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Music

<p>Red lights indicate recording in process: Arctic Monkeys in 2006</p>

in focus

The story behind Arctic Monkeys’ earth-quaking debut album

Twenty years since the Sheffield band released ‘Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not’, it remains the bedrock of contemporary British guitar music. Mark Beaumont speaks to producers Alan Smyth and Jim Abbiss about the making of a cultural H-bomb

<p>Harry Styles is full of curiosity on his new single, 'Aperture'</p>

Review

Not trying so hard pays off on Harry Styles’s giddy new single

<p>Louis Tomlinson is releasing his new album, 'How Did I Get Here?'</p>

Louis Tomlinson’s How Did I Get Here? is his most confident album yet

<p>Absolutely: ‘I’m a boss when I’m in the studio’</p>

new sensations

The next big star in UK pop? Absolutely

Interviews

<p>‘Emotionally intense’: Jenny Hollingworth, aka Jenny on Holiday, releases her new solo record ‘Quicksand Heart’</p>

Interview

Let’s Eat Grandma’s Jenny Hollingworth on her shimmering new album

<p>Mika is preparing to release his first English-language album in six years</p>

The Saturday Interview

Mika: ‘Scrutiny over my sexuality was kind of brutal’

<p>Songwriter Chloe Angelides and Lily Allen in the studio working on West End Girl</p>

In Focus

Meet the songwriter who helped Lily Allen make her most personal work

<p>Music and moral agency are inseparable for Aurora</p>

Interview

Aurora: ‘We’re more scared of activists than the world dying or war’

Roisin O’Connor’s Good Vibrations podcast

Jill Scott appeared as a guest on 'Roisin O'Connor's Good Vibrations' podcast

Jill Scott: ‘I love seeing a confident woman, in any shape or size’

Good Vibrations with KT Tunstall

KT Tunstall reflects on the ‘unwelcome side’ of her early fame

Ella Eyre is a guest on Roisin O'Connor's Good Vibrations podcast

Ella Eyre: ‘I’ve had to unlearn what I was shown early in my career’

Bon Jovi

Jon Bon Jovi: ‘There have been days where I thought I was done’

Latest features

<p>L-R clockwise from top: Ledbyher, EsDeeKid, Girl Tones, Absolutely and The Guest List</p>

2026 culture guide

Riot grrrls, rap and Irish folk: the new music that will dominate 2026

<p>Geese, the Brooklyn-based band behind this year’s ‘Getting Killed’</p>

Comment

2026 is set to be the Year of Geese

<p>Bowie endured a number of critical and commercial failures in the Nineties</p>

In Focus

A new Bowie documentary reassesses one of his most maligned periods

<p>Top of the pops: (L-R clockwise from bottom left) Brandi Carlile, Perfume Genius, Turnstile, JADE and PinkPantheress</p>

The Saturday Interview

JADE, Brandi Carlile and McKinley Dixon on their cultural highlights

Best of 2025

The Independent culture team’s favourite songs of 2025

<p>Kirsty MacColl and Shane MacGowan in a promotional image for ‘Fairytale of New York’</p>

First Person

Producer Steve Lillywhite: ‘Fairytale of New York is like a fine wine’

<p>Top of the pops: (L-R clockwise from bottom left) Brandi Carlile, Perfume Genius, Turnstile, JADE and PinkPantheress</p>

The Saturday Interview

JADE, Brandi Carlile and McKinley Dixon on their cultural highlights

Best of 2025

The Independent culture team’s favourite songs of 2025

<p>Kirsty MacColl and Shane MacGowan in a promotional image for ‘Fairytale of New York’</p>

First Person

Producer Steve Lillywhite: ‘Fairytale of New York is like a fine wine’

New Sensations

<p>Irish rock band Cardinals</p>

New Sensations

Irish newcomers Cardinals on faith and the scars of British violence

<p>Stephen Wilson Jr: ‘I spent four years making this record about my deceased father, and I went through hell doing it, so it’s really profound for me to see the effect it’s had on people’</p>

Interview

Country music newcomer Stephen Wilson Jr on grief, loss and redemption

<p>‘Everybody has a very similar social media personality and when I joined social media for the first time it was very obvious to me,’ remarks Sofia Isella</p>

Interview

Singer-songwriter Sofia Isella: ‘I got called demonic the other day’

<p>Star power: ‘Justin Bieber called me the other day to tell me that he is so grateful to know me, like saying, ‘I’m so proud of you’</p>

Interview

Jensen McRae: ‘Justin Bieber is like a big brother to me’

Music Box

<p></p>

Samantha Crain is mesmerising in Music Box performance of ‘Gumshoe’

Watch Sam Ryder’s brilliant pared-back performance of single ‘OH OK’

<p>Annie DiRusso performs during a Music Box session</p>

Watch rising star Annie DiRusso’s electrifying pared-back session

Reviews

<p>Louis Tomlinson is releasing his new album, 'How Did I Get Here?'</p>

Louis Tomlinson’s How Did I Get Here? is his most confident album yet

Boyband graduate throws empathetic heart into songs about love, identity and loss

<p>Madison Beer</p>

Madison Beer offers some real depth beneath the pop sheen of Locket

The US pop singer navigates the trauma of early fame and the pain of a recent breakup on this sultry, bold third album

Live music

<p>Lorde has always zig-zagged between self-reflective, seen-it-all gloom and a primal, perma-adolescent urge to freak out and dance</p>

Lorde’s O2 gig had energy, cringe and teens pining for Melodrama cuts

<p>Thom Yorke performs during the first night of Radiohead’s 2025 tour in Madrid, Spain, Tuesday 4 November</p>

In Madrid, Radiohead deliver a transcendent return to live shows

<p>Ethel Cain performing at London’s Eventim Apollo</p>

Ethel Cain at London’s Apollo was an evening of doom-laden anti-pop

<p>Lady Gaga performs during her Mayhem Ball tour at the O2 Arena in London</p>

Lady Gaga’s Mayhem Ball is the concert of the year

<p>Liam and Noel Gallagher hug during a Wembley Stadium show for the Oasis reunion tour</p>

Oasis summon a euphoric and almost sad last hurrah at Wembley Stadium

<p>Get Your Brits Out: Kneecap are a cause as much as they are a wild night out</p>

Kneecap triple down on Starmer and Palestine at pounding Wembley show

Retrospectives

<p>Bruce Springsteen photographed for the release of his album 'Nebraska' in 1982</p>

Tragic history behind dark Springsteen album that inspired new biopic

<p>Bob Dylan followed reports on the case of Hattie Carroll, who died after being attacked by farm owner William Zantzinger</p>

The story behind Bob Dylan’s ‘The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll’

<p>Back-to-back: Bruce Springsteen insisted that his longtime bandmate and friend, Clarence Clemons, be included in the shot</p>

Bruce Springsteen’s Born to Run cover could’ve looked very different

<p>Mirror image: Grapefruit were another Fab Four on the Sixties scene</p>

The strange story behind one of John Lennon’s favourite bands

News