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      Why More Brides Are Skipping the Traditional March Song

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      More couples are skipping the traditional processional to Richard Wagner’s “Bridal Chorus.”When Becky Pedroza began planning her wedding, she imagined a celebration as vibrant and free-spirited as her relationship with Erik Revelli.At their wedding in May 2023 at Rimrock Ranch in Pioneertown, Calif., the Atlanta couple bypassed the usual wedding routines: no mother-son dance, no bouquet toss and absolutely no “Here Comes the Bride,” a song also known as “Bridal Chorus” by Richard Wagner. Instead, Ms. Pedroza walked down the aisle, flanked by her parents, to “She’s a Rainbow” by the Rolling Stones.“We wanted something that felt more like us,” said Ms. Pedroza, a 33-year-old graphic designer. She added that she wanted a song that made her “incredibly happy,” not one that honored tradition.Ms. Pedroza isn’t the only one ditching traditional processional music. An online search for “Bridal Processional Songs” will return everything from Neil Young to Billie Eilish before Wagner even gets a mention. And the composer doesn’t even make an appearance on a list of “114 wedding processional songs you should definitely use” by the wedding website the Knot.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Miley Cyrus Gives Showgirl Pathos, and 8 More New Songs

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      Hear tracks by Benjamin Booker, Julien Baker and Torres, and more.Every Friday, pop critics for The New York Times weigh in on the week’s most notable new tracks. Listen to the Playlist on Spotify here (or find our profile: nytimes) and at Apple Music here, and sign up for The Amplifier, a twice-weekly guide to new and old songs.Miley Cyrus: ‘Beautiful That Way’At 32, Miley Cyrus is an old soul in the guise of a provocative modern pop star, which means that she can nail a slow, torchy ballad in her sleep. She brings expected, husky-voiced pathos to “Beautiful That Way,” a Golden-Globe-nominated song from the soundtrack of “The Last Showgirl,” Gia Coppola’s moody character study that stars Pamela Anderson. “Just like a rose, she’ll cut you with thorns,” Cyrus croons on the track, co-written with Andrew Wyatt and the Swedish musician Lykke Li. “She’s beautiful that way.” LINDSAY ZOLADZSnoop Dogg featuring 50 Cent and Eminem, ‘Gunz N Smoke’Self-congratulation reigns on “Missionary,” the new Snoop Dogg album that reunites him with the producer Dr. Dre and other 1990s Dre protégés — including, on “Gunz N Smoke,” 50 Cent and Eminem. Flaunting a “Gun smoke, gun smoke” sample from “Dead Wrong” (by the Notorious B.I.G. featuring Eminem), the track has the three rappers revisiting belligerent poses that have become all too familiar: “I come from freestylin’ over gunshots and sirens / Nothing more gangster than my voice over these violins,” Snoop Dogg claims. But Eminem admits, “Now I’m much older, and I may be calmer.” JON PARELESMario, ‘Questions’We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      The Messy Modern Music Business, According to Larry Jackson

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      Subscribe to Popcast!Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Amazon MusicThe music executive Larry Jackson, a founder of the entertainment company Gamma, has seen several sea changes in the recording business from different vantages over different eras of disruption.As head of A&R at Arista Records/RCA Music Group under Clive Davis, he oversaw albums by Whitney Houston and Jennifer Hudson while CDs were giving way to the iTunes Store. At Interscope, alongside Jimmy Iovine, he helped sign Chief Keef and Lana Del Rey as YouTube made new stars. As the global creative director at Apple Music, Jackson partnered with artists like Drake, Frank Ocean and Taylor Swift to bring streaming to the masses, while competing with Spotify — and the major labels.On this week’s episode of Popcast, Jackson spoke with the hosts Jon Caramanica and Joe Coscarelli about a topsy-turvy year in music — headlined by the battle between Kendrick Lamar and Drake — and how Jackson is applying lessons from his label days to whatever the industry has become.Connect With Popcast. Become a part of the Popcast community: Join the show’s Facebook group and Discord channel. We want to hear from you! Tune in, and tell us what you think at popcast@nytimes.com. Follow our host, Jon Caramanica, on Twitter: @joncaramanica. Unlock full access to New York Times podcasts and explore everything from politics to pop culture. Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. More

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      What Song Did You Discover, or Rediscover, in 2024?

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      We want to know why it resonated with you.In a recent edition of The Amplifier newsletter, Lindsay Zoladz shared the music that shaped her year. She rediscovered a classic from the Smiths thanks to a karaoke party, dug into Neil Young’s back catalog after seeing him in concert, and revisited a Frank Sinatra standard because it reminded her of a cherished trip to Vermont.As she pointed out, not all of the music that will remind us of this year actually came out in 2024. Maybe your favorite song this year was an old tune you fell back in love with, a new-to-you discovery or a piece of music linked with an important event in your life. With that in mind, we’re asking readers: What song explains your 2024? Why did it resonate with you this year?If you’d like to share your story with us, fill out the form below. We may publish your response in an upcoming newsletter. We won’t publish any part of your submission without reaching out and hearing back from you first. More

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      Martial Solal, French Jazz Piano Virtuoso, Is Dead at 97

