Music

Melvyn Tan engaged with Mendelssohn's First Piano Concerto and Sir Neville Marriner gave a youthful account of the "Italian" Symphony, writes Martin Kettle

Catch up with the last seven days in the world of music

RR regular RipThisJoint gives her pick from last week's topic: the best songs about anger

Day four of our virtual sleigh ride around the world to discover some of the strangest Christmas songs – and we're in Jamaica

The Vaccines' Justin Young is in the studio to talk about his year – and to look at some of the musical themes of 2012. And it's a singles club special, as the podders nominate their songs of the year, from ZZ Top, TNGHT and Melody's Echo Chamber

Rosie Swash: From Frank Ocean coming out to Jay-Z backing gay marriage, hip-hop seemed to be shaking off its homophobic mindset this year. But the genre still has a lot of growing up to do

Troops from the 4th Mechanized Brigade at Camp Bastion in Afghanistan perform their own Gangnam Style parody for charity in a video that has become an internet sensation

Dominic Kelly: We asked our readers to pick 10 essential Pulp tracks for newcomers. Here's what they came up with

Paul Simon's English period produced some of Simon & Garfunkel's best-loved work – including this understated song inspired by four lines in a London newspaper.