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
Queen's Bicycle Race: What 65 Nude Models on a Greyhound Track Meant
Sixty-five professional models, completely naked, pedaling rented bicycles around a greyhound racing track. That was the scene at Wimbledon Greyhound Stadium in…
· 4 min read
Joanne Catherall: How a Sheffield Teen Defined Human League
Joanne Catherall, born in Sheffield in 1970, joined The Human League in 1980 and helped reshape British electronic pop with her voice and image.
· 4 min read
Ricky Bell: Why the New Edition Voice Still Resonates
Ricky Bell, born September 18, 1967, built his career on New Edition harmonies and Bell Biv DeVoe's harder edge, a door that never fully closed.
· 3 min read
Alan Jay of Lit: What 1973 Set in Motion
Alan Jay of Lit was born in 1973, the year Gram Parsons died and the course of popular music shifted in ways that shaped his generation.
· 4 min read
Frankie Avalon: Why a Trumpet Player Became a Teen Idol
Frankie Avalon, born September 18, 1939, traded the trumpet for singing and became a teen idol whose 1959 hit 'Venus' defined pre-Beatles American radio.
· 5 min read
DROP · October 23, 2026Back to Black at 20: a 3LP deluxe on ultra clear vinyl, out 23 October
Republic and UMe mark twenty years of Back to Black with a three-LP deluxe edition on ultra clear vinyl, out 23 October. LP1 is the remastered album. LP2 colle…
· 1 min read
The Fairlight in a Barn That Made Kate Bush Immortal
Kate Bush's Hounds of Love, recorded in a converted barn in Welling with a Fairlight CMI, remains her defining work forty-one years after its release.
· 4 min read
Why Did Jesse McCartney's Second Album Stall at 33?
The single peaked at number thirty-three on the Billboard Hot 100, and the album it came from still turned twenty in 2026. That gap between a chart placement th…
· 5 min read
The Kinks: The Album That Flopped Twice Over
Two top-three singles preceded The Kinks' Something Else. Yet the album landed as the band's lowest-charting release of its era, a disconnect that still puzzles critics.
· 3 min read
How Maroon 5 Turned a Phone Call Into Hands All Over
Robert John «Mutt» Lange called Maroon 5 himself to produce their third album, Hands All Over, released September 15, 2010 through A&M Octone Records.
· 4 min read
Why Did Carly Rae Jepsen Call This Album Kiss?
Carly Rae Jepsen's Kiss, released on September 14, 2012, debuted in the Billboard 200 top ten. Critics debated whether its lyrics were too juvenile for a 26-year-old.
· 4 min read
How Abacab Made Genesis Sound Like a New Band
In September 1981, Genesis released Abacab, an album that replaced progressive epics with grooves and made the band sound entirely new.
· 3 min read
Morten Harket: Why A-ha's Voice Was Never Measured
Morten Harket, the voice behind A-ha, never measured his five-octave range, yet a 20.2-second note he held became a British chart record.
· 4 min read
Amy Winehouse: How a North London Jazz Kid Redefined Soul
Amy Winehouse, born in London on 14 September 1983, learned phrasing from her father's Sinatra records. She redefined soul with Back to Black, winning five Grammys in one night.
· 4 min read
Why Did Arcade Fire Name Their Debut Album Funeral?
Twenty-two years after its release, Arcade Fire's Funeral remains a breakthrough. The debut album turned private grief into a shared language.
· 3 min read
Randy Jones: How the Village People Cowboy Was Born
A sailor, a construction worker, a biker, a cop, a Native American chief, and a cowboy walk into a recording studio. That is not a setup for a joke; it is the f…
· 4 min read
Charli XCX Built Her Third Album From a Stolen Hard Drive
Charli XCX rebuilt her third album after hackers leaked its demos in 2017, producing the 2019 record Charli with producer A. G. Cook.
· 4 min read
ADONXS: The Voice That Dropped to Bass-Profondo
Adam Pavlovčin, the Slovak artist who performs as ADONXS, lost his tenor register during puberty and became a bass-profondo. He rebuilt his career, culminating in Eurovision and national awards.
· 3 min read
José Feliciano: A Tin of Crackers and a National Anthem
José Feliciano, born blind in rural Puerto Rico and now turning 81, recorded both a global Christmas ritual and a national anthem that sparked a backlash. He never saw the reactions either provoked.
· 4 min read
Bananarama: A Swahili Demo and 69 Years of Pop
Three friends record a song in a language none of them speak. It scrapes the bottom of the UK chart at number 92. Within two years, two of them are on a Wembley…
· 4 min read
Barry White: How a Stolen Tire Led to the Deepest Voice
Barry White, born September 12, 1944, traced his career to a jail-cell radio playing Elvis Presley's "It's Now or Never" after a tire theft at sixteen.
· 5 min read
Carol Decker: How She Named Her Band T'Pau
Before Carol Decker fronted T'Pau in sold-out arenas, she was cutting hair in Shrewsbury. A US jeans commercial became the detour that forced Britain to listen.
· 3 min read
Richard Ashcroft: Britpop's believer in magic
Richard Ashcroft, the Verve frontman born in Wigan in 1971, turns 55 on September 11, 2026. His career rewired British rock's emotional vocabulary.
· 3 min read
Peter Gabriel: Why Sledgehammer Swept the 1987 MTV Awards
Peter Gabriel carried off nine MTV Video Music Awards in 1987 for 'Sledgehammer'. The clip's stop-motion spectacle set a new standard for music videos.
· 5 min read