Sound Recordings

Coltrane rehearses backstage before a show in London in November 1961. 

How John Coltrane's 'My Favorite Things' Changed American Music

Looking back at the moment when one of our greatest jazzmen raised the stakes for everyone who came after

Gene Simmons, Tommy Thayer and Paul Stanley of Kiss perform at Madison Square Garden in New York City on December 2, 2023.

Kiss Debuts Digital Avatars That Will Keep the Band 'Forever Young and Forever Iconic'

The rock band is the first in the U.S. to immortalize its performances with a digital recreation

John Legend is one of nine musicians who agreed to participate in YouTube's new Dream Tracks experiment.

YouTube's New A.I. Music Generation Tool Mimics the Voices of Popular Singers

So far, nine artists—including John Legend, T-Pain, Demi Lovato and Charli XCX—have volunteered their voices

Charles Martinet, who has voiced Nintendo's Mario character since the 1990s, at a game launch in 2007

The Man Behind Nintendo's Mario Is Retiring After Nearly Three Decades

Charles Martinet has voiced the famous character in more than 100 games since the 1990s

Wendy Red Star’s The Soil You See… is a seven-foot-tall glass red thumbprint featuring the names of chiefs who signed treaties with the American government, usually with a fingerprint.

Outdoor Exhibition on the National Mall Spotlights Untold American Stories

In "Beyond Granite: Pulling Together," six artists have created works for a month-long display

From his home in Ontario, Samuel Peralta displays a sample gold NanoFiche—similar to the smaller, nickel-based NanoFiche that will be traveling to the lunar surface.

The Lunar Codex Will Archive the Work of 30,000 Artists—on the Moon

A series of time capsules will honor and preserve contemporary art from around the globe

The secretive street artist Banksy painted this graffiti mural in London in 2008.

Is This a Recording of Banksy's Voice?

A new podcast claims to have unearthed a short interview with the artist that aired on NPR in 2005

Scientists have long debated how we perceive the absence of sound waves hitting our ears.

We Can Hear Silence Like a Sound, Scientists Say

In a study, participants were tricked by "silence illusions" in the same way that illusions with sound fool the brain

Scientists observed two separate groups of orangutans making biphonations, or two sounds at once.

Orangutans Can Beatbox, Just Like Humans

The primates can simultaneously make sounds with their mouth and throat, a finding that may shed light on the evolution of human speech

Paul McCartney and John Lennon performing with the Beatles in 1965

The Beatles Will Release One Last Song

Paul McCartney revealed this week that the new record will include A.I.-generated vocals from John Lennon

The Grand Prismatic Spring at Yellowstone National Park

Listen to Music Made From Yellowstone's Seismic Data

A scientist and a musician performed a live musical rendition of the park's underground rumblings

The entirety of Madonna’s 1984 album Like a Virgin is one of the new additions to the National Recording Registry.

Super Mario Bros., Madonna and More Join the National Recording Registry

Every year, the Library of Congress selects 25 recordings that are "culturally, historically or aesthetically important"

Researchers use microphones to measure the noises emitted by tomato plants.

Plants Make Noises When Stressed, Study Finds

Scientists detected high-frequency sounds emitted by plants that had been cut or dehydrated

Metallica band members Robert Trujillo, James Hetfield, Lars Ulrich and Kirk Hammett performing in Los Angeles last year

Metallica Just Bought Its Own Vinyl Record Factory

As demand spikes, the heavy metal band has purchased Furnace Record Pressing in Virginia

Vinyl record sales have growing for the past 15 years.

Vinyl Records Outsell CDs for First Time Since 1987

Music lovers in the United States bought 41 million vinyl albums and 33 million CDs in 2022

Scan of a porpoise head showing the phonic lips, which help produce echolocation clicks, and the round, fatty melon that conducts sound into the water

Some Whales Use a Creaky 'Vocal Fry' Voice to Find Food

Like humans, toothed whales have three vocal registers: chest, falsetto and vocal fry

Astronomers and musicians have developed “sonifications” to bring the symphony of the cosmos to a wider audience.

What Does the Universe Sound Like?

The Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory and other researchers have melded astronomy and music to offer a new oeuvre

Alexander Graham Bell circa 1910

The Smithsonian Will Restore Hundreds of the World's Oldest Sound Recordings

They were made by Alexander Graham Bell and his fellow researchers between 1881 and 1892

NASA's Perseverance rover takes a selfie on September 10, 2021.

Listen to the Sound of a Dust Devil Swirling Around on Mars

For the first time, scientists have recorded the noise of a Martian dust storm using a microphone on NASA's Perseverance rover

Stephen Sondheim sitting in a recording control room in 1987

Stephen Sondheim’s Lost College Musical Was Found Hidden in Plain Sight

Live recordings from "Phinney's Rainbow" had been sitting on a journalist's bookshelf for years

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