Level goes on an ambitious quest - tries to connect wordings of contemporary rappers with those of classic philosophers. One of the comparisons is between Kendrick Lamar and Plato, who both deal with issues of identity, reality and ideas:

“What money got to do with it / When I don’t know the full definition of a rap image? / I’m trapped inside the ghetto and I ain’t proud to admit it / Institutionalized, I keep runnin’ back for a visit” - Kendrick Lamar, 'Institutionalized'

“We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark; the real tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light” - Plato.

A beautiful article in the New Yorker by Michael Azerrad, a journalist and one of Kurt Cobain's closest friends: "That’s the kind of thing that haunts people who know people who have committed suicide: Is there something I could have done? Twenty-seven years later, I still ask myself that question. I tried, but perhaps I could have—and should have—tried harder. The thing is, although I was in my early thirties, I was still immature and naïve. Maybe I wasn’t so well suited to the task". The long read also gives quite a convincing albeit prosaic explanation for the suicide: "Kurt had several clinically established risk factors for suicide, including inhuman levels of professional pressure, chronic and severe physical pain, and a heroin addiction that he just couldn’t seem to shake (or didn’t want to). He also had a long family history of suicide".

Rolling Stone has reviewed its 2004 list of 500 greatest songs of all time. Nearly 4,000 songs received votes. Where the 2004 version of the list was dominated by early rock and soul, the new edition contains more hip-hop, modern country, indie rock, Latin pop, reggae, and R&B. More than half the songs here — 254 in all — weren’t present on the old list, including a third of the Top 100. The result is a more expansive, inclusive vision of pop, music that keeps rewriting its history with every beat - RS points out. The list starts at the number 500 with Kanye West's 'Stronger', and reaches the highpoint with Aretha Franklin's 'Respect'.

Jazz Times talks to notable musicians who consider an old question, with Ambrose Akinmusire giving an interesting perspective: “It’s the sonic representation of how Black people navigate through the world. The improvised element. It’s the never know[ing] what’s coming your way, but reacting and staying calm and knowing that no matter what it is there’s a way to spin it and make it work”.

History of Yesterday remembers the notoriety of the classic music genius: "Beethoven famously chopped the legs off of his piano to feel the notes from the floor vibrations. When that stopped working, he attached a metal rod to the piano. While composing, he bit the rod to feel the notes... When aristocrats attended his performance and talked in the crowd, he would stop playing, turn, and stare at them from his bench, his eyes cutting lasers out into the crowd. There would be painful silence until he’d resume".

New Sounds produced a podcast with a selection of music from Afghanistan, putting a different light on the troubled nation. Among the selected are Homayun Sakhi and Quraishi with their rubâb music, folk poems of Afghani women, the Hazara tradition by Hamid Sakhizada, and adapted music from the Khorasan region by the duo Badieh. Much of the music comes from musicians who have fled the country to Europe or North America.

An amazing Instagram profile by Adnan Lotia who remakes famous album covers with lego bricks. There's Lego Radiohead, Michael Jackson, Guns N' Roses, Bruce Springsteen, Janet Jackson, Stevie Wonder, Blur, Soundgarden, Eminem, Missy Elliott and many more. Some of them are truly brilliant.

Rolling Stone is celebrating the life of the deceased Rolling Stones drummer Charlie Watts with a (repeated) list of 100 "kings and queens of slam". An interesting list, starting with Christian Vander from the French prog-rock band Magma, and finishing with Led Zeppelin's John Bonham.

The Face brings a brief history of some of Africa’s most exciting modern music genres. Kwaito was born as a voice of South Africa’s Black population and liberation from Apartheid. Amapiano is kwaito's derivate made in the same country. Singeli is a fast-paced, jangly offshoot of the party-friendly bongo flava genre, sped up to between 180 and 300 BPM. Asakaa is also known as Ghanaian drill. Coupé-décalé is characterised by soaring guitars, triumphant horns and lilting basslines.

Music YouTuber David Bennett released an interesting video describing 8 elements in music that are quite common now, and that were pioneered by the Beatles. They were the first to play concerts on a sports stadium, the first to play live music on TV, the first to introduce loops and guitar feedback, the first to use sitar in popular western music etc.

At its best, moshing is a visceral and collective experience, a physical way to match the energy of the music you’re witnessing with the feeling it gives you. When done right (and safely), there is a willful exchange of bodily autonomy in the mosh pit — it’s a relinquishing of a certain amount of control of where your body goes and moves, a step into chaos, a pushing and pulling motion that mirrors the intensity of what’s happening on stage. At its best, there should be a feeling of respect in the pit; everyone is there for a similar reason: to enjoy live music in a visceral and cathartic way" - Consequence points out in an essay about the art of dancing in a punk show.

