Commentary Archive

The vintage sound of bluegrass has intermittently weaved in and out of the mainstream over the years, thanks to Dolly Parton and Patty Loveless’ occasional ventures into the genre, Alison Krauss & Union Station’s Grammy Award-winning efforts, and of course the soundtrack to The Coen Brothers’ 2000 Oscar nominee, O Brother, Where Art Thou. But

Paul McCartney’s post-Beatles career may have always been regarded as second-best to John Lennon’s. But having recently closed both the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Concert and the London 2012 Olympics opening ceremony, he’s entered his 70s still very much the national treasure of British pop. Here’s a look at ten of his best moments since the

The approach to cracking the American market for any international act used to consist mainly of visiting every local radio station that would give them airtime. This would be a lengthy and arduous promotional period that would take weeks, sometimes months, often with little commercial reward. And yet before they had even stepped foot inside

In May 2010, when the extremely popular first season of Glee was nearing its finale, the producers launched a concert tour that resulted in universal praise from critics and fans alike. Earning over $40 million throughout 40 shows, the tour was indisputably a massive success. It helped create even more awareness for the TV show

With their avant-garde blend of ambient post-rock and minimalist neo-classicalism, not to mention frontman Jonsi’s tendency to sing in an invented language, Icelandic outfit Sigur Ros seemed destined to spend their days as an obscure cult act, capable of achieving huge acclaim but little in the way of sales, when they arrived on the scene

Although never darlings of critics or conventional radio stations, Rush has one of the most devoted and largest followings in hard rock. 19 full-lengths and a multitude of stylistic approaches throughout their 44-year career make it difficult to dig into their discography, but most casual listeners already have a good starting point. It’s apt that

While many shows on television are vanilla enough to simply feature this month’s most popular indie-rock act, a show with as much depth and harrowing tension as Breaking Bad deserves a lot more. And it receives such detail courtesy of show runner Vince Gilligan, who along with composer Dave Porter has a key hand in