headphones with a plug and decorative elements

Good Times With Bad Music

We've all got our tastes, but can anyone really define what makes music “good” or “bad”?
Lester Young playing at a charity concert held at the Philharmonic Hall, 1953

The Scholars Charting Black Music’s Timeline: Douglas Henry Daniels & Paul Austerlitz

Daniels and Austerlitz tell the story of jazz, from its origins in the blues, gospel, and funk to its impact on music around the world.
An image from a manuscript from the 9th century AH/AD 15th century (Safavid dynasty)

Music and Gender in Medieval Islamic Court

As Islam spread across the Arabian peninsula and the Mesopotamian region, it changed the relationship between gender and musicianship.
Johnny Cash at San Quentin State Prison, 1969

Far From Folsom Prison: More to Music Inside

Johnny Cash wasn't the only superstar to play in prisons. Music, initially allowed as worship, came to be seen as a rockin' tool of rehabilitation.

This Revolution Will Be Amplified

From Lil Nas X to Valerie June to Darius Rucker, Black musicians are staking their claim in country music. Francesca T. Royster explains.
An 1879 Poster for Murphy & MacDonough's all-child production of H.M.S. Pinafore featuring a group of children rowing a boat

Topsy-Turvy: Children in Adult Roles

The number of children acting like adults on stage reflects how conflicted nineteenth-century Anglo-Americans were about the definition of childhood.
Johann Sebastian Bach in a portrait by Elias Gottlob Haussmann

Happy Birthday, Well-Tempered Clavier

Bach’s most influential pedagogical work turns 300 this year. But what’s so “well-tempered” about this clavier, and what’s a “clavier,” anyway?
Loretta Lynn performs on stage at the Country Music Festival held at Wembley Arena, London in April 1977.

Loretta Lynn: More than a Great Songwriter

A spokeswoman for white, rural, working-class women, Loretta Lynn used music to articulate the fears, dreams, and anger of women living in a patriarchal society.
Federal Theatre Project presents "The drunkard or the fallen saved" Originally produced by P.T. Barnum in his museum

Temperance Melodrama on the Nineteenth-Century Stage

Produced by the master entertainer P. T. Barnum, a melodrama about the dangers of alcohol was the first show to run for a hundred performances in New York City.
Three women and five men gathered in a room which opens up to classical architecture, the group on the left is making music while the others are engaged in conversation; representing the continent of Europe.

Musical Myth-Busting: Teaching Music History with JSTOR Daily

Harnessing the power of quirk to engage students and inspire research in an online learning environment.