Wonder Delivers Classical Opus

(NEWSER) - Pop songs are handily beating out traditional hymns in England as the preferred soundtrack for the final goodbye, the Telegraph reports. A survey by a funeral-services company shows that 58% of funerals feature popular music as the top request, versus 35% for hymns; classical grabs just 7%. The top request? Frank Sinatra’s My Way, of course. More»

(NEWSER) - Beyoncé’s new album, I Am…Sasha Fierce, “is something of a mess," Sasha Frere-Jones writes in the New Yorker. Musically, Beyoncé belongs in the "Genius Lounge," but her fierce alter-ego only emerges on the record to offer tame advice. "The wild R. & B. vampire Sasha is advocating marriage?" writes Frere-Jones of the song Single Ladies. "What’s next, a sultry, R-rated defense of low-sodium soy sauce?” More»

Lennon, Marley, Berry rock on

(NEWSER) - "Towering natural abilities" and "exceptional creative powers" infuse the most memorable music of generations, forged by Blender's top 50 pop-music geniuses. The top 10:

1. Bob Dylan: Each of his brave self-reinventions is "an authentic American original."
2. John Lennon: "His drive pushed the Beatles from a covers band to the world’s best-loved and most influential pop act."
3. Chuck Berry: His guitar riffs are still the "bedrock" of rock and roll five decades on.
4. Bob Marley: "No one did more to define and popularize a musical genre."
5. Mick Jagger and Keith Richards: Duo created "decade of classics."

Movement reconstructed using composer's sketches

(NEWSER) - After Beethoven scrapped a movement from a string quartet, it was lost to the world’s ears for two centuries. No longer: A music professor in Britain has recreated the piece using the composer’s sketches for every measure. The movement of String Quartet in G, Opus 18, No. 2 was performed for the first time in 200 years—perhaps the first time ever—at Manchester University, the Telegraph reports. More»

He says US foreign policy helps foster terror

(NEWSER) - Conservatives slammed President Obama for hosting Chicago rapper Common at the White House. Now Obama is taking criticism from a different Chicago rapper. "To me, the biggest terrorist is Obama, and the United States of America,” Lupe Fiasco told CBS in an interview noted by the Huffington Post . “I'm trying to fight the terrorism that's actually causing the other forms of terrorism.” He said “the root cause of terrorism” includes “the foreign policies that we have in place in different countries that inspire people to become terrorists.” More»