Author: Glenn Fosbraey
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Special edition vinyl albums cause some fans delight – but others suspect a cynical marketing ploy
Glenn Fosbraey, University of Winchester Streaming may still be the preferred method of music consumption for the vast majority of us in 2024, but vinyl, cassettes, and even the long-unloved CD format have shown resurgence in recent years. In fact, physical sales are so healthy that HMV has risen from the ashes and returned to…
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An ode to the social realism of ‘boring’ lyrics – from The Kinks to The Streets
Glenn Fosbraey, University of Winchester The majority of chart artists content themselves with writing lyrics about relationships, breakups or their lavish lifestyles. Take the current top 10 song, Prada by Cassö, RAYE & D-Block Europe. As one might expect from the title, it speaks of designer clothes, fancy hotels and expensive cars. Other artists, however,…
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Music can ease the January blues – but the types of songs that work depend on your age and mindset
fizkes/Shutterstock Glenn Fosbraey, University of Winchester Music can significantly boost your mental health – delivering benefits similar to those provided by exercise or weight loss. It can also reduce feelings of anxiety and physiological measures of stress and, as neuropsychologist Daniel Levitin argues, even create the same “neurochemical cocktail” as other pleasurable activities, like orgasms…
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How to write a love song – three tips for beginners from a songwriting expert
Panitanphoto/Shutterstock Glenn Fosbraey, University of Winchester Love and romance are unquestionably the dominant lyrical themes of popular music. In fact, research in 2017 found that “love” has been the most common theme for pop song lyrics in every decade since the 1960s. If you’re trying to write a love song for the first time, you…
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New Beatles and Rolling Stones music owes much of its success to the psychology of nostalgia
New Beatles and Rolling Stones music owes much of its success to the psychology of nostalgia The Beatles wave to fans after arriving at New York’s Kennedy Airport in 1964. US Library of Congress Glenn Fosbraey, University of Winchester Throughout the 1960s, the Rolling Stones and the Beatles were engaged in a friendly rivalry. Despite being…
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As Dark Side of the Moon: Redux shows, when it comes to lyrics, less is usually more
As Dark Side of the Moon: Redux shows, when it comes to lyrics, less is usually more The cover to Dark Side of the Moon: Redux. Roger Waters Glenn Fosbraey, University of Winchester There’s a scene in The Simpsons episode, Lisa The Simpson (1998), where Lisa is watching a jazz violinist’s performance and a man is…
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How to win Eurovision: the secret code of the contest’s winning lyrics
The Eurovision Song Contest stage. Review News/Shutterstock Glenn Fosbraey, University of Winchester The Eurovision Song Contest is one of the few remaining examples of event TV – and UK audiences lap it up. With 8.9 million viewers in 2022, Britain formed the largest audience of all Eurovision markets. And this time around, there’s even a…
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Get Rich or Die Tryin’: 50 Cent’s seminal hip-hop album 20 years on
Glenn Fosbraey, University of Winchester It is January 2003 – many years before I began researching popular music professionally – and I’m flicking around the music channels on TV. Disillusioned by the usual paint by numbers chart fodder and ready to call it a day, I chance upon the video for a new song called…
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Spotify Wrapped: how sharing your music tastes can drive feelings of Fomo
Use of Spotify Wrapped has quadrupled since its inception in 2017. Shutterstock Glenn Fosbraey, University of Winchester With its eye-catching animations, it would be easy to dismiss Spotify Wrapped – which gives users a roundup of their most listened-to music of the last year – as just another example of the festive feed fodder that…
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Sabrina Carpenter’s Espresso is the ‘song of the summer’ – but it hides a worrying trend
Glenn Fosbraey, University of Winchester Sabrina Carpenter’s “song of the summer”, Espresso is still riding high in the charts. The only thing keeping it off the top spot in the current UK singles charts is her new release, Please Please Please. It’s safe to say the new princess of pop has the music world at…
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Glenn Fosbraey 