Towards the end of his life, Tony Wilson, the founder of Factory Records, was rarely happier than when peering over the top of his designer glasses to lecture anyone who’d listen about his ‘13-year-cycle theory’ — his belief that there will be a youth revolution every 13 years. So there [...]
Received opinion. It just keeps going round and round and round. Sometimes, instead of listening to the din, it’s worth pausing, taking a peek at the facts and working it out for yourself. If we don’t hang on to independent thinking, we’ll lose access to the truth in the splurge [...]
Classical music has its fair share of sounds weird, wacky and wonderful. But perhaps its most unlikely craze is the unstoppable rise of the star counter-tenor: a man singing in the register of a woman. Whatever is the appeal of such an unnatural-sounding voice? I have a theory. Perhaps the [...]