After it blazed through England and New York in the 1970s, the first wave of punk rock left a whole lot of darkness in its wake. As the decade rolled to a close, young musicians struck by punk’s ferocity and lawlessness picked up its ashes, lit a few candles, and invited the world to a séance. Their songs were marked by echoes, distortion, minimal guitar lines, and an arch taste for the macabre; their electroshocked hair, smears of black eyeliner, and dark clothes only reinfo

While some artists view their careers with a sort of “If you build it, they will come” mentality, pop singer-songwriter Shelita Burke definitely doesn’t. As a data scientist and cryptologist, she has a very deliberate, almost scientific approach to reaching fans. And she likens releasing and promoting her music to running a small business. When she was younger, Burke said she saw the opportunity that the Internet could eventually provide to independent artists. “ At an early

The first chord of your favorite song trickles out of the radio, and suddenly your neck is covered in goosebumps. It’s a phenomenon that one group of scientists calls a “skin orgasm.” But the French call it frisson: chills caused not by a drop in temperature or sudden scare, but by aesthetics. Frisson can come from a song, a painting, a tear-jerking movie scene, or even a beloved memory—pretty much anything that causes the release of pleasure-soaked dopamine in your brain. Bu

Reverb is vital. It’s such a useful audio effect because it’s incredibly flexible. Why do those vocals sound so heavenly? How is that guitar tone so dreamy? Why do I feel like I’m being transported to an actual space where these instruments exist?? It’s because of reverb. This audio effect is as much a technical tool, as it as a creative one. Reverb creates emotion, a vintage feel, space, depth and even punch (check out no. 7)! It’s used to craft both natural sounding spaces

“There are no rules for success,” says Bibi McGill, leader of Beyonce’s band, Suga Mama. But these 16 principles just might change your musical career. This is the person that Beyonce trusts to manage, direct, and coordinate her backing band on tour. The band is called Suga Mama, and it’s part of a massive roadshow that plays the biggest arenas in front of tens of thousands of people every night. But that’s just one gig for Bibi McGill. And it all started with a phone call

Back in the days of physical sales, the actual number of albums sold was as big deal as they are today with streams and views. The problem was that you could never get an exact count of how many were really sold, so there were always a lot of numbers thrown around that sounded good on paper, but most likely had no basis in the real world (Michael Jackson’s 120 million sales of Thriller comes to mind here). In the United States, the RIAA is the most reliable source since it ce

Jay Z performs onstage during the 2017 Budweiser Made in America festival - Day 2 at Benjamin Franklin Parkway on Sept. 3, 2017 in Philadelphia. Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for Anheuser-Busch Virtual reality startup MelodyVR keeps piling up the licensing agreements, this time with Jay-Z's Roc Nation. Under the terms of the worldwide deal, announced on Thursday, MelodyVR will create and distribute virtual content in partnership with Roc Nation artists for its in-the-works app. Th