The nerd-pop revolution keeps growing. An increasing number of singers and players have become huge stars by dragging the geekiest elements of modern show tunes into the musical mainstream.
The new film "Saving Mr. Banks" sweeps us back to a golden era in movie musicals. It depicts the making of "Mary Poppins," one of three singing-dancing extravaganzas of 1964-65 that made tha…
You needn't set one foot inside today's Apollo Theater to see how radically the world has changed since its heyday. Surrounding the venue's storied walls stand outlets for Rite Aid, Duane Re…
BY JIM FARBER DAILY NEWS MUSIC CRITIC AS THE biggest selling classical music artist of all time, …
Any way you flip it, the collaboration between Billy Joe Armstrong and Norah Jones just looks wrong.
For the first time in his career, Billy Joel will play Brooklyn. On New Year's Eve, the piano man will perform at the Barclays Center, marking his inaugural appearance at the venue.
A deep sense of symmetry hovered over Cyndi Lauper's concert at the Beacon Theater in New York City on Wednesday. The star is precisely double the age she was when first shot to fame.
It's hard to know what to call the new Broadway show about the classic '60s band The Rascals, opening under the name "Once Upon a Dream."
Get ready for Broadway to look a lot more like the Bonnaroo music festival. In the coming weeks, a rash of hipsters stands ready to storm a world more commonly associated with elder…
Duncan Sheik Fri. 8 p.m.
It sounds like a no-brainer. Every night for the last seven years, an actor impersonating Frankie Valli has been packing a Broadway theater in the smash show "Jersey Boys." Shouldn't the act…
"Who says you can't go home again?" asked Barbra Streisand at the start of her Barclays Center show Thursday.
Scale matters in the world of "The Wall." Designed as a withering morality play about the borders that limit and divide us, Pink Floyd's classic 1979 album "The Wall" demands a visual repres…
1. Amadou & Mariam, "Folila." The self-described "blind couple from Mali" reach out to the world on their third American CD of pan-genre music that perfectly captures an urbanized, fully eng…
Brittany Howard sings a musical phrase like a track and field star throws a shot put. She'll lean far back in a note, pausing to amass lung power and heft. Then, in a burst, she'll hurl the …
Great albums demand serious attention. But what if the disk we're talking about earns much of its brilliance from pure whimsy? That's how recording engineer Rob Christiansen views B…
Lots of singers play characters in their songs. Leave it to Kate Bush to play an element. In the first cut off her new CD, the eccentric singer incarnates water " or, more specifically, its…
Rock 'n' roll thrives on the push and pull. It's all about the tussle between the guitars, as prodded by the bass and kicked by the drums. That's what gives this music its sex and motion. …
Yes, he's experienced. Jimi Hendrix has been proclaimed the "Greatest Guitarist of All Time" by a panel of musicians wrangled by Rolling Stone Magazine.
The new Roots CD works in reverse. It's a concept album, moved along by a coherent story, but it starts at its close. Like "Sunset Boulevard" and "American Beauty," it's narrated by…
If young audiences feel entitled to steal (er, file share) as many contemporary albums as they like, it seems that attitude hasn't proven retroactive.
Can you be everywhere and nowhere at once? Adele managed just that counterintuitive feat this year.
Another fall, another Rihanna album. For the third year in a row, the Barbadian hottie has delivered a complete CD by year's end, proving both her productivity and her devotion to her record…
The Stones started a scavenger hunt through their old tapes a few years back, and they can't seem to stop.
Admit it: You want Mary J. Blige to suffer. While fans may have always found themselves stirred by the singer's bull-horn of a voice - and by her unique mix of hip hop and soul - they've fel…