Society & Culture

Iconic hip-hop record label Def Jam's first office was founder Rick Rubin's NYU dorm room.

Watch Martha Graham perform 'Heretic,' a 1929 piece about breaking the dance world's norms.

Read 'The New Negro,' the influential collection that helped define the Harlem Renaissance, the influential 20th-century Black arts movement.

Explore romantic poet William Blake's 'illuminated manuscripts,' which blended poetry and painting.

After his popularity surged, Stephen King began using a pseudonym to release more books before being outed by a bookstore clerk.

Vaudeville performer Charley Case is widely considered the first stand-up comedian.

Prior to his stint as an artworld superstar, Jean-Michel Basquiat played in a punk band with Vincent Gallo.

Watch the original 1925 silent film adaptation of 'The Wizard of Oz,' which predates the classic 1939 film.

Explore an illustrated history of the WNBA's first 30 years, analyzing how the league has quadrupled its attendance since 2021.

Playwright George Bernard Shaw believed Shakespeare was overrated and called the near-universal praise for him 'Bardolatry.'

John Coltrane's 'Giant Steps' is one of jazz's most famous and challenging compositions, known among musicians for its fast shifts between three keys.

During her lifetime, Emily Dickinson was better known as a gardener than a poet.

'New wave' music was coined for listeners put off by punk's ethos.

The 1919 Chicago White Sox, later known as the 'Black Sox,' were banned from baseball for fixing that year's World Series despite being acquitted in court.

The adoption of modern appliances in the mid-20th century led to the rise in popularity of soap operas.

Multi-hyphenate musician Prince was trained in classical ballet during high school, which critics say informed his later dancing.

Jane Austen's 'Pride and Prejudice,' one of the most popular novels in English, was initially rejected with a form letter.

After South Asians were barred from attaining citizenship in 1923, many took to teaching yoga on the road, spreading the practice across the country.

Taylor Swift was the first artist to occupy every one of the top 10 slots on Billboard's Hot 100 chart.

'Take Me Out to the Ballgame,' the song that's now a 7th inning tradition at every MLB game, was inspired by a billboard advertisement.

Chris Stapleton's 'Tennessee Whiskey' is the bestselling country record of all time and just the third recording to achieve the 'double diamond' distinction.

Jean-Paul Sartre rejected his Nobel Prize in literature in 1964, believing it was antithetical to his role as an artist.

A 19th-century Protestant minister in Germany encouraged 'natural eating,' creating a precursor to the natural food movement.

Listen to a live musical score determined by the traffic on California's southbound 101 highway.

View a fan's exhaustive guide to exploring the dozens of shows and movies that make up the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

A Chicago Bears fan once leaped from the stands to catch an extra point.

Watch an artist explain how to paint in Pablo Picasso's cubist style, which flattens images and turns complex figures into geometric shapes.

Watch the 1954 film adaptation of George Orwell's 'Animal Farm,' which was covertly funded by the CIA.

19th-century photographer William Mumler claimed he captured ghosts on film, producing images that stunned and bewildered the public.

The tempestuous relationship between bandmates and brothers Liam and Noel Gallagher led to the breakup of Oasis in 2009 and numerous public feuds.

Blur, Oasis, Pulp, and Suede are widely considered the four defining bands of the 1990s Britpop genre.

Professional wrestling's lexicon comes from the carnival world, where the spectacle began.

The Rolling Stones got their name from a Muddy Waters song.

Existentialist writer Albert Camus died in a car crash, an act some believe was orchestrated by the KGB.

Before it became the home of 24-hour prestige TV, HBO used to sign off each night.

Rather than relying on blood and gore, folk horror like 'Widow's Bay' involves remote settings and ancient traditions.

HBO Max's 'The Pitt' aims to be the most accurate representation of medicine on TV by using real doctors as consultants.

Hear drivers talk about what it feels like to crash a Formula 1 car.

A New Mexico town named itself after the quiz show 'Truth or Consequences.'

The first tattoo gun was based on an electric pen invented by Thomas Edison.

Explore a map of songs about places, including 'China Grove,' 'I Left My Heart in San Francisco,' and 'Stranger in Moscow.'

Before radio jingles arrived in the 20th century, advertisers used poetry to sell their products.

Brothers André and Édouard Michelin invented the Michelin Guide to boost sales of their tires.

After the 9/11 terrorist attacks, The Onion stuck with satire, defying what some were predicting was 'the death of irony.'

Broadway theaters reopened 48 hours after the 9/11 terrorist attacks at the request of New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani.

'Cat poo coffee,' the colloquial name for civet coffee, is one of the most expensive coffees in the world.

New York artist Donald Judd turned Marfa, Texas, a small town in the middle of the West Texas desert, into an internationally recognized artists' oasis.

A part-owner of the Oakland Raiders spearheaded the first fantasy football league.

See a gallery of the impressive artwork created at Burning Man, which is intended to be transient.

Burning Man initially started with around 30 people on a San Francisco beach.