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Essays, investigation and opinion on today’s cultural landscape
With music venues in crisis, does celebrating them as places where bands appeared on the way to fame overshadow their true purpose as the places in which music is played for the sake of communal joy, asks Luke Turner
When Haitao Yang was shot in the head, it brought him to within touching distance of death, an experience that has profoundly influenced his music ever since, but he's not alone. Jak Hutchcraft investigates the bizarre and sometimes disturbing world of music and the near death experience. With thanks to Daniel Hall
Squarepusher's new album is a palate-cleansing summary of work to date displaying an admirable breadth of technique with some amazing peaks, says John Doran, but as a continuity LP it points more clearly to a crisis in criticism rather than IDM
After Dhruva Balram's family emigrated from India to Canada, he came of age in a new city, the optimistic soundtrack provided by emerging megastar Drake. Here he celebrates the breakthrough mixtape which provided the background to first love but also looks back and asks, what went wrong?
A viral question about jungle on University Challenge gave everyone the chance to be an expert and get a few laughs – but it also revealed some pernicious underlying assumptions, says Joe Muggs.
Lifelong Watford FC fan Keith Kahn-Harris looks at Elton John's time as chairman of the club, his friendship with Graham Taylor, and asks why the music industry couldn’t offer the megastar the solace that football could. Images all courtesy Alan Cozzi Archive & Watford FC
The streaming services have become locked into an arms race to see who can own the end of year reveal, says Eamonn Forde. It's just that the artists who are, arguably, being badly treated and the listeners who foot the bill are the ones doing all of the heavy lifting when it comes to branding and marketing
Referencing two new albums, the compilation Synthetic Bird Music and Kate Carr's A Field Guide To Phantasmic Birds, plus Daphne du Maurier's avian horror and one of England's oldest documented songs, Summer Is Icumen In, Daryl Worthington asks how the rich interlinked history of bird song and human music has changed over the centuries and what it now means in a time of climate crisis
The online ticket resale industry is still exploitative and worryingly unregulated. Professor Guy Osborn of Westminster Law School and Professor Mark James of Manchester Law School present their latest research on this controversial practice and make a case for a new Labour government bringing in legislation to deal with it
On the release of soft soap film Peter Doherty: Stranger In My Own Skin, Daniel Dylan Wray asks if music documentaries made in conjunction with their subjects can ever be anything other than a PR exercise, or "doc washing"
Among the chart topping radical pop hits of Frankie Goes To Hollywood and Art Of Noise, contemporary composer Andrew Poppy was, on the surface of it, an oddity on ZTT. Here Paul Morley explains why he was an ideal fit for the label
We’ve recently had to strip back what the Quietus does, closing down our film and arts sections and have reluctantly put our books section on ice. In order to protect our music coverage we need at least another 350 people to subscribe to the site, says editor John Doran, but just look at what you get in return…
Music and intoxication have gone hand in hand since prehistory, but the relationship of music and cannabis is particularly strong and complex, says Jono Podmore, a former habitual smoker, as he investigates a groundbreaking new study which may get us closer to understanding these links
Jennifer Lucy Allan explains how a childhood love of Vic Reeves and Bob Mortimer's avant-folk duo Mulligan & O'Hare opened her ears to the avant-garde, and realising that the most 'serious' music can often be a total hoot
At the end of the 1960s, Bond was old hat as the hippies wafted their locks over culture. John Higgs, author of a new book on 007, the Beatles and British identity, explores the culture war that raged over follicular extravagance
Twenty-five years ago, Ian MacMillan was an arts writer and TV producer witnessing the madness of the YBA's Sensation exhibition first hand. Looking back, he argues it was representative of a shallow yet maximalist moment in British culture
Revolting teenagerhood continues as we reach 14 years of bringing you the best new music – here's how you can become a subscriber, support what we do and get instant(ish) access to exclusive releases by Hey Colossus and Vanishing Twin
The Carling Weekend was a rite of passage for many youngsters, but JR Moores got more than he bargained for when he attended Leeds Festival in 2002. He recalls police helicopters, burning portaloos and petulant headliners; and asks "What was that all about?"
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