Everything We Do Is Music by Elizabeth Alker review – how the classics shaped pop

From Stravinsky to Donna Summer, the story of connections that enriched music – in both directions

‘The pope complained about the lyrics!’: the Bluebells and Siobhan Fahey on how they made Young at Heart

‘I had moved down from Glasgow and was sharing a council flat with the girls from Bananarama. We wrote the song after watching the Frank Sinatra film’

Krankenhaus review – Lake District castle has the antithesis to boring corporate music festivals

Featuring steam train trips and guided walks between the bands, organisers Sea Power have made something special in this dung-scented corner of the north

Reading and Leeds festival review – Chappell Roan slays and Bring Me the Horizon power the circle pits

Thousands of post-GCSE teens join acts from pop-poet Antony Szmierek to rap megastar Travis Scott, before Hozier blazes and Wunderhorse go off like a rocket

The Last Dinner Party and Vampire Weekend condemn festival after Mary Wallopers’ set pulled over Palestine flag

Victorious festival organisers apologised for cutting off the Irish band after they led chants to ‘free Palestine’, and said they would donate to humanitarian relief efforts

Angst-filled black metal music became my identity. Until I was persuaded to really listen to the lyrics

My teenage self loved the misanthropic look and sound of these bands, but I was horrified when I learned what they represented, says novelist Ana Schnabl

Colorful Stage! The Movie: A Miku Who Can’t Sing review – candy-haired popsters put on a show

A garbled story of metaverse musicians based on a mobile game leaves its audience little to grasp hold of

The emblem of modern Ireland? Not fiddles and Guinness but a soulless shopping plaza

The singer CMAT dances around a retail centre in a video for her new album. It is the elegy those of us who grew up in the post-Celtic tiger recession have been craving, says Irish writer Emer McHugh

Sam Ryder looks back: ‘I thought I should put a smile on my face, no matter how I felt’

The singer-songwriter on growing up as an outsider, the arrogance of youth and his Eurovision odyssey

‘I was a bit scared of success’: jazz-pop star Laufey on filling arenas, mansplainers, and confronting the haters

With her retro blend of jazz-pop, the Icelandic artist seems an unlikely superstar. She discusses her surprising path to fame – and how much of her personal life she is willing to put into her music

David Byrne, Little Simz, Jasmine.4.t and more: the best music of autumn 2025

From CMAT’s provocative pop to Taylor Swift’s 12th album, plus tours from Kneecap, Lady Gaga and Stereolab, here’s the pop not to miss – while in classical, Mark-Anthony Turnage adapts The Railway Children

Emma Louise on her late-in-life autism diagnosis: ‘I wish I knew earlier, because I’ve suffered so much’

The singer’s diagnoses with autism and ADHD have fueled a collaborative album with Flume titled Dumb – a word that ‘captures everything that I’ve had to overcome’

Nourished By Time: The Passionate Ones review – committed, full-hearted post-R&B

Marcus Brown’s second album makes a plea for big feelings in earthy vocals, rolling breakbeats and a contender for song of the summer

Do you remember the first time? Why Britpop nostalgia just won’t go away

Robbie Williams has named his new album after it, there’s a new play about the Oasis and Blur rivalry, an avalanche of books, fashion lines … and even a Britpop lager

‘Israel and Iran’s governments aren’t good. Neither is ours’: Lowen, the metal band confronting a troubled Middle East

Fronted by the daughter of Iranian refugees, the UK trio are sampling the sound of Israeli bombs and championing women’s rights as they confront a troubled region