Essays, investigation and opinion on today’s cultural landscape
The Daily Mail today printed an article by Mike Stock complaining about the sexualisation of children through pop music. But, points out Luke Turner, the tabloid's printing of semi-naked photos of a 17-year-old singer and Stock's on dubious past makes them flagrant hypocrites
Music lover and bestselling author Ian Rankin seems to be just one of many Radiohead fans who have yet to receive their deluxe edition of King Of Limbs. Here he explains why a Kafkaesque palava has left him disillusioned with the band.
While the industry continues to blame illegal downloading for its financial woes, it’s musicians who are paying the price while being forced to work harder than ever. But label inertia means culture itself is at stake, and even democracy could suffer, argues Wyndham Wallace
Emily Bick looks at the similarities between Lady Gaga's 'Judas' shtick, subversive Swedish pop group Army Of Lovers and the affiliated Alexander Bard's Netocracy to argue that the star's glamourous facade is a "prophylactic barrier to two-way engagement"
Cripes & Jivens! on Saturday, Luke Turner wound up in the audience at a Glee musical. This was no West End schmaltzathon, mind, but the fruit of an invaluable community project of the kind currently facing the axe due to government cuts
Heavenly Recordings is currently the Quietus' go-to label for smart, cosmic indie pop. Laurie Tuffrey jumps on a coach to Paris with label Pied Piper Jeff Barrett and his charges Toy, Stealing Sheep, Charlie Boyer & The Voyeurs and Temples. Photographs courtesy of Neil Thomson