All Madonna’s albums rated, in reverse order – from unlistenable to sublime

With Confessions II out next week, it’s time to get into the groove and press play on the queen of pop’s back catalogue

In 1975, Dylan, Patti Smith, Bowie and Marley woke up a cosseted music culture. It’s a 50th anniversary worth celebrating

2025 marks the golden jubilee of some fine records, to be sure, but also of a time when punk came to sack rock’s citadel and popular music began to go in new directions

‘My life had no meaning’: the dark days of disco queen Donna Summer

In public she oozed glamour, but in private the disco star battled depression. Her daughter speaks about film she made to understand Summer’s silent struggle

Drop the needle, it’s the 1970s on screen – again

Decade of brown carpets and complicated hair lives on in a long line of retro movies

Care to dance? Colm Keena on an evolutionary quickstep

An Irishman’s Diary

Switched-On Bach: How a transgender synth pioneer changed music

Wendy Carlos’s 1968 album of Bach music for Moog synthesiser brought electronic music into the mainstream and influenced artists from Giorgio Moroder to Daft Punk

En Vogue: like a volcano meeting a lightning bolt

The coolest queens of R&B unload the hits from their back catalogue and take a gallop through their musical influences in a whirlwind power hour of music

The Get Down soundtrack album review: more modern shape-throwing than a throwback to the era

Dalkey Book Festival a delicious cocktail of politics and culture

Eclectic line-up of speakers tackled Turkey, Brexit, Trump and Donna Summer

Weekend in . . . Memphis

There’s a lot more to Tennessee’s ‘other Music City’ than blues and barbecue

Donna Summer: Love to Love You

Nirvana nominated for rock hall of fame

Candidates must have released their debut album or single at least 25 years before 2012 to be eligible

Giorgio Moroder: in the Moog for dancing

After years in the wilderness plotting pyramids, watches and supercars, the dance-music pioneer Giorgio Morder is back in the electronic limelight

Behind the Candelabra