Who invented music? – Rom, age 7, Las Vegas, Nevada The short answer is: No one knows who invented music. No historical evidence exists to tell us exactly who sang the first song, or whistled the first tune, or made the first rhythmic sounds that resembled what we know today as music. But researchers do...
Die Antwoord is a South African band that uses hip-hop music to create a style it calls “zef”. Since it first appeared in 2009, Die Antwoord has been criticised for cultural appropriation (using cultural elements of a minority group in an exploitative way). It’s accused of copying the lyrics and styles of Cape Town artists...
The global outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in the early months of 2020 shut down nearly all physical and social human activities. For musical practice this meant near death. Performing music is, after all, one of the oldest forms of social human engagement. In Nigeria, the shutdown of concerts and public music performances was swift....
Hip-hop culture is often recognized as being born on Aug. 11, 1973. That was about seven months after Roe v. Wade, the landmark decision that protected the right to choose to have an abortion. Accordingly, reproductive rights have long been part of the discourse in rap music, which has always sought to hold a mirror...
Keith Richards’ opening guitar riff to “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction” has sent throngs of Rolling Stones crowds into screaming fits since the song debuted nearly 60 years ago. The riff introduced something else: the Maestro fuzz-tone guitar pedal. Decades later, an Iowa State University designer has expanded his research – creating visuals out of...
I love listening to music. I love music so much I decided to study it in college. I’m earning a doctorate in music history, for which I have researched everything from early 20th-century French music to 1960s funk. I make and perform music as well. I have played drums in rock and pop bands and...
Wide scale public attention to the song “1-800-273-8255” by American hip hop artist Logic was associated with an increase in calls to the US National Suicide Prevention Lifeline and a reduction in suicides, finds a study in the Christmas issue of The BMJ. The findings demonstrate the protective effect of positive media stories about suicidal thoughts...
The impact of robots on human life is evident everywhere, from service sectors such as healthcare and retail, to industrial settings like automobile manufacturing. But it’s one thing to leverage robots as helpers — it’s another to connect with them emotionally, which could lead to better trust. Researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology found...
In his autobiography, Miles Davis complained that classical musicians were like robots. He spoke from experience – he’d studied classical music at Juilliard and recorded with classical musicians even after becoming a world-renowned jazz artist. As a music professor at the University of Florida, which is transforming itself into an “AI university,” I often think...
Megamusicals have often been criticised in the academic world and in the media for their homogenizing tendencies, but increasing academic attention on them is providing us with new insights. In her inaugural lecture at the University of Amsterdam, professor by special appointment of the Musical Millie Taylor will outline the impact of megamusicals on local...
