762 articles
New York Dolls (album)
New York Dolls (1973) is the eponymous debut album by the New York Dolls, produced by Todd Rundgren at the Record Plant for Mercury. A proto-punk landmark that sold poorly at first but shaped punk, glam, and the Sex Pistols.
New-age music
New-age music is a tranquil, largely instrumental genre using synthesizers, acoustic instruments and nature sounds, emerging from 1970s counterculture, crystallized by Windham Hill in the 1980s, and recognized by the Grammy Best New Age, Ambient, or Chant Album award.
News of the World (album)
News of the World, Queen's sixth studio album, released 28 October 1977 (EMI UK, Elektra US). Recorded July-September 1977 at Basing Street and Wessex, self-produced with Mike Stone; contains We Will Rock You and We Are the Champions; UK No. 4, US No. 3, Frank Kelly Freas robot cover.
Niggas in Paris
Niggas in Paris (Nias in Paris): 2011 Jay-Z and Kanye West song from Watch the Throne, produced by Hit-Boy; US Hot 100 number 5, UK peak 10, 2013 Grammy Best Rap Performance, famously played 12 times straight in Paris.
Night in the Ruts
Night in the Ruts, Aerosmith's sixth studio album (Columbia, November 16, 1979), recorded as Joe Perry quit mid-session; reached No. 14 US, with the No. 67 single "Remember (Walking in the Sand)".
Night Moves (album)
Night Moves (1976) is Bob Seger & the Silver Bullet Band's ninth studio album on Capitol, recorded in Muscle Shoals, Detroit, and Toronto; it peaked at No. 8 on the Billboard 200, went 6x platinum, and made Seger a national star.
Nikolai Fraiture
Nikolai Fraiture, full name Nikolai Philippe Fraiture, is an American musician born in 1978 in New York City, best known as the bassist of the Strokes.
Nine Lives (Aerosmith album)
Nine Lives is the twelfth studio album by American rock band Aerosmith, released in 1997 by Columbia Records and reaching number one on the Billboard 200.
No wave
No wave was a short-lived avant-garde offshoot of punk, active in Lower Manhattan about 1978–1982, rejecting new wave and rock conventions with dissonant, atonal noise. Canonized by Brian Eno's No New York compilation (Contortions, Teenage Jesus and the Jerks, DNA, Mars), it fed into Sonic Youth, Swans, and no wave cinema.
Noise music
Noise music: experimental genre foregrounding feedback, distortion, and non-musical sounds over melody; also called Japanoise in North America. Emerged as a genre in the 1980s via cassette culture, with roots in Russolo's 1913 Art of Noises and key scenes in Japan (Merzbow).
Noise rock
Noise rock: abrasive rock genre treating distortion, feedback, and dissonance as primary material; grew from punk and New York no wave (1978–83) via Sonic Youth, Big Black, and Swans into 1990s alternative rock.
Northern soul
Northern soul: British music and dance scene of the late 1960s-1970s, also called the rare soul scene, built around obscure fast American soul 45s (about 100-130 BPM) played at all-night clubs such as the Twisted Wheel, Golden Torch, and Wigan Casino; named by Dave Godin in 1970.
Not in This Lifetime... Tour
The Not in This Lifetime... Tour was a Guns N' Roses reunion tour from 2016 to 2019, reuniting Axl Rose with Slash and Duff McKagan.
Nothing's Shocking
Nothing's Shocking is the 1988 Warner Bros. debut studio album by Jane's Addiction, produced by Dave Jerden and Perry Farrell, famous for its banned conjoined-twins cover, "Jane Says," "Mountain Song," gold and platinum certification, and role in mainstreaming alternative rock.
Nu metal
Nu metal (nü metal, aggro metal): rock genre from the mid-1990s US blending heavy metal with rap, hip-hop, funk, and industrial; pioneered by Korn, peaked 1999-2003 with Limp Bizkit and Linkin Park, revived via TikTok in the 2020s.
Nu metalcore
Nu metalcore, or nu-core, is a heavy music fusion genre blending nu metal's downtuned, bouncy riffs and hip-hop-influenced vocals with metalcore's breakdowns; associated bands include Tallah, Vein, Issues, Alpha Wolf, and Loathe.
Nuthin' but a 'G' Thang
Nuthin' but a 'G' Thang, also styled Ain't Nothin' But a "G" Thang, is a 1992 Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg G-funk single from The Chronic, built on Leon Haywood's "I Want'a Do Something Freaky to You," reaching number two pop in 1993.
Obscured by Clouds
Obscured by Clouds is Pink Floyd's seventh album (June 1972, Harvest), the soundtrack to Barbet Schroeder's film La Vallée, recorded in about a week at Château d'Hérouville and renamed after a dispute with the film company.
Odd Future
Odd Future, abbreviated OFWGKTA, is an American hip-hop collective from Los Angeles formed around Tyler, the Creator, whose members included Frank Ocean and Earl Sweatshirt.
Ohio Players
Ohio Players: Dayton, Ohio funk band formed 1959 as the Ohio Untouchables; 1970s Mercury hits "Fire" and "Love Rollercoaster" topped pop and R&B charts; not the Black Keys album.
Oi!
Oi! is a British street-punk subgenre of the late 1970s and early 1980s, named after the Cockney Rejects song "Oi! Oi! Oi!" and coined by Garry Bushell; working-class, skinhead-linked chant punk wrongly conflated with racist white power music.
On Through the Night
On Through the Night is Def Leppard's 1980 debut album (Vertigo, UK No. 15, US No. 51), produced by Tom Allom at Startling Studios, Ascot, and a leading NWOBHM release, distinct from the later High 'n' Dry title track.
Oneohtrix Point Never
Oneohtrix Point Never (OPN) is the electronic music project of American producer Daniel Lopatin, known for albums Replica, Age Of, and Tranquilizer (2025, Warp) and Safdie brothers film scores Good Time and Uncut Gems.
Operation: Mindcrime
Operation: Mindcrime is Queensrÿche's 1988 EMI concept album about the assassin Nikki and Dr. X; a million-selling US breakthrough, widely called a defining progressive metal record, later followed by sequels II (2006) and III (2026).
Origins of rock and roll
Origins of rock and roll: the 1950s American genre from 1940s rhythm and blues, blues, gospel, country and pop; Alan Freed popularized the term ca. 1954, leading to rock music by the mid-1960s.
OU812
OU812: Van Halen's eighth studio album, released May 24, 1988 on Warner Bros., second with Sammy Hagar ("Van Hagar"), titled as a pun on David Lee Roth's Eat 'Em and Smile; hit number 1 on the Billboard 200, sold 4 million US copies, 4x Platinum.
Out of Our Heads
Out of Our Heads is a 1965 Rolling Stones album released in different US (London, July 30) and UK (Decca, September 24) editions; produced by Andrew Loog Oldham, it gave the band their first US number-one album and carried "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction."
Out of the Cellar
Out of the Cellar (1984) is the debut full-length album by American glam metal band Ratt, also their biggest seller at over three million copies. Known for "Round and Round," it was produced by Beau Hill and reissued for its 40th anniversary.
Outlandos d'Amour
Outlandos d'Amour is the 1978 debut studio album by English rock band The Police, released by A&M Records and featuring the hit singles "Roxanne" and "So Lonely".
Outlaw country
Outlaw country: 1970s American country music movement led by Waylon Jennings and Willie Nelson against Nashville's producer-controlled system; named via 'Ladies Love Outlaws'; landmark album Wanted! The Outlaws, country's first platinum LP.