Music

"I don't care much about music. What I like is sounds." — Dizzy Gillespie

“This Decadent Western Thing”: Joanna Stingray on the Soviet Underground Rock Scene
The L.A. rocker on her experiences in the underground rock scene in pre-glasnost Russia.
Sasha RazorOct 17, 2020
A Plurality of Traditions: Anthony Davis and the Social Justice Opera
The socially driven dream-telling of Anthony Davis’s political operas.
Thomas LarsonOct 17, 2020
- Music
- Politics
Real Life Rock Top 10: September 2020
LARB presents the September installment of “Real Life Rock Top 10,” a monthly column by cultural critic Greil Marcus.
Greil MarcusSep 25, 2020
Sound Territory: The Genius of Ornette Coleman
Kathelin Gray reviews Maria Golia’s biography of composer and musician Ornette Coleman.
Kathelin GraySep 24, 2020
- Biography & Autobiography
- Music
More Than “Tra-La-La”: On Vernon Duke, Igor Stravinsky, and Russian Musical Émigrés
Harlow Robinson turns his ear to “Taking a Chance on Love” by George Harwood Phillips and “In Stravinsky’s Orbit” by Klára Móricz.
Harlow RobinsonSep 15, 2020
The Gigantor of Art
Alex Ross’s new book on Wagner teases out the great conductors many contradictions.
Tim RileySep 15, 2020
- Music
Real Life Rock Top 10: August 2020
LARB presents the August installment of “Real Life Rock Top 10,” a monthly column by cultural critic Greil Marcus.
Greil MarcusAug 28, 2020
- Music
- Politics
Upending the Travelogue: A Conversation with Sophy Roberts
Sophy Roberts goes on an untraditional quest.
Alana Marie Levinson-LaBrosseAug 18, 2020
Heroin Heroism: On the Rock ’n’ Roll Survivor Narrative
John Tottenham plows through the genre of the rock ’n’ roll memoir.
John TottenhamAug 13, 2020
- Memoir & Essay
- Music
The World as a Problem Never Fully Solved
The improvised life (and afterlife) of the British art rock group Henry Cow.
Stathis GourgourisAug 9, 2020
Real Life Rock Top 10: July 2020
LARB presents the July installment of “Real Life Rock Top 10,” a monthly column by cultural critic Greil Marcus.
Greil MarcusJul 31, 2020
Real Life Rock Top 10: June 2020 — Part II
LARB presents the second, all–Bob Dylan edition of the June installment of “Real Life Rock Top 10,” a monthly column by cultural critic Greil Marcus.
Greil MarcusJun 19, 2020
- Music
- Politics