Paths through history
Curated editorial tours — guided walks through the lineage. Follow a thread from its root to where it leads, one stop at a time.
A Riff Misfiled
Blues standards that became rock canon — often via a lawsuit.
Big Bang to Bakersfield
From a 1927 field recording to the Telecaster twang.
Cosmic American Music
Gram Parsons’ line from country-rock to alt-country.
Elevator to Detroit
Kraftwerk and P-Funk collide into techno.
Follow the Break
A single drum pattern that rewired popular music.
From the Yard to the Block
Jamaican sound-system culture becomes hip-hop and UK bass.
Island Hopping
One label — Island — carries reggae into stadium rock and art-pop.
Le Freak to Random Access
Nile Rodgers’ guitar carries Chic’s disco into Bowie, Madonna and Daft Punk.
Machines Nobody Wanted
Three Roland flops that accidentally built dance music.
One Producer, Three Worlds
Rick Rubin’s console links the Bronx, thrash metal and the Man in Black.
One Riddim, Two Islands
How a dancehall loop became reggaetón.
Plastic Love
A 1984 Japanese pop song reborn as an internet genre.
Primitivism: Proto-Punk to Grunge
The anti-virtuoso thread from the Stooges to Nirvana.
Ragtime to Trap
One cluster, a century: how the piano rag became the 808.
The Bassline That Ate the Bronx
Chic’s disco groove is sampled into the record that launched rap.
The Carter Hands
One guitar technique that seeded country and the folk revival.
The Delta to the Amp
How a solo guitar in Mississippi became a wall of Marshall stacks.
- Robert Johnson
- →Muddy Waters
- →Electric Chicago Blues
- →British Invasion / Beat
- →Led Zeppelin
- →Black Sabbath
- →Heavy Metal
The Hardcore Continuum
UK rave mutating through jungle, garage, dubstep and grime.
The Spanish Tinge
The Afro-Cuban clave cell threading jazz, New Orleans funk and beyond.