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
John Entwistle, the bassist who made The Who louder than anyone
John Entwistle turned the bass into a lead instrument for The Who. He stood behind the 126-decibel concert that entered the Guinness Book of Records in 1976.
· 4 min read
Why Did Bruce Springsteen Turn Inward on Tunnel of Love?
Bruce Springsteen's eighth studio album, Tunnel of Love, arrived on October 9, 1987. It traded stadium anthems for drum machines and songs about a marriage falling apart.
· 4 min read
How Did Nicky Byrne Go From Leeds to Westlife?
Nicky Byrne won the FA Youth Cup with Leeds United in 1997, then was released that June. A year later he was spotted by Louis Walsh at a casting for a new Irish boyband.
· 4 min read
How Enigma Closed a Chapter with Love Sensuality Devotion
Michael Cretu's Enigma released Love Sensuality Devotion: The Greatest Hits on 8 October 2001. The compilation gathered a decade of singles and marked the end of the project's first phase.
· 3 min read
How John Lennon Built Imagine
John Lennon recorded Imagine in 1971 with Yoko Ono and Phil Spector, and the sessions were filmed for a documentary that sat unseen for years.
· 4 min read
Joe Hill, the Songwriter Who Would Not Stay Dead
Joe Hill, the IWW songwriter behind “The Preacher and the Slave,” was executed in Utah in 1915 and had his ashes mailed to union branches worldwide.
· 4 min read
How Did Lay Zhang Go from Changsha to the Grammys?
Lay Zhang grew up in Changsha imitating Michael Jackson, then trained in Seoul and became the only Chinese artist invited to the Grammy Awards.
· 4 min read
How Cissy Houston Found Her Own Voice
Cissy Houston, born Emily Drinkard in Newark, sang behind Elvis Presley and Otis Redding before winning two Grammys under her own name. She died at home on October 7, 2024, at 91.
· 4 min read
How Pikotaro's PPAP Became the Shortest Hot 100 Hit
Daimaou Kosaka released 'PPAP (Pen-Pineapple-Apple-Pen)' as Pikotaro on 7 October 2016. The 45-second track became the shortest song ever to chart on the Billboard Hot 100.
· 3 min read
How R.E.M. Made Automatic for the People
R.E.M.'s eighth album grew out of demos cut in the winter of 1990, when Peter Buck steered the Athens band toward a quieter, organ-heavy sound.
· 3 min read
How Belle & Sebastian Let a Pop Wizard Rework Their Sound
Trevor Horn, the producer known for electronic pop polish, stepped in to produce Belle & Sebastian's sixth album. Dear Catastrophe Waitress arrived on Rough Trade Records on October 6, 2003.
· 4 min read
How Bobby Farrell Fronted Boney M Without Singing a Note
Frank Farian confirmed in 1978 that Bobby Farrell did not sing on Boney M's studio records. The split between the body audiences saw and the voice they heard shaped his whole career.
· 4 min read
How Nelson Riddle Found a Second Act with Linda Ronstadt
In 1982 Linda Ronstadt asked Nelson Riddle to arrange an album of jazz standards. The partnership sold more than seven million copies and won him Grammys late in life.
· 4 min read
How Tereza Kerndlová Walked Into Eurovision's Firing Line
Tereza Kerndlová, the Czech pop and R&B singer from Brno, took Have Some Fun to Eurovision's second semi-final in Belgrade. She finished eighteenth out of nineteen with nine points.
· 4 min read
Why Did Zoë Më Get Zero Televotes at Eurovision?
Zoë Më finished second with the juries at Eurovision in Basel but received zero points from the televote. The twenty-four-position gap set a new record for the contest.
· 4 min read
How Bob Geldof Turned a Tragedy Into a Global Anthem
Bob Geldof turned a San Diego school shooting into 'I Don't Like Mondays,' the Boomtown Rats single that made him famous far beyond Dublin and London.
· 4 min read
Why Glynis Johns Got Send In the Clowns
Glynis Johns, born in Pretoria in 1923, went from a rubber mermaid tail in Miranda to a Tony-winning Broadway turn in A Little Night Music.
· 3 min read
Eden Golan and the Hurricane That Made Her
Eden Golan took "Hurricane" to Eurovision in Malmö and finished fifth overall. She came second with the public vote after months of protests and a boycott campaign.
· 4 min read
Why Did Felicia Eriksson Hide Her Face to Sing?
Felicia Eriksson spent years as the masked voice of Fröken Snusk. She won Melodifestivalen 2026 with My System and represented Sweden at Eurovision.
· 3 min read
Why Did Park So-yeon Walk Away from Girls' Generation?
Park So-yeon left SM Entertainment half a year before Girls' Generation debuted. She then joined T-ara in 2009 and survived a 2012 car crash that reshaped her career.
· 3 min read
R.E.M. Around the Sun: The Album That Lost the Groove
R.E.M. released Around the Sun on Warner Bros. in autumn 2004, the Athens band's thirteenth album and its first with drummer Bill Rieflin.
· 4 min read
How Slavko Kalezić Turned a Eurovision Flop Into a Second Act
Slavko Kalezić finished 16th in Kyiv with “Space” and won the Barbara Dex Award. He then turned the loss into a second act across X Factor UK, World Pride and a book called “Moja Istina.”
· 4 min read
How Did Jon Secada Go From Teacher to Pop Hitmaker?
Jon Secada left a teaching job at Miami Dade College after Emilio Estefan heard his demo, then sold seven million copies of his debut album.
· 3 min read
Why Did Bruno Mars Call His Debut Doo-Wops & Hooligans?
Bruno Mars released Doo-Wops & Hooligans on October 4, 2010. He named his debut after the two opposing sounds he grew up hearing: his father's doo-wop and rowdier hooligan energy.
· 4 min read