“It was like, ‘I can be comfortable and out and gay, or I can do country music, but I definitely can’t do both’” - one gay country artist told Rolling Stone about the dichotomy that now appears to be falling apart. There are several that have come out recently - Brooke Eden, T.J. Osborne, Lily Rose, Shelly Fairchild - without jeopardizing their careers.

"Most amps sound better at volumes loud enough to fray the edge of notes with the subtle distortion that is to electric guitars what makeup is to a drag queen of a certain age... We seem to love broken voices in general: vocal cords eroded by whiskey and screaming, the junked-out weakness of certain horn players, distortion which signifies surpassing the capabilities of a tube or a speaker—voices that distort, damage, but (at least in performance) don’t actually die" - guitarist Marc Ribot makes the case for loud music in the Literary Hub.

Consequence celebrates punk this week with "thoughtful interviews, essays, guides, big ass staff lists, and even super special merchandise". By now, they've taken into the genre with a list of 10 essential punk songs (from 1973 The Stooges to 20212 The Linda Lindas), as well as with a list of 10 best punk debut albums.

This weekend, a new Aretha Franklin biopic 'Respect', starring Jennifer Hudson, comes to theaters. To mark the occasion, Billboard selects 11 times the Queen of Soul made awards show history. In 2015, Franklin, then 73, made American President Barack Obama teary-eyed and honoree Carole King ecstatic when she performed her 1967 classic '(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman' (which King co-wrote) at the Kennedy Center Honors.

"The Grand Prix Freestyle event, where riders can choose their own music and moves rather than go through a pre-set test, is the blockbuster event of Olympic dressage" - NPR goes into equestrian events at the events, and the music it is being performed to. So, what is it that the horses like? "Norway's Carina Cassoe Kruth went for an 80s medley including 'I Want To Know What Love Is' by Foreigner and 'Footloose' by Kenny Loggins. The U.K.'s Carl Hester rode his horse, En Vogue, to groovy disco music that channeled the Bee Gees. Germany's Isabell Werth looked to the majesty of Beethoven's 'Ode To Joy' for her performance".

Rock N' Heavy goes into the lyrics of "them good boys" The Beatles, who were, well, not that good all the time. Even in their early songs, like 'Please Please Me' with a direct suggestion of oral sex:

"Last night I said these words to my girl
I know you never even try, girl
C’mon (C’mon), please please me oh yeah, like I please you".

Singer-songwriter Billie Marten picks the only album by guitar virtuoso and US cult hero Ted Lucas for The New Cue's An Album To Blow Your Mind segment: "I came across it as I was looking for something new and good over the third lockdown back in winter, and I was convinced it was a modern artist trying to sculpt the best sonics plucked from every great 70s recording. I did some research - after milking this record so much that I’ve now had to place a temporary ban on it - and it turns out he was one of the greats in assisting everyone under a session player guise of ‘exotic string specialist’, helping out on a lot of the great recordings coming out around that mid-70s time".

It's obvious, but still, Global News' Alan Cross manages to create one more drop of sadness with his nostalgic blog post about the extinction of paper-tickets: "Collecting concert ticket stubs will soon be extinct, much like the notion of B-sides, liner notes, and album artwork. Instead, our memories will be preserved as selfies taken at our seats or video recordings of the gig that we never watch. Yes, there are T-shirts, programs, and an endless supply of tchotchkes at the merch tables, but they all cost money. A ticket stub came with its own memories built into the cost".

Music Journalism Insider has given over this week's edition to film critic Aaron Gonsher, who suggested a few films about parties and partying. Among the chosen ones are 'The Hip-Hop Nucleus' - a documentary on the notorious mid-to-late ’90s hip-hop parties at the Tunnel, 'Crowd' - subtle capture of Giséle Vienne’s extraordinary dance performance, 'Talkin’ Headz - The Metalheadz Documentary' - a snapshot of the cultural moment/movement when jungle crested and drum & bass surged...

MTV as a music television exists no more, but music videos still complement songs, create mythologies, and cause chatter and controversy - Rolling Stone says introducing their selection of the 100 best music videos of all time. Starting with The Buggles' 'Video Killed the Radio Star' and finishing with Beyonce's 'Formation' "all of these picks are perfect examples of how pairing sound and vision created an entire artistic vocabulary, gave us a handful of miniature-movie masterpieces, and changed how we heard (and saw) music".

