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Music

Oxford’s first Hip-Hop Society breaks it down

As Oxford's newest musical society explores ways to facilitate a much-needed space for hip-hop music, only one question springs to mind; where have they been all this time?

The sounds of student protest

Their monopoly on the sonic space means that they are in charge of disseminating information to the public. In other words, they were not walled off. 

Ticketmaster hurts student concert culture

Competitive, difficult, and opaque. All words associated with the Oxbridge admissions process. More recently, however, they have been used by disappointed Oasis and Coldplay fans in relation to Ticketmaster.

2024 was for the girls: The rapid success of female artists

The last nine months of pop can perhaps be summed up in one word:...

Album Review: Hayley Williams’ ‘Petals for Armor’

In ‘Misery Business’, Paramore’s 2007 breakthrough hit, Hayley Williams claimed that “second chances, they don’t ever matter / people never change”. She’s been proving...

A Love Letter to Eurovision

I first discovered Eurovision in 2015. Idly flicking through the TV channels one fateful night, I stumbled onto the largest, glitteriest, and most confusing music competition on...

Review: Laura Marling’s ‘Song For Our Daughter’

Laura Marling’s seventh album, Song For Our Daughter, was scheduled for release later this year. But, like many other artists and entertainers, the likes of Dua Lipa...

Modern Classical: Locked Down, Looking Back

Ludovico Einaudi is in lockdown. With time to think - to take a walk in the fresh Mediterranean breeze - perhaps the Italian pianist could...

Review: Fiona Apple’s ‘Fetch The Bolt Cutters’

“All my particles disband and disperse/And I’ll be back in the pulse.” Music, to Fiona Apple, seems like a Schrodinger’s Cat kind of paradox; it relies...

Review: Jerskin Fendrix’s ‘Winterreise’

Weird things are happening in the world of pop music. Charli XCX and Carly Rae Jepsen have bounced back from ‘Boom Clap’ and ‘Call Me Maybe’...

Album Review: Rina Sawayama’s ‘SAWAYAMA’

Sofia Henderson celebrates a dynamic but thoughtful debut

A City Without Music?

Mila Ottevanger explores Oxford's place in music history...

Study music: ambience over annoyance

Jazz, techno, or lo-fi hip-hop beats, Emmaleigh Eaves asks what music best gets you into a productive zone and why...

Mad Dogs and Englishmen: 50 years on

In the spring of 1970, 50 years ago, a collection of musicians underwent the Mad Dogs and Englishmen tour, which came to be immortalised in a...

Say So, TikTok, and the ‘Viral Sleeper Hit’

William McCathie examines TikTok's hit-making capabilities

Music History: Django Reinhardt

George Newton reflects on the life of the jazz guitarist who defined an era.

Better to burn out or fade away? The crafting of musical legacy

Annabelle Grigg questions our valuing of self-destructive behaviour in the music industry.

Album Review: Dua Lipa’s ‘Future Nostalgia’

Emily Cope defends Dua Lipa's position as 'Britain's leading popstar'.

Album Review: Ruthie Collins’ ‘Cold Comfort’

Maxim Mower finds much to praise in a maturely sombre new country music star

Live Review: Jon Hopkins at the Brighton Dome

Jon Hopkins is not so much a polarising figure as one whose music can appeal to people for precisely opposite reasons. As beloved to...

Review: Four Tet’s ‘Sixteen Oceans’

Fred Waine praises Kieran Hebden's latest offering for its evocation of natural themes

Music: In Isolation but not Isolated

Anna Gunstone reflects on how listening to music can remain a communal experience even in isolation.

Dramatics in Isolation: The Nightly Met Opera Streams Reviewed

On the 13th of March, the Met Opera’s Twitter announced that they would begin a series of ‘nightly live streams’ of beloved operas for anyone with...

Electronic Music: the Sound and the Sceptics

A look back over the history of - and our attitudes towards - electronic music today.

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