Music journalists take a closer look at the work of some of the biggest recording artists in the world, past and present.
Social & External
American Bandstand was an American music-performance show that aired in various versions from 1952 to 1989 and was hosted from 1956 until its final season by Dick Clark, who also served as producer. The show featured teenagers dancing to Top 40 music introduced by Clark; at least one popular musical act—over the decades, running the gamut from Jerry Lee Lewis to Run DMC—would usually appear in person to lip-sync one of their latest singles. Freddy "Boom Boom" Cannon holds the record for most appearances at 110. The show's popularity helped Dick Clark become an American media mogul and inspired similar long-running music programs, such as Soul Train and Top of the Pops. Clark eventually assumed ownership of the program through his Dick Clark Productions company.
During the Suez Crisis of 1956, two young clerks at the stuffy Foreign Office in Whitehall display little interest in the decline of the British Empire. To their eyes, it can hardly compete with girls, rock music, and the intrigue of romantic entanglements.
Yumenosaki Private Academy, a school located on a hill facing the ocean. Specializing in boys' idol training, the school has a long history of producing generations of idols for the entertainment world out of the young men overbrimming with talents, like the shining stars in the sky. Due to "special circumstances," you are a transfer student at the school, as well as the only female student there. In fact, you are chosen to be the very first student of the "producer course," and your task is to produce these idols… We hope you will enjoy your journey with the idols you meet at the academy, as well as the vigorous ensemble that together you will make.
Totally Frank was a comedy drama series with a real life band as its stars on Channel 4. It followed a band, Frank, who were struggling to make it in the music industry.
Beat-Club was a German music program that ran from September 1965 to December 1972. It is notable for being the first German show to be based around popular music, and featured artists such as The Equals, Grateful Dead, Zager and Evans, Cream, Frank Zappa, The Rolling Stones, Gene Pitney, Ten Years After, Rory Gallagher, Led Zeppelin, Jimi Hendrix, Ike & Tina Turner, The Who, Black Sabbath, Harry Nilsson, David Bowie, The Bee Gees, The Beach Boys, Chicago, The Doors, Kraftwerk and Robin Gibb in its seven-year run. In 1972, it was replaced by Musikladen.
A fantasy music romance about a girl who busks and dreams of becoming a singer despite her challenging environment, and meets three people entangled from the past to present.
Ripley Holden is a small-time entrepreneur desperate to make it big with his new state-of-the-art amusement arcade. The opening extravaganza is overshadowed by the find of a dead body on the premises. DI Carlisle is called in and quickly finds he has more on his mind than murder, when he falls in love with Ripley's long-suffering wife.
Nana Osaki and Nana Komatsu meet while traveling to Tokyo in pursuit of their respective dreams, and decide to be roommates. Although drastically different people, the two become very close and together they find out if their biggest dreams have room for their best friend.
TAPE is the program that rewinds a certain history of music in 3 minutes flat, and tells neophyte ears anecdotes from specialists, sometimes funny, absurd, but always essential. This little extra information that will allow you to shine in society without having read the entire rock dictionary.
Exclusive interviews and acoustic performances with the legends responsible for some of the most famous songs of our times. Each acclaimed songwriter discusses their unique musical inspiration and writing processes before giving an exclusive intimate acoustic performance of some of their seminal songs.
Sing Along with Mitch, airing on NBC from 1961 to 1964, was a weekly sing-along program hosted by Mitch Miller and featuring a male chorus. Lyrics were presented at the bottom of the television screen. Singer Leslie Uggams, pianist Dick Hyman, and the singing Quinto Sisters were regularly featured. One of the show's trademarks was the final number, a group sing-along with the regular house chorale, among whom would be an uncredited celebrity not necessarily known for their singing ability. As the popularity of the show rose, Miller produced and recorded several "Sing Along with Mitch" record albums.