MTV celebrates its 40th birthday this weekend, with Billboard and Stereogum looking back with a selection of the 40 best videos played on the very first day on the network. There were 116 videos played in the first 24 hours, with Stereogum and Billboard agreeing Talking Heads' 'Once in a Lifetime' and Blondie's 'Rapture' being the best.

Inspired by the recent success of late Pop Smoke, whose both posthumous albums reached the top of the Billboard 200 chart, Guardian chose "the best records from those lost too soon". Their choice includes Prince's 'Originals' as it gives a "tantalising glimpse into a restless genius’s artistic process", Joy Division's 'Closer' as it "oozes claustrophobia, Curtis’s sepulchral lyricism augmented by Martin Hannett’s haunted production", Janis Joplin's 'Pearl' as it "captures both her startling vocal prowess and electric live energy", and other forever-living albums by the ones gone too soon.

"Tokyo has shaped the sound and image of songs all the time, and this Tokyo emerging in 1964 is the one that shapes ‘70s “new music,” that provides the glitzy excess of “city pop” and other ‘80s offerings (not to mention the fake memory of the capital latched on by people today), the continent-hopping cool of Shibuya-kei in the ‘90s and even the more glum post-Vocaloid hits of now" - Make Believe Mailer writes introducing part one in a series of texts about music from Japan and the Olympics.

Cultural critic Steven Hyden discusses the no-band-t-shirt-to-that-band-gig rule in his latest blog post. He first makes a distinction - it's quite ubiquitous on a metal show, but a no-no at an indie-rock show. His point: "When you go to show, nobody cares about what you are wearing. If there is one quality that all humans share, it’s that we’re all too wrapped up in ourselves to think about the shirts on the backs of strangers".

Music writer Ted Gioia read about the idea by a Norwegian company to build a doomsday vault to preserve the world’s most important music recordings, stored on an especially durable optical film. Gioia has a related business idea: "I suspect there’s demand for digital platforms that make a similar promise. The business I’m envisioning would use blockchain technology to ensure that a song could never be deleted from the Internet".

"It’s delightful that there are still questions Siri and Alexa can’t answer, and that people argue fervently about rock lyrics from more than 45 years ago" - LA Times writes in an article about the Internet argument over a Bruce Springsteen lyric. The song is 'Thunder Road', it begins 'Born to Run', the 1975 album that made Springsteen a star, and it's the opening lyrics - “The screen door slams, Mary’s dress waves”, or is it "sways"? The problem is, Springsteen isn't sure himself. In the original album gatefold design of 'Born to Run', the lyrics are printed “Mary’s dress waves”, but on page 220 of his best-selling 'Born to Run' memoir, Springsteen says “‘the screen door slams, Mary’s dress sways’ — that’s a good opening line”. Or maybe Boss just doesn't want the story to end, as he admits in his Broadway show: “I come from a boardwalk town where everything is tinged with just a bit of fraud. So am I. I’ve never seen the inside of a factory, and yet, it’s all I’ve ever written about… I made it all up”. Springsteen's longtime manager Jon Landau settled the matter in the New Yorker - “The word is ‘sways. That’s the way he wrote it in his original notebooks, that’s the way he sang it on 'Born to Run', in 1975, that’s the way he has always sung it at thousands of shows, and that’s the way he sings it right now on Broadway. Any typos in official Bruce material will be corrected”.

"This is the story of Frankie and Johnny, who shot her man only to have Hollywood do her wrong" - the Songs in the Key of Death podcast introduces its latest episode a girl named Frankie who killed her man Albert one night in St. Louis, back in 1899. The story got a few Hollywood remakes, including one completely inaccurate with Elvis Presley.

Centuries of Sound is making mixes for every year of recorded sound, and this time around it's the year 1937. The artist that marked the year was - Django Reinhardt, a self-taught, illiterate guitarist with only 8 fingers who would change the face of jazz, and music as well. That year also had Stephane Grappeli, Ella Fitzgerald, Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Robert Johnson and so many more.

Black Music and Black Muses writer affirms the beauty of whistling; a great essay on the pretty little skill: "What superfluous love and mischief lurks in a sudden whistle? What calling into being of what playfulness and what hysteria travels on the thin wavering line between gasp and gust we call whistling, a form of telling ourselves secrets in public, a polite diversion from the blankness of it all... Why not let lips pressed together lightly and spiraling the air into witness be friendly? What malice is there in absent-minded desire? Why not objectify one another on a whim and improvise high-pitched windows into the atmosphere to say hello. Why do we feel entitled to the hyper-reverent silence of monasteries as we pass the living on sidewalks, in cities, full of synaptic impossibilities that only noise can heal or render as ease instead of shame?".