Guides

For decades, the B-side was rock’s secret handshake. It sat behind the single, away from radio programmers and casual listeners, waiting for the fan willing to…

Rock music emerged from a collision of Black rhythm and blues, gospel, boogie-woogie, country and swing. In the 1950s, that mixture travelled through…

Few electric guitars have become as recognisable as the Fender Stratocaster. Its sculpted body, three-pickup layout and sharp, glassy tone helped define the…

Few rock images carry as much emotional weight as the empty settlement: rusted signs, boarded windows, a pub with no customers, and a road disappearing into…

The Pacific Northwest has always sounded like a place rather than a genre. Seattle’s rain, Portland’s restless creativity, Vancouver’s coastal isolation and…

Black Wattle’s new EP, Ashes Under Gumtrees, sounds like it was forged between a country pub stage and a smoke-filled metal room. The Melbourne quartet blends…

The motorcycle and the electric guitar emerged from different machines, yet both became shorthand for refusing to behave. One turned the open road into a…

Rock has always treated polite language as an invitation to cause trouble. A sharp lyric can challenge a government, mock religion, expose hypocrisy or simply…

Rock has always been built on borrowed sparks. A riff crosses a border, a chorus enters the pub canon, and a new generation learns the songs that shaped the…

Classic rock is often told as a British-American story of blues, gospel, country and psychedelia. That version leaves out a quieter current: the presence of…