Bill Kristol blames rap music. And the fraternity’s lawyer says the racist chanters were “tarred and feathered.” (Yes, he did.)
Music
Posted inBooks, Arts and Culture
America’s Only Black Piano-Maker Soldiers on Through Slights and Triumphs
When musician Warren Shadd decided to manufacture a line of high-tech pianos based on his own designs but with little capital, everyone thought he was crazy.
Posted inBooks, Arts and Culture
Beyoncé Misses the Point of What Gospel Music Means to Black Americans
The selection of Queen Bey to deliver a song identified with Mahalia Jackson ignored the importance of spiritual conveyance in the music that moved a people to action.
Posted inBooks, Arts and Culture
Music and Memory
The dangerous state of Zionism invites us to cherish the diaspora as Jewish cultural and religious homeland.
Posted inBooks, Arts and Culture
Gaga and Bennett: Making a Great American Art Form Hip Again
Jazz singers don’t usually rise to the top of the charts, but Cheek to Cheek topped Billboard’s list of best-sellers in the week after its release.
Posted inBooks, Arts and Culture
A Hard Days Night and Beatlemania: The West’s Last Outbreak of Optimism Disease
How much the Beatles helped create the ’60s and how much the ’60s helped create the Beatles is one of the great chicken-and-egg questions.
Posted inBooks, Arts and Culture
Loving the Opera in HD
Once controversial, Metropolitan Opera broadcasts for movie-theater audiences have become a gateway for new (and returning) fans.
Posted inBooks, Arts and Culture
Sondheim Looks Back
The composer reflects on his storied Broadway career in a new HBO documentary.
Posted inBooks, Arts and Culture
12 Years a Female Slave—Not Coming to a Theatre Near You
We can’t fully understand American slavery and its legacy without mining the diversity of enslaved experience in scholarship as well as film.
Posted inMoney, Politics, and Power
Lou Reed’s Incorrigible Genius
The legendary singer-songwriter of the Velvet Underground died Sunday.