AKB48 Drama split in 3 parts for each team Team A story: Kawakami Fukaba is the only remaining member of the Broadcasting Club. While she was cleaning the clubroom, she encountered a strange cassette player that connects her to another member of the club 8 years earlier. Team K story: Miho is annoyed at her younger sister Tsubasa, who is trying to make her participate in a piano competition. Unknown to Miho, Tsubasa is hiding something from her. Team B story: Asuka keeps a blog titled "Tsuki ga nai Sora" (Moonless Sky), where she writes about all her problems. The only person who comments on the blog is called Spaceboy (6B6), and seems to know more about Asuka than anyone in her class.
Tokyo Friends is a Japanese television drama released on June 3, 2005. Unlike many other dramas, it was never aired on TV but released as a set of 3 DVDs. Volumes one and two contain the first 4 episodes while volume three contains the last episode. Each episode is approximately 70 minutes. The Tokyo Friends Premium Box was also released which includes all 5 episodes, a bonus DVD, and 12 postcards. Although this is a very typical Tokyo-story and was never aired on TV, it was quite successful probably because it was Ai Otsuka's debut as an actress.
The biggest stars, the most iconic performances, the most outrageous outfits – it’s Britain’s number one pop show.
In a tumultuous era, 1971 was a year of musical innovation and rebirth fueled by the political and cultural upheaval of the time. Stars reached new heights, fresh talent exploded onto the scene, and boundaries expanded like never before.
Unknown histories take center stage as the hitmakers themselves - from ABBA to T-Pain - explore dimensions of pop music you never knew existed.
American Masters is a PBS television series which produces biographies on enduring writers, musicians, visual and performing artists, dramatists, filmmakers, and others who have left an indelible impression on the cultural landscape of the United States.
Kelly Clarkson presents the biggest newsmakers and names in film, television and music; as well as emerging new talent and everyday people who are beacons of hope in their communities.
Jazz is a ten part series that explores the evolution – and the genius – of America’s greatest original art form, focusing on the extraordinary men and women who could do something remarkable – create art on the spot. Jazz celebrates their profoundly enduring, endlessly varied, and infinitely alluring music in the context of the complicated country that gave birth to and influenced it, and was in turn transformed by it.
In the early 1990s in New York, during the height of the crack cocaine epidemic, a visionary musician named Bobby Diggs aka The RZA begins to form a super group of a dozen young, black men, who will eventually rise to become one of the unlikeliest success stories in American music history.
In 1970s New York, jaded record exec Richie Finestra tries to resurrect his failing label and fractured personal life while keeping his finger on the pulse of the city's new sound.
Love, loss and transformative luck intersect in this musical drama about two struggling artists experiencing life at full volume in Los Angeles.
After achieving success in her younger years, the brilliant septuagenarian Madeline Matlock rejoins the workforce at a prestigious law firm where she uses her unassuming demeanor and wily tactics to win cases and expose corruption from within. Inspired by the classic television series of the same name.
He was part of the most famous rock-'n'-roll quartet in history. But George Harrison was much more than just a member of The Beatles.
BBC's football highlights and analysis. "The longest-running football television programme in the world" as recognised by Guinness World Records in 2015.
A British newscaster moves to Los Angeles with his alcoholic manservant and the baggage of several failed marriages to host a sanctimonious talk show.
Biographical miniseries chronicling the rise of American music icon Elvis Presley from his high school years to his international superstardom.
Common people discover that they have super powers. Their lives intertwine as a devastating event must be prevented.
Working from his home in a converted windmill, Jonathan Creek is a magician with a natural ability for solving puzzles. He soon puts this ability to the use of solving impossible crimes and mysterious murders.
VICE News' half-hour nightly newscast. We now interrupt your regularly scheduled worldview.
The sparkling notes of a trumpet fanfare and the familiar logo of the sun alert viewers that it's time for CBS's Sunday morning staple. Journalist Jane Pauley helms the show, taking over hosting duties from Charles Osgood, who spent 22 years on the job. A morning talk show, this program airs at a different pace and focuses much of its attention on the performing arts. After a quick update of the day's news and national weather, correspondents offer longer-length segments on a variety of topics, from architecture to ballet to music to pop culture to politics.
When a tragedy disrupts her life, a teen moves in with her guardian's big family in a small town and learns new lessons about love, hope and friendship.
A light-hearted look at the United Kingdom's Premier League action, rounding-up the weekend's football action.