Some were angry that the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame removed a rock pioneer's ashes, but the practice is now common in the museum world.

Early FM was a wasteland and quickly became the domain of amateurs and risk-takers, including many stations and DJs who played music that flew in the face of mainstream trends. This history of the band's scrappy beginnings unpacks how it realigned the rock charts.

Elvis Presley had deep roots in country music, though the Grand Ole Opry and its audience weren’t happy with Presley’s rocking take when he performed for his first (and only) time in 1954. Afterwards, the Opry’s manager Jim Denny allegedly told Presley, “Don’t quit your day job.”

In the late 1940s, rock 'n' roll emerged from a mix of blues, country, gospel, and jazz. It gained traction through radio, rebellious icons, and evolving sound. This overview traces the genre's roots, rise, and lasting influence—from early pioneers to the British Invasion and beyond.

When the expert review panels for the Big Four awards were disbanded, it was with the hope that the decision would lead to a broader range of nominees and winners. But, in practice, it's not clear that it's playing out that way.

This short video essay analyzes how rock music responded to US involvement in Vietnam, from the protest folk of Phil Ochs and Bob Dylan to the popularity of rock and soul records with soldiers stationed abroad.

It's considered a watershed moment in his career and rock ‘n’ roll history, mostly because the audience allegedly booed Dylan’s new electrified songs, believing he had abandoned politically minded folk music for pop stardom.

Bruce Jackson, one of the directors for the infamous 1965 Newport Folk Festival, claimed that the story of Dylan being booed for going "electric" is a myth. Pointing to transcripts from the set's audio recordings, he argued that the audience wasn’t upset with Dylan; they were bothered that he couldn’t play for longer.

Warren Zevon was posthumously inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2025. Political writer Andrew Walworth highlights Zevon's keen interest in international politics, which often found their way into his memorably wry lyrics.

For decades, he was written off by the art world as a simplistic commercial artist, but critics began to reconsider Rockwell's work many years after his death. Arguably, the height of that resurgence came in 2011, when President Barack Obama hung "The Problem We All Live With" (on loan from the Norman Rockwell Museum) in the White House to mark the 50th anniversary of Ruby Bridges' desegregation walk.

While there’s always some friction when major award nominees are announced from those who believe a favorite has been snubbed, the Grammys have attracted quite a bit of pushback in the last few years. Much of the controversy centers around the show’s purported unequal treatment of artists of color, particularly Black artists.

Warhol produced iconic album art for The Rolling Stones and The Velvet Underground. He also inspired rappers Jay-Z and Tyler, the Creator. Warhol’s immense influence on art and pop culture elevated him to celebrity status, and his identity and style continue to be referenced in sometimes unexpected corners of cultural consciousness.

Kurt Cobain's 1994 suicide followed an eerie pattern in rock 'n' roll history: Several of the music's brightest stars' lives end at the age of 27. That group includes Kurt Cobain, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, and Amy Winehouse. This exploration of the phenomenon delves into the eerie and tragic circumstances that continue to shape its relevance.

The painter’s portraits of American life were often dismissed as commercially minded, banal, or kitschy, especially when compared with the more abstract art of the time. Rockwell, however, was undeterred, commenting that he wanted to produce work that would make viewers “want to sigh and smile at the same time.”

Although patronage was a regular part of artists’ income throughout the 19th century, the insult “sell out” gained prominence in the 1950s. The jazz and folk communities, in particular, levied the term at artists they believed had sacrificed their integrity for financial gain.

The anonymous expert panels were first introduced into the Grammys voting process in the '90s to counteract claims that the awards weren't "with it" anymore—basically, that they were biased toward more traditional music acts. Of course, that was also the argument for disbanding some of them in 2022: Many people thought the panels were introducing their own bias into the nominations. Now, they exist mainly to ensure genre nominations are correctly categorized.

Despite being called a forefather of the genre, the Prince of Darkness said he never understood why his music was called "heavy metal." "Back in the day, it was always just rock music," he told SPIN in 2013. "It’s still just rock music."

After including overt political protests in their performances, rumors swirled that Sinead O'Connor and Rage Against the Machine had been banned from the show. (People said the same about rock band the Replacements, but that was for on-air drunkenness.) Showrunner Lorne Michaels, however, claims no musical guest has ever been banned.

The late-night landscape has changed dramatically in the past five years, with the most visible difference being a severe lack of music. This writer set out to learn why that is—and what it means for audiences and artists alike.