Music

A picture of Freddie Mercury. He is wearing a white vest top with white jeans and he is holding a guitar behind his head. At the top of the guitar, a bright white light shines

The Age of Spectacle: Live Aid at 40.

Richard Coles and Lorenzo Da Ponte

My history heroRichard Coles chooses Lorenzo Da Ponte.

From a scandalous threesome to classical stardom: the actress who found redemption in Handel’s Messiah.

Troubadours: everything you wanted to know.

Ludwig van Beethoven (Photo by Lebrecht Music & Arts/Alamy)

How Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony has been an ode to peace around the world.

Swedish pop group ABBA performs during the Eurovision Song Contest

When was the first Eurovision and who won? Plus 6 facts on the history of the song contest

Drag: a British history.

Video podcastA history of song: from Schumann to Sting.

A history of song: from Schumann to Sting.

Video podcastAmazing Grace: a story of salvation and slavery.

Amazing Grace: a story of salvation and slavery.

1950s Britain: everything you wanted to know.

1980s Britain: everything you wanted to know.

Guitarist David Crosby of the Byrds performs with his band in front of a large crowd at the Magic Mountain Music Festival on Mount Tamalpais, June 1967. (Image by © Henry Diltz/Corbis)

General History

From Ancient Greece to Glastonbury: a brief history of music festivals

A c1780 portrait of Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges and talented composer, violinist and swordsman (Photo by Fine Art Images/Heritage Images/Getty Images)

Chevalier de Saint-Georges: how the mixed-race musical maestro Joseph Bologne became a star in 18th-century France

Brian Epstein (centre) with the Beatles, who he managed from 1962 until his death in 1967 (Photo by Harry Benson/Getty Images)

Brian EpsteinThe brilliant but troubled man behind The Beatles

Dancers demonstrate the Charleston, c1926. The dance is often associated with ‘flappers’ – newly enfranchised women with bobbed hair, short skirts and supposedly looser morals – and characterised by frenetic up and down movements and swivelling, akimbo limbs. (Photo by General Photographic Agency/Getty Images)

Forbidden dances and deadly marathons: 5 facts about the history of dancing.

Why Bond and the Beatles ruled the sixties.

Composer and conductor Igor Stravinsky rehearses with the BBC Symphony Orchestra ahead of a concert to be broadcast on the Third Programme, 1958

BBC at 100The Third Programme: a cultural institution.

The presenters of the recently launched BBC Radio 1 assemble for a group photo outside Broadcasting House, 1967. (Photo by Robert Stiggins/Express/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

BBC at 100Sounds of the Sixties.

Laura Mvulu and Thelonius Monk

My history heroLaura Mvula chooses Thelonious Monk.

The life and death of Elvis Presley

Eurovision: a political history.

Regé-Jean Page and Phoebe Dynevor meet for a dance in Bridgerton

Q&AHow did people learn to dance in Baroque and Regency times?.

How the Beatles were in tune with 60s Britain.

The Beatles pictured in 1969

The Beatles: 8 landmark moments that chart the changing face of sixties Britain.

This print from 1807 shows John Bull sat between the rival singers Elizabeth Billington (left) and Angelica Catalani, who sing lines adapted from The Beggar’s Opera.

Sex, lies and arias: the prima donnas of Georgian London.

Three medieval carol singers, image dated 1911

Christmas carols: the history behind 9 festive favourites

The piano: a musical history.

Queen Elizabeth I dancing with Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester. Artist unknown. (© Lebrecht Music and Arts Photo Library/Alamy)

Tudor tunes: music at the courts of Henry VIII, Elizabeth I and James VI and I