all...
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From Ancient Greece to Broadway, Music Has Played a Critical Role in Theater
Though anxiety about the fate of live theater performances still lingers, Broadway is celebrating its third season since reopening after the COVID-19 pandemic, with a lineup dominated once again by musicals. The new season includes long-running hits like “Hamilton,” revivals of classics like “Merrily We Roll Along,” new musical adaptations of nonmusical works like “Days...
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Our Favorite Bittersweet Symphonies May Help Us Deal Better with Physical Pain
Research has shown that music might be a drug-free way to lower humans’ pain perception. This decreased sensitivity to pain – also known as hypoalgesia – can occur when pain stimuli are disrupted between their point of input and where they are recognized as pain by the conscious mind. In a new study, researchers in...
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How Bach’s Toccata and Fugue in D Minor Became Halloween’s Theme Song
In Bach’s era, the pipe organ was one of the world’s most technologically advanced instruments. Stefano Bianchetti/Corbis via Getty Images Imagine a grand house on a hill, after dark on an autumn night. As the door opens, an organ pierces through the thick silence and echoes through the cavernous halls. The tune that comes to...