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      Mr. Solal, who also wrote music for films and symphony orchestras, was revered in Europe and hailed in the United States on his rare visits there.Martial Solal, Europe’s pre-eminent jazz pianist, who recorded dozens of startlingly original albums in a career of almost three quarters of a century and who wrote scores for numerous films, including Jean-Luc Godard’s masterpiece “Breathless,” died on Thursday in Versailles, France. He was 97.His death, in a hospital, was announced by Rachida Dati, France’s minister of culture.Mr. Solal, who was born in Algeria, was 34 when he performed his first concert at the landmark Salle Gaveau concert hall in Paris, his adopted home, in 1962. He was 91 when he took the same stage in 2019 for his farewell concert.The two performances were bookends to an extraordinary career in which he recorded countless albums and wrote music for solo piano, big bands and symphonies, including four concertos for piano and orchestra, as well as the film scores.Although he was little known in the United States, the critic Francis Davis, writing in The New York Times in 2001, said that Mr. Solal “might be the greatest living European jazz pianist — and is at least the equal of any in the United States.”In 2010, John Fordham, the chief jazz critic of The Guardian, called him “France’s most famous living jazz artist.”Mr. Solal was admired as much for his technical virtuosity as for his exploratory improvisations. Critics compared him to the great jazz pianist Art Tatum, and his playing at times echoed (without imitating) the likes of Duke Ellington and Thelonious Monk. But he blazed his own path, combining spare melodic lines with lush chordal passages in a style the French newspaper Le Monde described as “cutting through his music with the precision of a goldsmith.”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Can Berlin Really Afford 3 ‘Magic Flutes’ in a Single Week?

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      Each of the city’s opera houses is presenting a different production of the Mozart classic. With arts cuts looming, it looks like a last hurrah.Opera has always tended toward grandeur. Berlin, home to three world-class opera houses, regularly takes things to the next level.This week, for example, each of those houses is putting on a different production of Mozart’s “The Magic Flute.” At one, larger-than-life serpents slither across the stage, spurting real fire from their nostrils. At another, animated pink elephants flying across a giant screen deliver a character to his salvation.But with cuts to the city arts budget looming, this looks increasingly like a last hurrah for a system of largess under threat.A scene from the Staatsoper’s “Magic Flute,” which reconstructs the staging of a 19th-century production.Monika RittershausNext week, Berlin’s Senate looks set to pass a 2025 budget that will slash funding to the arts scene, which relies heavily on public money. Institutions large and small have warned that these cuts put Berlin’s identity as a cultural capital on the chopping block.According to a plan released last month, culture funding, which makes up just over 2 percent of the municipal budget, will be reduced by around 13 percent, or about 130 million euros (roughly $136 million).We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      At Opening Night at La Scala, Opera Is the Center of the Universe

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      Television reporters stood shoulder to shoulder delivering breathless, minute-by-minute commentary, part of a pack of more than 120 journalists from 10 countries.Celebrities, politicians and titans of industry walked the red carpet past paparazzi and officers standing sentry with capes, sashes, swords and plumed hats.Outside, protesters used firecrackers, smoke bombs and even manure as they sought to seize on the occasion to draw attention to a variety of causes.It was not a global summit, a Hollywood premiere or a royal procession. It was the start of the new opera season at Teatro alla Scala in Milan.Opera may be starved for attention in much of the world. But at La Scala, the storied theater that gave world premieres of works by Donizetti, Puccini, Rossini and Verdi, opera can still feel like the center of the cultural universe. It remains a matter of national pride and patrimony, a political football and an obsession for devoted fans.“This is sacred for us,” said the critic Alberto Mattioli, who writes for La Stampa, an Italian newspaper. “Opera is our religion.”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Timothée Chalamet Sings Live for the Bob Dylan Biopic, ‘A Complete Unknown’

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      The actor’s vocals so impressed the film’s director that he used the live recordings, instead of those prerecorded in a studio. Here’s a look at other actors who have hit their own high notes in musical biopics.In one trailer for the upcoming Bob Dylan biopic, “A Complete Unknown,” a fan pleads with the musician, played by Timothée Chalamet, saying that she can’t hear the music at his sold-out concert.Chalamet, his eyes hidden behind Dylan’s trademark Ray Ban sunglasses, his hair a frizzy mop, responds: “I’ll sing louder.”Biopics have often relied on creative license to portray a star, but Chalamet’s words are not just blowin’ in the wind. The songs in “Unknown,” directed by James Mangold, have resonated through generations, and Chalamet’s voice was so impressive that his live vocals — sung while performing in character — were kept for the final cut.That is not the industry standard. Some films use an original artist’s track while an actor lip-syncs. When actors in biopics do sing, it is common for them to record the vocals in a studio and then overdub them onscreen. Singing live on camera can leave a performance falling flat, especially if the actor is not a trained vocalist.But when done well, live vocals can add a touch of realism.“The idea was to get a little bit different sound in each different venue by using practical microphones from the period,” Tod Maitland, the sound mixer for “Unknown,” said in an interview with Variety this month. “That helped create a nice tapestry of sounds. But Timmy went 100 percent live. It was pretty amazing.”It’s not Chalamet’s first time at the mic — he sang in the 2023 film “Wonka,” and attended LaGuardia High School, a performing arts school in New York City.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More