Neil Young has never hidden from uncomfortable truths, especially when they intersect with his music. Few examples illustrate that candour more starkly than Borrowed Tune, a fragile piano lament that openly acknowledges its melodic debt to The Rolling Stones' 1966 recording Lady Jane. Rather than obscuring the connection, Young placed it front and centre, turning a moment of creative exhaustion into one of the most disarming confessions in his catalogue.

Brigitte Anne-Marie Bardot, the French actress, singer, model and activist whose presence reshaped cinema, popular music and the image of women in post-war culture, has died at her Saint-Tropez home La Madrague on 28 December 2025, aged 91.

Morrissey has shared the tracklisting for a new album on his official website, alongside the Sire Records logo, signalling a fresh chapter for the former Smiths frontman after years of record label limbo.

Jerry Kasenetz, the New York born songwriter and producer who helped invent and commercialise bubblegum pop in the late 1960s, has died aged 82. Kasenetz passed away on December 6, 2025, in Tampa, Florida, following complications from a fall at his home.

Howie Klein, one of the most influential and artist-friendly record executives of the modern era, has died aged 77. Klein passed away on December 24, 2025, following a long battle with pancreatic cancer. His death marks the loss of a rare figure who bridged underground music culture, major label power and uncompromising political activism, leaving a legacy that continues to shape how the music industry understands creative freedom.

Queen have once again opened the vaults, with Brian May confirming that an unreleased track titled Not For Sale (Polar Bear) will finally receive an official release as part of a major 2026 reissue of Queen II. The song, shared publicly for the first time in a rough, work-in-progress form late last year, predates the formation of Queen itself and reaches back to the band's earliest creative roots.

Pink Floyd have unveiled the first official music video for Wish You Were Here, marking 50 years since the song's release on the band's landmark 1975 album of the same name. The video arrives half a century after the track first appeared, a reminder of how different the music landscape was in the mid-1970s, when promotional clips were rare and MTV was still years away.

Perry Archangelo Bamonte, the quietly influential guitarist, keyboardist and long-time creative force within The Cure, has died aged 65. The band confirmed Bamonte's death on their official website on 26 December 2025, revealing he passed away at home over Christmas following a short illness.

It's been another busy year for The Lemon Twigs, and in just the past fortnight alone they've delivered an almost absurd embarrassment of riches.

Sean “Diddy” Combs has launched a fresh legal bid that could dramatically alter the course of his incarceration, with attorneys filing an expedited notice of appeal seeking his immediate release from federal prison. The filing asks the Second U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to either enter a judgment of acquittal or vacate his conviction and return the case to the trial court for resentencing.

The Kennedy Center Honors television broadcast has recorded its lowest audience in the history of the event, with the 2025 ceremony attracting significantly fewer viewers than the already diminished audience of 2024. Early ratings data indicate that the CBS broadcast averaged approximately 2.65 million viewers, a steep fall from the 4.1 million who tuned in last year, representing a decline of more than 35 percent.

Barry Manilow has revealed he has been diagnosed with lung cancer and will undergo surgery to remove a cancerous spot from his left lung, a condition his doctors believe has been detected at an early and treatable stage.

Lady Gaga is marking Christmas Eve with an unexpected gift for fans, the global premiere of Lady Gaga In Harlequin Live: One Night Only, an intimate concert film capturing a singular moment in her evolving career. The performance, filmed at the Belasco Theatre in Los Angeles, strips her presentation back to its musical core and places full attention on the songs, the voice and the space between performer and audience.

Australia's festival season is heating up, but for music fans, the cost of entry is rising faster than ever. New analysis by Culture Kings of ticket data from 11 major Australian music festivals shows that prices have surged dramatically beyond inflation and are projected to continue climbing over the next decade.

Spotify has confirmed that a third party unlawfully scraped large volumes of music data from its platform, after an activist group claimed it had backed up almost the entire Spotify catalogue. The incident centres on Anna's Archive, an open source “shadow library” project, which says it has assembled metadata for 256 million tracks and accessed 86 million audio files spanning music uploaded between 2007 and 2025.

Chris Rea, the English singer songwriter, guitarist and one of the most distinctive voices in European rock and blues, has died aged 74. Rea passed away in hospital on 22 December 2025 after a short illness, closing the book on a career that spanned more than five decades and sold over 40 million records worldwide.

