sun 03/08/2025

New Music Buzz

Jeremy Deller on The Posters Came From The Walls

joe Muggs

"Depeche Mode," says Jeremy Deller, "have always been seen as a bit naff in this country, at least in the media. They could never shake off the image of their earliest Top Of The Pops appearances, so no matter how musically exploratory they got, they tended to be seen as this jumped-up rather silly pop band.

Read more...

Birthdays On The Tube, 22-28 November

Peter Culshaw

An ongoing series celebrating musicians' birthdays.

23 November 1876: Manuel de Falla's El Amor Brujo filmed as part of Carlos Saura's classic film dance trilogy.

{youtube width="400"}Ftd8tIdiYq4{/youtube}  El Amor Brujo  Carlos Saura

Read more...

Birthdays on the Tube, 15-21 November

Peter Culshaw

A continuing series celebrating musicians' birthdays.

22 November 1965: Bjørk released her first self-titled album at the age of 11, at 14 she was in a punk band called Spit and Snot, and has since gone on to be one of the most successful and original musicians on the planet. Many of her classic videos have had their sound removed on YouTube, but "All is Full of Love" directed by Chris Cunningham  is up there still, and features the best lesbian robot love scene ever...

Read more...

Chap-Hop, Straight out of Surrey

Peter Culshaw

"Hip-hop has been a commercial proposition since the release of 'Rapper’s Delight' in 1979. That’s 30 years, a long time for any genre," writes Sasha Frere-Jones in this week's New Yorker. The genre, according to Frere-Jones, is on the way out. Not so for Chap-Hop, however, which has been going for about six days since the video below was put up on YouTube, featuring...

Read more...

Noughty Girls: Britney, Amy, Beyoncé, Kylie... and Kaija

Peter Culshaw

Last night I was thinking, as I often do, of Britney, Kylie, Beyoncé, and less of Shakira, mainly because her name doesn’t end in y or e. The reason that my thoughts turned to Britney et al (incidentally we are delighted to have britneyspearsfans @BritneySpears4u site following theartsdesk on Twitter) was a list published this Saturday in the Telegraph of the best 100 songs of the Noughties.

Read more...

Pages

Subscribe to theartsdesk.com

Thank you for continuing to read our work on theartsdesk.com. For unlimited access to every article in its entirety, including our archive of more than 15,000 pieces, we're asking for £5 per month or £40 per year. We feel it's a very good deal, and hope you do too.

To take a subscription now simply click here.

And if you're looking for that extra gift for a friend or family member, why not treat them to a theartsdesk.com gift subscription?

latest in today

'We are bowled over!' Thank you for your messages... ...
Edinburgh Fringe 2025 reviews: I'm Ready To Talk Now /...

I’m Ready to Talk Now, Traverse Theatre ...

Music Reissues Weekly: Chip Shop Pop - The Sound of Denmark...

One of the more interesting tracks on Paul Weller’s fascinating new cover versions album Find El Dorado is his interpretation of “When...

theartsdesk at the Three Choirs Festival - Passion in the Ca...

“Powerful, Timeless, Inspiring” it says on the front cover of the programme-book for this year’s supposedly 297th Three Choirs Festival at...

Natalia Ginzburg: The City and the House review - a dying ar...

Many readers and writers think of epistolary novels as old-fashioned, just as letter writing itself can seem a bit quaint nowadays. The genre...

Album: Mansur Brown - Rihla

I like to think I’m open to most things, but even so I never thought that I’d be getting an education in prog metal in the summer of 2025. Let...

BBC Proms: Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir, Kaljuste rev...

Arvo Pärt was into his 40s before he made had his Big Musical Idea: simplicity. He has spent the subsequent half-century pursuing this ideal,...

Top Hat, Chichester Festival Theatre review - top spectacle...

After 76 years, you’d have thought they could’ve come up with a better story! Okay, that’s a cheap jibe and, given the elusive...

Late Shift review - life and death in an understaffed Swiss...

Floria (the superb Leonie Benesch: The Crown; The Teachers’ Lounge; September 5) is a nurse, working the severely understaffed...

Edinburgh Fringe 2025 reviews: Alright Sunshine / K Mak at t...

Alright Sunshine, Pleasance Dome ...