Ongoing History Daily: Why do we call it “ska?”
Chances are you know what ska music is. But where did it get that name? The ska sound first appeared in Jamaica in the 1950s as a blend of Dixieland, jazz, R&B, blues, big
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Etymology
Ongoing History Daily: The origin of the term “hip hop”
Hip-hop continues to be a major force in cultural and an influence on other genres of music. But have you ever wondered why it’s called “hip-hop?” The answer may lie in the late
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Ongoing History Daily: “Pop” music
Here’s a question: why do we call it “pop” music? A little research suggests that the world was first used in 1949 in an article in a defunct British music paper called Melody
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Ongoing History Daily: The origin of the word “gig.”
Here’s an odd piece of trivia. When a band plays a show, we say that they’ve got a “gig.” Where the hell did the word “gig” come from? Some dictionaries say that the
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Ongoing History Daily: The origin of the term “Britpop”
Back in the middle 90s, the big buzzword in the UK was “Britpop.” This became an umbrella term for a fiercely proud made-in-Britain type of rock music that included Blur, Oasis, Elastica, and
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The English language could use some new musical terms. Can you help?
. [This was my weekly column for GlobalNews.ca. – AC] The English language has been evolving for centuries. Each year, new words are added while obsolete words fall from common use. For example,
Read MoreWe need to create a word for this common musical phenomenon. Can you help?
This email arrived from Susan over the holidays. “Is there a word for the sense of immense disappointment that occurs when you turn on your radio and catch just the closing bars of
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The strange origins of the word “punk”
When the word “punk” is thrown about today, chances are the conversations (a) a form of loud, fast alt-rock; or (b) some ner-do-well in a leather jacket and/or with a can of spray
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The Ongoing History of New Music, Episode 801: 60 Band Name Origins in 60 Minutes
As someone who churns out tens of thousands of words every week–emails, blog posts, business documents, tweets, radio scripts–I’ve developed a fascination with words. And, for whatever reason, there seems to be a
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Do We Need to Invent a New Musical Term for This? What Do You Call a Song That Sounds Similar to Another?
Some musical terms worth remembering: Earworm: A clip of a song running through your head on a seemingly endless loop. Mondegreen: Misheard lyrics. An example would be the line in “Purple Haze” where
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What Do You Call the Study of Band Names?
[This is something I wrote for Nightflight.com. Go there for more interesting music articles from a wide variety of authors. – AC] Some time ago during the research and writing of my long-running
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