Latest articles by Ben Rogerson
When Steven Spielberg heard the Jaws theme for the first time he thought it was a joke
Pretty soon, though, the director realised that composer John Williams had "found a signature for the entire movie”
When Rick Rubin and Eric Clapton got to hear D’Angelo’s Voodoo album before it was released, they were blown away
“I can’t take much more. Is it all like this?”, said Clapton
How Prince embraced The Beatles and recorded one of the most vulnerable ballads of his career
“He’d moved past the pop simplicity of Purple Rain - this was Gershwin-esque," says drummer Bobby Z
"It saves us 900 hours digging through crates”: Justice on why they gave up sampling
“Sampling the traditional way gets frustrating fast: bad tuning, rigid tempos, weird textures that don’t bend,” says Xavier de Rosnay
Apple announces its new M5 chip and puts it in the MacBook Pro 14-inch, iPad Pro and Vision Pro headset
All the new hardware is available to pre-order now
Beyoncé, Lauryn Hill, Jacob Collier, Flea and many more pay tribute to D'Angelo
Fans have also been celebrating his musicianship and artistry on social media
Neo-soul pioneer D’Angelo has died, aged 51
He released three of the greatest albums of the past 30 years
It took an intervention from Paul McCartney for Mick Jagger to offer Andrew Watt a job with the Rolling Stones
“This is some crazy dream as a kid with a guitar to have those names talking about you,” says Watt
Sabrina Carpenter songwriter Amy Allen on the challenges faced by women in the music industry
The Espresso and Manchild co-writer also says that she likes to “go off of emotion” rather than writing to a formula
Jacob Collier says that the problem with using AI for music making is that “it’s almost too perfect”
“It can't learn a perspective or a sense of humour or an attitude,” he argues
EJAE on the making of the KPop Demon Hunters "banger" that's taken over the world
"I wrote it on my way to the dentist,” she says
Taylor Swift explains her "stream of consciousness" songwriting sessions with Max Martin and Shellback
Toto’s Steve Porcaro on the perils of recording live to analogue tape, and what happened if you messed up
“We were debating whether we needed to do another guitar take. ‘Are you really sure we need another take? That last one was pretty good. If we punch in, we’re going to lose that one’”
How George Michael accidentally created the ‘80s smash that’s now been picked up by Taylor Swift
“It ended up, in my mind, being the most original-sounding thing on the album,” he later said
When Jeff Beck gave Imogen Heap an impromptu guitar lesson she had no idea who he was
“A week later I got a message from my manager asking: ‘Did you meet Jeff Beck?’”
Mark Ronson on having to come to terms with the fact that he would never be a great guitar player
“I remember thinking, ‘that’s what being a guitarist sounds like. I need to find a new thing’”
The curious case of The Weeknd’s mic distortion, and how his live sound team fixed it
“We came to realize that it was the result of the combination of The Weeknd’s unique vocal timbre and the hyping of compression and high-end,” says front of house engineer Derek Brener
"We just didn’t want Pino to ever stop playing": Miley Cyrus honours legendary bassist Pino Palladino
“If I only had one person to choose to play bass with for the rest of my days, I would choose Pino Palladino,” says Questlove
How Van Halen ended up choosing an unlikely opening band for their 2012 tour
"We have the song Jump and you came up with Celebration - let’s go out and have a party," Roth told bassist Robert 'Kool' Bell
"I found myself in my studio sat down at the keyboard”: Labi Siffre on the origins of his biggest hit
Siffre has issued a cease and desist order to far-right activist Tommy Robinson in a bid to stop him using the song
Herbie Hancock reveals what Harold Rhodes said to him when he saw that he’d modded one of his pianos
But in the end, Hancock convinced him to include I/O in all Rhodes models
Jack Antonoff reveals the two vintage delays that provide the secret sauce on Sabrina Carpenter’s Manchild
“I'm really focusing on how to utilise this stuff to make things feel like they could have only happened in that moment,” he explains
Olivia Dean admits to having initial doubts about her current global hit single
Man I Need is one of the most streamed songs in the world right now
