TAPE

The history of a major music artist in the time it takes to play one of their songs

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Rewinding the History of Music

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At a time when the climate emergency is being felt everywhere, we need to be all hands on deck to solve it. And that includes rock stars. Even Deep Purple might need to get a little green...

Deep Purple

United States, Gabon, Bahamas... Serge Gainsbourg wasn't just an artist, he was also a traveller. The wanderings of this icon led him to Jamaica, the Mecca of musical renewal.

Tape

United States, Gabon, Bahamas... Serge Gainsbourg wasn't just an artist, he was also a traveller

Serge Gainsbourg

Austere face, dark looks, tormented psyche: at first glance, Nick Cave is a gothic hero. But the king of indie music and the world of darkness have more of a love/hate relationship.

Nick Cave

The number one rule of being a gangster? You never, ever rat out your friends. And yet that's exactly what Tekashi 69 did when he betrayed the Nine Tray Bloods. The entire world of hip hop turned its back on him, and he even got death threats.

The number one rule of being a gangster? You never, ever rat out your friends...

Tekashi 69

Satanist texts and bloody imagery are standard fare for Iron Maiden. But at the beginning of the 90s, the US government decided to use them in a road safety campaign. Road deaths fell significantly in the space of a year.

Iron Maiden

Wanting to smell like a slut doused in blood and sperm, and having a polite meeting the Dalai Lama may sound like contradictions. But they're just different sides of the same coin when it comes to Lady Gaga. She speaks out on behalf of the voiceless, insists on expressing herself and her strangeness. 

 Lady Gaga speaks out on behalf of the voiceless, and insists on expressing herself and her strangeness

Lady Gaga

Bono is on a mission to make the world a better place, from charity fundraisers, meetings with the Pope and humanitarian trips... Bono is rock's Mother Teresa. But can celebrities save the world?

In 1998, Johnny Cash received the Grammy Award for best album of the year. But that only came after a decade of being shunned by the industry and his peers in Nashville. 

Johnny Cash won a Grammy but only after a decade of being given the cold shoulder

Johnny Cash

1974: ABBA’s victory at the Eurovision Song Contest was a taste of things to come. But a year later, when it was up to Sweden to host the Eurovision, the counterculture mobilised big time. On Channel 1 was the Eurovision and on Channel 2, a rival, parody version of the competition designed to mock ABBA and mainstream music as hopelessly capitalist and try hard.

ABBA

When it was up to Sweden to host the Eurovision, the counterculture mobilised big time in a bid to take down ABBA

In the track Godzilla, Eminem hits a record-breaking 7.46 words per second: listening to him is like being hit with a wall of words. But breaking and making records is just a part of Eminem's MO.

Breaking and making records is just a part of Eminem's MO

Eminem

At a party organized by GQ magazine, Noel Gallagher admitted it: the Oasis secret sauce for success is good old-fashioned plagiarism. How did the greatest rock band of all time manage to copy all the other greatest rock bands of all time - and get away with it?

At a party organized by GQ magazine, Noel Gallagher admitted it: the Oasis secret sauce for success is good old-fashioned plagiarism

Oasis

When Cardi B won the Grammy Award for Best Rap Album of the Year 2019, haters around the world piled on to her; saying she didn't deserve it and that she was a bimbo. The backslash was so bad that Cardi B temporarily left the platform. 

When Cardi B won the Grammy Award for Best Rap Album of the Year 2019, haters around the world piled on to her

Cardi B

On December 25, 2006, the whole of America went into mourning: James Brown was dead. His funeral was of an opulence that matched his luxe, zany life, with a solid gold coffin and a stadium full of mourners.

James Brown's funeral was of an opulence that matched his luxe, zany life

James Brown

The French hip hop group IAM hails from Marseille, a town full of disaffected young people who feel like they've been let down by the state. IAM denounces state failures and abuses of power in their music, but also pushes back against the cliché of the ignorant rapper. The group's music and performances reference ancient Egypt, medieval Japan, Khufu and the Bête du Gévaudan. 

IAM pushes back against the cliché of ignorant rappers

Thanks to her 1994 smash hit 'All I Want for Christmas is You', Mariah Carey is almost as Christmassy as Santa himself. The diva has managed to not only storm the charts but turn Christmas into her very own money-making machine.

Thanks to her 1994 smash hit 'All I Want for Christmas is You', Mariah Carey is almost as Christmassy as Santa himself

Mariah Carey

Britney Spears is like kryptonite to Somali pirates: so much so that the British navy have taken to using her tunes as a weapon of war. One blast of Britney and the pirates are out of there.

How Britney songs are fighting piracy in Somalia

Britney Spears

Kanye West started off as a megalomaniac hip-hop star who transformed himself into a modern-day messiah. But is his preaching just another type of celebrity? After all, it is lucrative...

Kanye West started off as a megalomaniac hip-hop star who transformed himself into a modern-day messiah

Kanye West

By 1988 the Beach Boys were no longer the fresh-faced success story of their youth. In desperation they wrote a song for the Tom Cruise movie, Cocktail which turned out to be the worst film of the eighties.

Beach Boys

Provocative, creative, and with an unhealthy interest in vomit, Tyler, the Creator breaks the mould of US rap. But did he really eat that cockroach? TAPE tells all.

Provocative, an unhealthy interest in vomit, Tyler, the Creator breaks the mould of US rap. But did he really eat that cockroach? TAPE tells all.

Tyler, the Creator

Elton John may have been knighted, but his rock ‘n’ roll past is less than noble. Three minutes to round up Elton’s Captain Fantastic past.