The Beatles

Famous Moments in Music History as 8-Bit GIFs

By Marina Galperina on Dec 20, 2012 2:41pm

Musician Joshua Carrafa’s epic Tumblr project Music History In Gifs is nothing short of amazing… if you like music, GIFs, and bit art. We’re literally torn between which amazing animated moment to spotlight here. The Beatles on The Ed Sullivan Show? Prince’s famous transformation into a symbol? The Nirvana Nevermind baby? Metallica vs. Napster? Tupac against the world? See our favorite GIFs in the slideshow below! … Read More

Pop Culture

10 of the Greatest ‘Life’ Magazine Covers of All Time

By Alison Nastasi on Nov 21, 2012 6:00pm

Seventy-six years ago, Life published its first issue since folding as a weekly humor publication during the Great Depression. Celebrate with a gallery of our favorite cover… Read More

Photography

Harry Benson’s Intimate Photos of Cultural Icons

By Paul Laster on Nov 9, 2012 12:30pm

A Scottish-born photographer, Harry Benson’s big break came when he started traveling with The Beatles in 1964. His photo of the band having an impromptu pillow fight at a Paris hotel quickly became part of rock ‘n’ roll history, but his six decades of imagery have captured more than just the music world. A steadfast photojournalist, Benson has shot portraits of every American president from Dwight Eisenhower to Barack Obama. Photographing for Life magazine from 1970 to 2000 and producing more than 100 cover shots for People, the talented lensman has enjoyed unlimited access to celebrities while also spending time in the trenches to report on protests and conflicts around the world.

The subject of an extended exhibition at Staley-Wise Gallery in New York, Benson presents his quirky images of Jacqueline Kennedy, Michael Jackson, Frank Sinatra, R. Crumb, Andy Warhol, and Muhammad Ali, as well as a few recent portraits, including a dynamic 2007 shot of a vivacious Amy Winehouse. Click through to view a selection of our favorite photos from the show. … Read More

News

The Morning’s Top 5 Pop Culture Stories

By Judy Berman on Oct 30, 2012 10:02am

1. Just about all live entertainment in New York City was canceled last night, but Jimmy Fallon and David Letterman both braved the storm to tape their shows without audiences. Watch their monologues — and Letterman’s interview with Denzel Washington, who obviously can’t be deterred by even the foulest of weather — at … Read More

Music

Watch Never-Before-Seen Video of The Rolling Stones Covering The Beatles in 1965

By Judy Berman on Oct 19, 2012 12:00pm

As anyone who’s read Keith Richards’ autobiography knows, the feud between The Beatles and The Rolling Stones was largely manufactured. In fact, Richards writes of the respect he had for his rival band, as well as some wild times with John Lennon. So it’s not shocking to see this minute-long video of the Stones playing “I’ve Just Seen a Face” and “Eight Days a Week” in some downtime during a 1965 tour of Ireland. Sure, they do it with a smirk or two, but you can tell they appreciate the songs, too. The never-before-seen footage comes from a new, expanded version of Charlie is my Darling, Peter Whitehead’s 1966 documentary on that early Irish jaunt. Watch the video below, and read Richard Brody’s recent review of the film at The New Yorker. … Read More

Film

10 Films That Are Better Than Their Bad Reputations

By Jason Bailey on Oct 9, 2012 11:30am

Perhaps the most intriguing of today’s Blu-ray releases is Magical Mystery Tour, the Beatles’ 1967 television film that was famously roasted by critics, which cemented its reputation as some sort of epic folly by the lads from Liverpool. But here’s what’s interesting about watching Magical Mystery Tour now, with that common wisdom in mind: contrary to popular opinion, it’s kind of great. This sort of thing happens all the time: imperfect, odd, or merely unconventional films are released and get labeled as some sort of flop, and the reputation sticks. But some films haven’t earned their bad rep, and after the jump, we’ll take a look at Magical Mystery Tour and nine other movies that are better than you’ve heard. … Read More

Books

The Pop Cultural Landscape (According to Books)

By Emily Temple on Oct 6, 2012 2:00pm

Earlier this week, we spotted a great list of the most mentioned songs in literature over at PWxyz. They’d gotten their info from Small Demons, a fantastic website devoted to connecting books to each other and to the world in interesting ways. Inspired, we did some exploring of our own, and came up with a snapshot of the pop cultural landscape — at least if our books can be believed. Though all of these lists are of necessity always changing as new works get added to the database (and the world), we still think they give a pretty good picture — click through to see the artists, musicians, songs, films and even clothing brands that get most mentioned in literature printed in English, and let us know if you think the book world reflects our culture accurately in the comments. … Read More

Music

Intimate Photos of Rock Stars from 1960s and ’70s ‘Melody Maker’

By Tom Hawking on Sep 28, 2012 11:30am

We were always big fans of now-defunct UK music weekly Melody Maker — it was always rather less self-important and more lighthearted than the NME — so we were chuffed to see that the Morrison Hotel Gallery in NYC is hosting a retrospective of work by one of the publication’s staff photographers, Barrie Wentzell. Wentzell shot for the magazine in the 1960s and 1970s, and the exhibition covers the years 1965-75, including portraits of Leonard Cohen, Jimi Hendrix, Jimmy Page, and various other luminaries of the era. The gallery has been kind enough to give us a sneak peek at some of the images, along with commentary from the photographer. See the photos and hear the stories behind them… Read More

Pop Culture

A Guide to Pop Culture’s Biggest Hoaxes

By Alison Nastasi on Aug 23, 2012 7:30pm

This week, 177 years ago, a series of articles were published in the New York Sun that reported on the discovery of life on the Moon, attributed to well-know astronomer Sir John Herschel. Stories about unicorns, strange humanoids, and entire civilizations described a strange, new world — and newspaper sales skyrocketed. What was intended as a satire — believed to be crafted by a Cambridge-educated reporter — became one of the earliest hoaxes in history, the truth not revealed until weeks later. Since then, and thanks to that lovely invention called the Internet, we’ve become far more jaded and skeptical when it comes to outlandish claims in media. Still, there have been many elaborate hoaxes over time that duped us for fun, profit, and sometimes accidentally. We shared several of pop culture’s biggest hoaxes past the break. … Read More