Berlioz’s Christmas hit
The composer was not religious but saw his L’enfance du Christ as a deeply human story – and audiences deemed…
ByMusic books
Discover the best music books, with the New Statesman’s expert reviews, from biographies to pop histories.
How Kathleen Hanna brought women to the forefront of punk
The Bikini Kill singer was raised by a dangerous father, developed a finely tuned radar for sexual threat, and turned…
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Pop’s gay revolution
How stars from Little Richard to David Bowie used their sexuality to set popular culture free.
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The young prole rebels of Dexys Midnight Runners
Denied an audience with frontman Kevin Rowland, the author Nige Tassell asks the band’s army of musicians to tell its…
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How the Liverbirds disrupted the rock ’n’ roll boys’ club
The all-female band shone briefly in Sixties Hamburg, but were prevented from flourishing in a male-dominated scene.
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How to get kicked out of the band
An entertaining study of sacked musicians reveals the tensions that give pop its power.
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The invention of the Teddy boy
How the subculture emerged from postwar London’s tribal landscape of fashion, class and violence.
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The Scala was a place with no boundaries, our teenage sanctuary
A film about the cult all-night cinema and a memoir by my friend take me back: how motivated we all…
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Michel Faber’s tin ear
The novelist’s arresting study of the power of music is marred by a clumsy structure and snobbish tone.
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Requiem for a world war
Jeremy Eichler’s Time’s Echo shows how four great 20th-century composers captured the horrors of conflict.
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Bernie Taupin: good lyricist, bad writer
The songs he wrote with Elton John may be works of art. His bloated memoir is not.
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The women classical music forgot
Leah Broad’s Quartet restores the pioneering work and colourful lives of Britain’s finest female composers.
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Bruce Springsteen and the spectre of stardom
In 1981, the singer sensed his future fame – and retreated. Nebraska, his darkest and most personal album, was the…
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What does Rick Rubin actually do?
The star producer’s supremely vague manual on creativity does nothing to explain his craft.
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The rise and fall of the British music press
In their glory days magazines such as NME and Melody Maker defined youth culture – but the quality of the…
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Books of the year 2022
New Statesman writers and guests choose their favourite reading of the year.
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Surrender: praying in the church of Bono
In his account of being “saved” by love and religion, the U2 frontman’s sincerity overpowers the scorn of his critics.
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The 15 best books for summer
The New Statesman’s selection of essential recent releases.
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Bob Stanley’s pre-history of pop breathes life into a lost musical era
In Let’s Do It, the musician and journalist reveals how ragtime, jazz, blues and swing still shape today’s popular culture.
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Jarvis Cocker’s book Good Pop, Bad Pop reveals the sentimental side he hid in the Nineties
Taking us through the contents of his attic, the Pulp frontman shows there was always more to him than ironic…
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