Scottish hard rock band Nazareth have announced a major lineup change, parting ways with singer Carl Sentance and bringing in Italian vocalist Gianni Pontillo as their new frontman. The announcement comes ahead of what founding bassist Pete Agnew has described as “one of the busiest years in Nazareth's history” in 2026.

The Recording Academy has unveiled the lineup for its 2026 Special Merit Awards, highlighting music icons whose influence spans decades and continents. Among the honorees for the prestigious Lifetime Achievement Award are Whitney Houston, Chaka Khan, Fela Kuti, Carlos Santana, Cher, and Paul Simon. The awards will be presented during Grammy Week on Saturday, January 31, at the Wilshire Ebell Theatre in Los Angeles, the day before the main ceremony at the arena.

Morrissey has signed a new recording contract with Sire Records, closing a long and unsettled chapter in which completed albums repeatedly failed to reach the public. The deal places the former Smiths frontman back on a label with deep roots in alternative music and signals renewed institutional support after years of stalled releases.

Steven Drozd has confirmed his departure from The Flaming Lips, ending one of the longest creative partnerships in modern alternative music. The multi-instrumentalist's exit closes a chapter that began in 1991 and shaped the band's most celebrated and experimental work.

Michael Timothy Abrahams, a formative figure in British blues rock and the original guitarist of Jethro Tull, died on 19 December 2025. He was 82.

NPG Records and Paisley Park Enterprises, in partnership with Legacy Recordings, have announced the tenth anniversary of Prince's HITnRUN Phase One and HITnRUN Phase Two. Marking a significant milestone, both albums will be reissued on CD and pressed to vinyl for the very first time, giving fans a chance to experience the two-part project in physical form for the first time since its original release in 2015.

George Michael's landmark 1987 solo debut, Faith, is set to receive a deluxe reissue in early 2026, including an SDE exclusive blu-ray audio edition featuring a Dolby Atmos Mix, 5.1 surround sound, and 13 bonus tracks. The release promises to celebrate one of the defining albums of the 1980s, cementing Michael's transition from Wham! frontman to global solo superstar.

Canadian rock veterans Finger Eleven have returned with a creative flourish, unveiling an eight-episode social media miniseries to accompany their latest studio album, Last Night On Earth. Released on November 7 via Better Noise Music, the record marks the band's first release with the label and their seventh studio album overall.

AC/DC have brought their Australian stadium tour to a thunderous conclusion in Brisbane, wrapping nine shows across the country with a final night at Suncorp Stadium on 18 December. For a band that began in Sydney pubs five decades ago, the homecoming leg of the Power Up World Tour reaffirmed AC/DC's unmatched scale, endurance and cultural pull, while underlining why the group remains one of Australia's most significant musical exports.

Rainbow's formative years are set to be documented in unprecedented detail with the announcement of Rainbow The Temple Of The King 1975-1976, a lavish 9CD boxset arriving on March 6th 2026 via Edsel Records. Covering the opening chapter of the band's history, the collection stands as the most comprehensive archival release yet devoted to the early vision of guitarist Ritchie Blackmore following his departure from Deep Purple.

One of the most historically significant instrument makers in popular music, Höfner, has filed for bankruptcy in Germany, placing the future of the company behind Paul McCartney's most famous bass guitar under serious question. The filing, lodged with the Fürth District Court in Bavaria, confirms that Karl Höfner GmbH & Co has entered provisional insolvency administration as of 10 December.

Former United States President Barack Obama has included Metal by The Beths in his Favourite Songs of 2025 list. The annual selection has become a closely watched cultural marker. It regularly highlights artists operating outside mainstream pop cycles.

The release of The Beatles - Free As A Bird: A Song Reborn [Short Film] reframes one of the most emotional chapters in Beatles history. Built from never-before-seen studio footage, the film documents the remarkable 1994 reunion of Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. It was the first time the surviving Beatles worked together in a studio since the band's split 24 years earlier.

The legacy of Donna Summer, the undisputed Queen of Disco, has been further immortalised with her posthumous induction into the Songwriters Hall of Fame. The ceremony took place on December 15 at The Butterfly Room at Cecconi's in West Hollywood, Los Angeles, celebrating the singer's extraordinary contributions to music and culture.