Music

This New Collection of 12,000 Photographs Chronicles the American Jazz Scene

A donation from the family of photographer and historian Duncan Schiedt captures the music’s “essence”

April 2, 2015

New Research

As We Get Older We Get More Tolerant of Discordant Music

Hearing loss isn’t the only thing that changes our music perception as we age

March 31, 2015

New Research

Here’s How Music Really Could Soothe Your Soul

A leading scholar theorizes that music developed as an evolutionary adaptation to help us deal with the contradictory nature of life

March 25, 2015

Trending Today

Numbers Don’t Lie: The CD Really Is Dead

Streaming revenues surpass CD revenues for the first time ever

March 20, 2015

Cool Finds

When Breathtaking Rock Billboards Dominated the Sunset Strip

A new exhibition showcases the Sunset Strip’s “rock ‘n’ roll billboards”

March 12, 2015

New Research

Here’s What Music Specially Composed for Your Cat Sounds Like

Research shows that cats prefer “species-specific” with frequencies and tempos that mimic the sounds of purring and birds

March 9, 2015

New Research

Popular Music Changed the Most in 1964

Scientists use genomic data to show how pop music evolves

March 2, 2015

Chuck Brown’s Guitar Drove the Musician’s Persuasive “Wind Me Up” Rhythm

The Godfather of Go-Go’s family recall how the musician crafted the innovative sound that would define a local tradition

February 24, 2015

Bjork Is Getting a Retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art

The Icelandic singer’s iconic style will be on view at the New York institution

March 2015

Cool Finds

A Scientist And a Slime Mold Are Set To Play a Duet

The blob-like creatures’ movements inspired a composer to create a way for slime mold to play the piano

February 11, 2015

Cool Finds

These Bells Play Seismic Shifts

Watch as UC Berkeley’s bells play the earth’s “natural frequencies”

February 10, 2015

Round Table

What is the Most Important Innovation in the History of Rock ‘n’ Roll?

Musicians, historians and critics tell us what they consider to be the greatest game changers for the industry

February 10, 2015

The Electric Guitar’s Long (And Louder), Strange Trip

From its gentle 16th-century acoustic origins to the souped-up ‘Frankenstein,’ a Smithsonian scholar strums the historic chords of the guitar

February 10, 2015

This Week in Crowdfunding

Five Wild Ideas That Just Got Funded: From an Automated Home Brewery to a Personal (Robot) Assistant

Two other quirky inventions teach music in novel ways

February 6, 2015

Cool Finds

This Music Is Made of Embroidery

Here’s what happens when you feed historical cross-stitch through a music box

February 3, 2015

Listen to the Freedom Songs Recorded During the March From Selma to Montgomery

When MLK called for people to come to Selma, Detroit’s Carl Benkert arrived with his tape recorder, making the indelible album “Freedom Songs”

January 15, 2015

Trending Today

60 Years Ago, the First African-American Soloist Sang at the Met Opera

Marian Anderson performed as the fortuneteller Ulrica in Verdi’s Un Ballo in Maschera

January 8, 2015

Our Answers to the Most Burning Questions of 2014

Here are the ten most popular installments of “Ask Smithsonian” this year

December 30, 2014

Cool Finds

Repeat a Bit of Regular Speech, And It’ll Turn Into a Song

Throw it in a loop, and listen to the music

December 26, 2014

Cool Finds

“White Christmas” Is Actually the Saddest Christmas Song

The season would have reminded composer Irving Berlin of his young son who died Christmas Day in 1928

December 18, 2014