Pop
Here you'll find album stories, birthdays, and anniversaries from pop artists across the decades, along with news of vinyl reissues as titles return to print. Pop built much of its early history on the 7-inch single, the format that carried hit songs into homes and jukeboxes long before albums became the main event, and that legacy still shows up in picture sleeves, colored pressings, and singles boxes collectors look for today. The stories here follow how specific songs and albums came together, the writers and producers behind them, and why a particular reissue or pressing still catches a collector's eye.
379 STORIES
How Did Miki Matsubara's Debut Single Conquer the World?
Miki Matsubara's 1979 debut single 'Mayonaka no Door〜Stay With Me' has passed 500 million Spotify plays. It is the first 20th-century Japanese song to reach that mark.
· 4 min read
Why Did Alicia Keys Call Her Album Here?
Alicia Keys wrote roughly thirty songs in ten days at a New York studio called The Oven. That burst became Here, her sixth album, released on RCA Records on November 4, 2016.
· 3 min read
My Bloody Valentine's Loveless at 35
My Bloody Valentine's Loveless took two and a half years and nineteen studios to finish. It arrived on November 4, 1991, and was greeted as a landmark of shoegaze.
· 4 min read
How Aphex Twin Made Richard D. James Album
Aphex Twin's Richard D. James Album arrived on November 4, 1996, built from a car-boot violin, a single Macintosh and breakbeats pushed to new speeds.
· 4 min read
Robbie Williams' The Heavy Entertainment Show at 10
Robbie Williams released The Heavy Entertainment Show on November 4, 2016. It was his eleventh studio album, arriving after he signed with Sony Music five months earlier.
· 3 min read
How Shania Twain's Come On Over Broke Every Rule
Shania Twain's Come On Over, released on Mercury Records in November 1997, was written entirely with producer Mutt Lang. It became the best-selling studio album by a woman in history.
· 3 min read
How Barbra Streisand Fought for The Broadway Album
Barbra Streisand released The Broadway Album on Columbia Records on November 4, 1985, after her label told her show tunes were not pop music.
· 4 min read
Why Did Sam Smith Make The Thrill of It All So Personal?
Sam Smith followed a 12-million-selling debut with The Thrill of It All, released on Capitol Records on November 3, 2017. The album was built as a personal record rather than a pop sequel.
· 4 min read
Maroon 5: How Red Pill Blues Remade the Band
Maroon 5 released Red Pill Blues on November 3, 2017, as a seven-piece for the first and last time. The guest-heavy tracklist later produced the band's longest-running hit.
· 4 min read
Why Did ABBA Call Their Album Super Trouper?
ABBA's seventh album Super Trouper arrived on Polar Music on November 3, 1980. Its title came from a stage spotlight after a planned London shoot fell through.
· 4 min read
Why Did Mariah Carey's Rainbow Turn Into a Label War?
Mariah Carey released Rainbow on Columbia Records on October 27, 1999, after publicly fighting the label over which song should be its third single.
· 4 min read
Why Did George Harrison Open His 1974 Tour With an Instrumental?
George Harrison opened his 1974 North American tour with the instrumental "Hari's on Tour (Express)" as laryngitis left his voice badly damaged.
· 4 min read
How Did Aya Nakamura's Second Album Change French Pop?
Aya Nakamura's second album, Nakamura, arrived on November 2, 2018, via Rec. 118 and Warner Music France and turned the French-Malian singer into one of French music's most visible voices.
· 3 min read
Why Did Barbra Streisand Make Her Strangest Album?
Barbra Streisand released her fourteenth studio album on November 2, 1973. CBS steered her away from classical collaborators toward world music and kitchen utensils.
· 3 min read
How Rosalía Nearly Went Broke Making El Mal Querer
Rosalía built El Mal Querer largely in a Barcelona apartment and nearly ran out of money doing it. The album, released on Columbia Records in November 2018, went on to win six Latin Grammys.
· 4 min read
Olivia Newton-John's If Not for You at 55
Olivia Newton-John's debut album If Not for You, released on Festival Records in November 1971, was a collection of covers. It set the template for the career that followed.
· 4 min read
How Justin Bieber Bet His Second Album on Christmas
Justin Bieber released his first holiday album, Under the Mistletoe, on November 1, 2011, and it debuted at number one on the Billboard 200.
· 3 min read
How Madness Rebuilt Wonderful After Eleven Years of Silence
Madness released Wonderful on November 1, 1999, their first studio album in eleven years. It was also the first with the classic seven-piece lineup since Keep Moving in 1984.
· 3 min read
How Spice Girls' Spiceworld Became Their Riskiest Victory
Spiceworld arrived on Virgin Records on November 1, 1997, nine months after the American release of Spice, and sold 190,000 copies in its first UK week.
· 4 min read
What Made This Charming Man by The Smiths a Classic?
The Smiths released 'This Charming Man' on Rough Trade on October 31, 1983, weeks after Johnny Marr wrote it in a BBC session for John Peel's radio show.
· 4 min read
Britney Spears' Britney at 25
Britney Spears released her third album, Britney, on October 31, 2001. The Neptunes production and six co-written tracks marked her break from teen pop.
· 3 min read
Nelly Furtado's 'Say It Right' at 20
Nelly Furtado released 'Say It Right' on October 31, 2006, a late-night Miami studio experiment with Timbaland and Danja that became a worldwide hit.
· 4 min read
How Michael Jackson's Invincible Got Buried by Its Own Label
Michael Jackson released Invincible on October 30, 2001, after four years and nearly 30 million dollars. Sony effectively abandoned the album within months of its release.
· 5 min read
How Ariana Grande Turned Healing Into Chart History
The opening track of Positions arrived draped in pizzicato strings and orchestral passages, while the lead single had already crashed onto the top of the Billbo…
· 4 min read