cover version
21 tracksA new recording of a song by an artist other than the original. A cover can be faithful or transform the song's genre and meaning.
Culture
music video
57 tracks.
What it is
A short film made to accompany a song. Since MTV it has shaped how songs are remembered, and on YouTube it is often the main way a song is heard.
Read more on WikipediaRelated concepts
soundtrack
14 tracksMusic written for or placed in a film, series or game. A placement can give a song a second life and an audience far beyond its genre.
stage persona
1 trackAn invented identity that a musician performs as: a mask, a character, a cartoon band or a pair of robots. A persona lets artists play with fame and image, keep their private selves hidden, and make the character part of the music's meaning.
Hear it in these tracks
Solange
Losing You
Solange and Dev Hynes wrap the end of a relationship in a skittering, eighties-tinted R&B groove: the 2012 lead single of the True EP on Terrible Records, with a Melina Matsoukas video shot in Cape Town's Langa township.
Robin Schulz
Sugar
Sun-bleached deep house with a soul hook: Robin Schulz builds a sweet, bouncing groove around Francesco Yates and an interpolation of Baby Bash's 2003 'Suga Suga', a number one in seven countries in 2015.
Polo & Pan
Canopée
Breathy duet vocals, bright percussive melodies and a lazy tropical groove: Canopée is Polo & Pan's invitation to climb into the treetops and forget the city for four and a half minutes.
Paloma Faith
Upside Down
Paloma Faith's brassy, swing-tinged retro-soul romp about a world turned on its head, with a stomping rhythm section and a voice that relishes every theatrical flourish.
Michael Jackson
Billie Jean
One of pop's most recognisable bass lines carries Michael Jackson's paranoid tale of a paternity claim, a tight, shadowy groove that sounds as sharp now as it did on Thriller.
Kygo, Maty Noyes
Stay
Soft-focus tropical house from Kygo, with plucked melodies and a warm, pleading vocal from Maty Noyes asking someone not to leave just yet.
Klyne
Paralyzed
A hushed, slow-burning slice of electronic soul from the Dutch duo Klyne, where a fragile falsetto floats over muted beats and a heart too stunned to move.
Kav Verhouzer, BullySongs
Get What You Came For
Sunny deep-house chords and a warm, raspy BullySongs vocal: Get What You Came For is an easygoing dancefloor invitation that never pushes, only pulls you in.
Hindi Zahra
Beautiful Tango (Remastered Version)
Hindi Zahra's smoky voice glides over a lilting, desert-blues guitar and soft percussion in Beautiful Tango, a slow dance of a song that sounds like dusk in a small room.
Gorillaz
19-2000 (Soulchild Remix)
The Soulchild Remix turns Gorillaz's woozy 19-2000 into a bright, bouncing cartoon road trip, a 2001 UK top-ten single and the title theme of FIFA Football 2002, with a chorus everyone remembers: get the cool shoeshine.
Gin Wigmore
Written In The Water
Gin Wigmore snarls through a short, stomping blues-rock number from her 2015 album Blood to Bone, her raspy voice squaring up to fate, and splits its video into a two-part outlaw story.
Gin Wigmore
Dirty Mercy
Swaggering and swampy, Dirty Mercy pairs Gin Wigmore's raspy snarl with a stomping groove and a sly, sinister edge, the opening shot of her Ivory era.
Daft Punk
Around the World
One phrase, one bassline and seven minutes of repetition: Around the World is Daft Punk proving that a loop can be a whole world on its own, and Michel Gondry's video turned its arrangement into choreography.
Chet Faker
Talk Is Cheap
A wistful, treated saxophone line, a lazy, warm beat and Chet Faker's husky croon make this Built on Glass lead single the definition of late-night electronic soul, and triple j's number one song of 2014.
Chet Faker
Gold
Chet Faker's smoky late-night soul over a slow, finger-snapping electronic groove, a minimal track that gets all its heat from his weathered voice and a bassline that barely moves.
Bob Moses
Tearing Me Up
Bob Moses stretch a smoky, heartsick vocal across a slow-burning deep house groove, all brooding guitar, rolling bass and late-night tension that never quite breaks; its RAC remix won a Grammy.
Big Data, Joywave
Dangerous
A strutting, paranoid electro-rock stomp where Joywave's Daniel Armbruster sneers the hook over clipped funk guitar, heavy handclaps and a bassline built for headphones and dance floors alike.
Basement Jaxx
Galactical
Bright, bouncing and slightly unhinged, Galactical sends Basement Jaxx and singer Vula off into space on a house groove built for dancing in zero gravity.
AWOLNATION
Sail
A slow, menacing electro-rock crawl that erupts into a howled confession, AWOLNATION's Sail is equal parts dread and release.
Avicii
Feeling Good
Avicii wraps the standard Nina Simone made famous in soft, swelling synths and lets Audra Mae's smoky, soaring voice carry a song about new dawns, recorded for a 2015 film about his own recovery from years of touring.
Arctic Monkeys
Snap Out Of It
Alex Turner pleads with a lover to wake up from someone else's spell over a swaggering, hand-clapped shuffle and a chorus hook that sticks for days: the sixth single from AM.
Arctic Monkeys
R U Mine?
Arctic Monkeys turn a jealous late-night text into a riff-heavy stomp, with Alex Turner's rapid-fire wordplay riding a fuzzed-out, swaggering guitar line.