State of Sound provides the best in-depth coverage of music history. Travel back in time to groundbreaking eras and scenes; get closer to iconic music and the trailblazers who made it.

Photo: The Jimi Hendrix Experience; credit: Archive PL / Alamy

Legacy artists, Landmark music, New perspectives

Whether we are covering the countercultural 1970s or the sample-strewn 1990s, we offer independent opinion, informed criticism and new perspectives.

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Essaying music’s connections to culture and history

We believe music isn’t simply a form of entertainment but a lightning rod for what is happening in wider society. Our essays atomise music’s connections to culture and history.

Photo: Joan Baez at the March on Washington, 1963; credit: Album / Alamy Stock Photo

Curating an alternative canon

We excavate past decades, turning up lost classics and forgotten artists, to build an alternative canon of 20th-century and 21st-century music. We make original recommendations to put in your rotation pile, and curate unique playlists to enrich your listening experience.

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Photo: Boygenius at the 66th annual Grammy Awards; credit: UPI / Alamy Stock Photo

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Your Backstage Pass to Music History

Legacy artists, Landmark music, New perspectives

Essaying music’s connections to culture and history

Curating an alternative canon

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The 10 greatest alt-country albums, reviewed and ranked!

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Long Wave Home, Jesca Hoop

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‘Outside is America’: Was U2’s biggest failure one of music’s great Icarus moments, or a band blazing their own trail?

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Bob Dylan's greatest love songs, reviewed and ranked!

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‘It took a unique kind of courage’: how Son House beat the odds to make a masterpiece

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The Red Tack: ‘This is the closest thing to flying a songwriter can experience’

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All is Love and Pain in the Mouse Parade, Of Monsters and Men

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7 Records I’d save in a fire with Norman Maslov

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Wasted On Youth, The Molotovs

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