Dave Mason, co-founder of Traffic who had a star-studded solo career, dies aged 79

British singer and guitarist wrote and performed Traffic classics including Feelin’ Alright? before platinum-selling solo albums and work with Jimi Hendrix, Fleetwood Mac and more

Alan Osmond, eldest of the Osmonds family band, dies at 76

Alongside siblings Donny and Marie, the musician was a 1970s teen idol with family hits such as Crazy Horses

The Clean – 10 of the best

The Dunedin band had an indelible influence on acts such as Pavement and Guided by Voices. A new oral history by Richard Langston is out now

Banned from the radio after Princess Diana died: how Levellers made What a Beautiful Day

‘Its release seemed timely as the Tories had just left office. But then Diana died and all cheerful songs were taken straight off the radio. Boom! It disappeared’

Lesbians are reclaiming Madonna as we await her new album, Confessions on a Dance Floor: Part II

The singer is not only a hero for gay men. For a young lesbian like me in the 1990s, she was an object of desire and an inspiration, says Tiff Bakker, a New York-based writer

Madonna: I Feel So Free review – album teaser offers hypnotic glimpse of a return to her club scene roots

The ‘Queen of Pop’ conjures the heady vibes of a small hours dancefloor with this exceptionally crafted single

Can a new biopic change your mind about Michael Jackson?

In life, the singer’s image was shaken by abuse allegations. In death, he is a billion-dollar business

Add to playlist: the sweaty, unvarnished electropop of Punchbag and the week’s best new tracks

The sibling duo’s follow-up EP spikes their off-kilter pop with new darkness, adding atmospheric balladry to their glorious racket

Olivia Rodrigo: Drop Dead review – a maximalist rush of infatuation that’s just a bauble short of festive

On this giddy first taste of the US pop star’s third album, she sets aside her rock bona fides to revel in the opulent flush of a crush-come-true. But why does it seem so doomed?

‘He’d gaze at the stars and go: I’m gonna be up there one day’: Prince by those who knew him best, 10 years after his death

From lurid pranks and late-night drives, to why playing in the Revolution was like joining the marines – Prince’s friends and collaborators recount their memories of one of the music world’s most majestic and mercurial performers

Asha Bhosle obituary

One of the great Bollywood singers whose thousands of songs ranged from ghazals to dance tunes and pop

Jessie Ware: Superbloom review – Table Manners host dishes up more disco – but where are the bangers?

The podcaster’s third sequin-festooned album in a row is her most retro, with its slightly cringe moments balanced by unerring quality control and opulent arrangements

Massive Attack: Boots on the Ground (ft Tom Waits) review – first single in a decade is a dark hymn for our times

Unsettling breathing, arrhythmic clatter, gloomy piano and military snares underpin a Beefheartian portrayal of a boorish warmonger on the band’s ominous return

‘A feeling of ecstasy’: how Anne Hathaway and FKA twigs created the thunderous Mother Mary soundtrack

The stars of David Lowery’s psychodrama on the secrets behind creating music for a fictional pop diva

90s rock icon Bob Mould: ‘When Cobain died, I pulled the plug – there was nothing worth saving’

Mould’s fearsomely loud power trio Sugar rode the wave of grunge, but called it quits when the scene lost its innocence. Now the band are reuniting – before it’s too late