Barbara Holdridge, who co-founded the first commercially successful spoken-word record label, one that began with the poet Dylan Thomas reciting his story “A Child’s Christmas in Wales” and that led to today’s multibillion-dollar audiobook industry, died on Monday at home in Baltimore, Md. She was 95. Her daughter, Eleanor Holdridge, …
One of the most significant innovations in recorded music took place a century ago in New York City. On Feb. 25, 1925, Art Gillham, a musician known as “the Whispering Pianist” for his gentle croon, entered Columbia Phonograph Company’s studio to test out a newly installed electrical system. Its totem …
Rutherford Chang, a conceptual artist who turned his collection of the Beatles’ “White Album” into a meditation on the aging of a vinyl classic — and who, in another project, melted down 10,000 pennies into a copper block to make a statement about the value of each red cent — …
They sure do grow up quickly, don’t they? Last week marked a milestone for the children’s brand Kidz Bop: The release of “Kidz Bop 50,” the company’s 50th album of sanitized, child-friendly covers of pop songs. The songs are sung by a small group of telegenic teenagers, who also appear …