This Month
What makes Queen the most valuable rock band of all time
Expect to hear even more of the songs that have become anthems after the band sold the rights to Sony Music and the private equity giant Apollo for $1.9 billion.
- Liam Kelly
Escape the crowds with an intimate tour of a pop legend’s Paris home
For the first time since his death, the unchanged abode of musician Serge Gainsbourg is open to the public, with his daughter as your guide.
- Kate Hennessy
June
A Las Vegas residency is a nice little earner for top stars
When flamboyant pianist Liberace settled in for a prolonged stay in 1955, it started a trend that’s proved lucrative for performers and the city as a whole.
- Christopher Palmeri
April
- Opinion
- Opinion
Taylor Swift is stuck in a 17-year-old’s mind
The superstar’s new album is full of intentional misery.
- Chris Richards
How Spotify beat the artist boycotts
Taylor Swift, Neil Young, Joni Mitchell and Thom Yorke have all pulled their music from the streaming giant. Eventually, all of them gave up.
- Ellen Pierson-Hagger
February
Why death metal is feel-good music
Can some forms of music actually be bad you? That’s what Plato thought in 4th-century BC, and it has been a cause for moral panic ever since.
- Adriana Barton
February
- Opinion
- Art
Culture is being poisoned by lazy, unoriginal, populist ideas
The arts have always thrived because of new work – but that situation is now endangered, and it’s reaching crisis point.
- Ben Lawrence
January
How retailers adapt to the crunch
Charles-Eddy Vitry shut down his record store’s physical shopfront in December to go online only after sales plummeted and his rent increased by 20 per cent.
- Gus McCubbing
From Beyoncé to the Super Bowl, this woman sets the stage for superstars
Es Devlin is renowned for her large-scale installations. Now she’s sharing her 30 years of work behind the scenes.
- Stephen Todd
December 2023
- Opinion
- Review
Here are 11 of the best albums of 2023
This year’s best music features songs to make you think, laugh and dance, plus something special from one of our own.
- James Thomson and Alex Gow
Shane MacGowan, hard-drinking poet of The Pogues, dies
The singer melded punk with Irish traditional music and wrote huge hits in the 80s and 90s – but was also known for his on-stage meltdowns and drug abuse.
- Conor Humphries
November 2023
- Exclusive
- Funding
Aussie songwriter’s tech firm is now worth $879m
He used to write songs for Delta Goodrem. Now Paul Wiltshire has a growing band of investors including Richard White, Perennial and Epic Games supporting his platform for musicians.
- Tess Bennett
July 2023
Provocative, gifted Irish star Sinead O’Connor dead at 56
The shaven-headed singer sparked controversy for her political stances and led an often-troubled private life but was acclaimed for her fierce, haunting music.
- Sylvia Hui
How Rita Ora built a music career with only 24 singles
She has averaged just 13 shows a year over the past decade and has just released her third album. The Voice Australia judge knows how to balance her work life.
- Neil McCormick
How Taylor Swift is making more than $19m a night on her tour
The pop star’s ticket sales are putting her on a trajectory to deliver the highest-grossing jaunt in music history, set to rake in $1.5 billion.
- Lucas Shaw
June 2023
AI helps complete ‘last’ Beatles song with John Lennon’s voice
More than 50 years after the Beatles broke up, Paul McCartney said artificial intelligence helped create one last song that will be released later this year.
- Derrick Bryson Taylor
May 2023
Australia through to finals of Eurovision’s corny pop fest
The Ukraine war has given Eurovision an unusually political edge to go with a renewed lurch into unabashed kitsch and craziness.
- Hans van Leeuwen
March 2023
Here’s how to diet like a rockstar
Bruce Springsteen and Chris Martin eat one meal a day, but health experts worry about the healthiness of the Omad diet.
- Ben Rowell
February 2023
Manufacturers reboot to ride the vinyl revival, but can it last?
Australia has three pressing plants riding the vinyl wave, with surging demand meaning there is plenty of work to go around. But competition may be about to get fierce.
- Gus McCubbing
Burt Bacharach, prolific composer of pop hits, dies
The man who gave us hits including ‘Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head’ and ‘I Say a Little Prayer’ has died of natural causes.
- Tim Greiving