crown

Subscribe Now

FOLLOW US

Sign in

Home / Columns / Sanjoy Narayan

Sanjoy Narayan

Sanjoy Narayan

Last summer, while a debate over net neutrality was on in the US, in his very funny news satire show, Last Week Tonight, the comedian John Oliver used a typically risqué example to explain what a non-neutral Internet could do to small web-based entrepreneurs and startups.

Articles by Sanjoy Narayan

For the Record is a gripping, sweeping history of music, says Sanjoy Narayan

Leonard Bernstein conducts the Boston Symphony in 1970. (Getty Images)

Updated on Jul 17, 2026 16:44 IST

Playing all the parts: Music legend Joni Mitchell finally gets her due

Performing at the Grammys in 2025. (Getty Images)

Updated on Jul 10, 2026 14:36 IST

Meet the musician remoulding the Miles Davis sound

In an example of what Glasper is doing, his album Everything’s Beautiful reshapes material from the Davis archive, and is formally credited to Davis and him. (Via @RobertGlasper on Instagram)

Updated on Jun 26, 2026 14:36 IST

On a slide quest: Meet a music legend who drove a school bus to make ends meet

McIlwaine (1945-2021) performs in Chicago in 1980. Leave the slide guitar to the men, she was told. Instead, she played with a ferocity that was, at least for a while, impossible to ignore. She died five years ago this June. (Getty Images)

Updated on Jun 12, 2026 12:05 IST

Heard instinct: Sanjoy Narayan is on the hunt for new routes to music

The People’s Party hosted by Femi Koleoso of Ezra Collective is one of several remarkable offerings on BBC Radio 6 Music.

Updated on May 29, 2026 16:00 IST

A million Miles: In his 100th year, see how Miles Davis revolutionised jazz

(Images: Getty, Wikimedia; HT Imaging)

Updated on May 22, 2026 13:30 IST

A room full of stars: Sanjoy Narayan on the Pitchblack Playback experience

Narayan listened to the 1975 album Who’s Next by The Who, at Helsinki’s Gilda cinema.

Updated on May 15, 2026 18:16 IST

Bass to the future: Sanjoy Narayan on the many moods of Thundercat

Cover art for the single I Wish I Didn’t Waste Your Time, from Distracted.

Updated on Apr 24, 2026 12:34 IST

A sway with words: Sanjoy Narayan writes on talk-singing

Gil Scott-Heron, too often omitted from this lineage, belongs near the top of it. He established the form’s possibilities as social witness. (Getty Images)

Updated on Apr 10, 2026 15:35 IST

50 years of punk: Sanjoy Narayan writes on a movement that changed the world

Punk gave the world Ramones, Nirvana, piercings, studded leather, safety-pin jewellery, and a reminder: rock and roll has always been for people with little to lose.

Updated on Apr 10, 2026 14:07 IST

How to spread a jam: Sanjoy Narayan writes on the genius of Shabaka Hutchings

(@shabaka hutchings/instagram)

Updated on Mar 27, 2026 14:57 IST

Putting the rock in Ragnarok: Sanjoy Narayan writes on Nordic blues

Every country here has its legendary acts. Iceland’s Kaleo is four childhood friends from a town near Reykjavík who bonded over American music, recorded an album in Nashville, and went double-platinum in the US in 2016.

Updated on Mar 13, 2026 12:01 IST

Ghost notes: Sanjoy Narayan writes on the gigs he missed

A poster for the digitally remastered documentary The Beatles at Shea Stadium, originally released in 1966.

Updated on Mar 6, 2026 10:57 IST

Settling scores: Sanjoy Narayan writes on the audacious music of Fargo

Chris Rock plays gang leader Loy Cannon in 1950s Kansas City, in Season 4. The soundtrack serves as a socio-political map, a collision of the sophisticated and the raw.

Updated on Feb 13, 2026 10:20 IST

Turn it up to 11: Sanjoy Narayan writes on the living legends of rock and jazz

Joni Mitchell, 82, Paul McCartney, 83, Debbie Harry, 80, and Dionne Warwick, 85, all continue to perform. (Wikimedia, Getty, PaulMcCartney.com)

Updated on Feb 6, 2026 14:13 IST

Soul survivors: Sanjoy Narayan on the magic of a retro music movement

The retro-soul movement is being led by bands such as Thee Sacred Souls, which emerged from the garage scene of San Diego.

Updated on Jan 17, 2026 03:49 IST

The controlled chaos of Geese: Sanjoy Narayan writes on the rock quartet

Geese frontman Cameron Winter, 23, is the gravitational centre of the band. He has been compared to Radiohead’s Thom Yorke.

Updated on Jan 9, 2026 13:12 IST

Tapping into a seam of gold: Sanjoy Narayan on the best tracks of ’75

Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody was ambition made audible; the sound of artists refusing to be confined even by the rules of rock.

Updated on Dec 27, 2025 10:55 IST

Walking around Helsinki with Miles Davis: Download Central by Sanjoy Narayan

‘There are albums that become sonic companions, their architecture mirroring one’s surroundings. For me, in Helsinki, Davis’s A Tribute to Jack Johnson is that album.’

Updated on Dec 19, 2025 14:47 IST

An Irish spell: Sanjoy Narayan on the stunning music of House of Guinness

The Netflix period drama chronicles the power struggle within Ireland’s most famous brewing dynasty, in the wake of the death of the head of the family, Benjamin Guinness, in 1868.

Updated on Nov 14, 2025 11:25 IST

Noise to let the light back in: Sanjoy Narayan writes on heavy metal

Cover art for the albums Hidden History of the Human Race (2019) by Blood Incantation.

Updated on Nov 8, 2025 14:00 IST

In neo-punk, rage finds an unlikely ally: Hope, says Sanjoy Narayan

Cover art for the album Love Like Snow by Candy.

Updated on Oct 17, 2025 11:08 IST

A wild muse chase: Sanjoy Narayan on the kinship of jazz and hip-hop

The Get Down (2016) on Netflix, starring Shameik Moore, Justice Smith, Tremaine Brown Jr, Skylan Brooks and Jaden Smith, reminded us of what the Bronx in the 1970s really was: a crucible.

Updated on Oct 11, 2025 07:17 IST

The 30-track album: Sanjoy Narayan writes on Jeff Tweedy

In an era of playlist culture and shortened attention spans, Jeff Tweedy’s latest 30-track album feels almost anachronistic. (Wikimedia)

Updated on Sep 20, 2025 09:05 IST

Race to the Finnish: Sanjoy Narayan tries familiar flavours at Ravintola Indus

The Delhi papri chaat is cleverly served in a shell made of the papri, each piece designed to be popped whole into the mouth.

Updated on Sep 20, 2025 08:09 IST

Masters of sound and silence: Sanjoy Narayana writes on the band Mogwai

Cover art for the band’s new album, The Bad Fire.

Updated on Sep 12, 2025 10:05 IST

He left his wallet in El Segundo: Ryan Davis and the American archetype

Davis treats song-writing like furniture-making. His music is deliberate, tactile and built to last.

Updated on Aug 22, 2025 12:06 IST

Treble in the family: Sanjoy Narayan on Kamasi Washington and modern jazz

Washington on the cover of Heaven and Earth (2018).

Updated on Aug 8, 2025 09:39 IST

The nine lives of Cat Power: Sanjoy Narayan writes on a shape-shifting artist

From the 2023 live album Cat Power Sings Dylan: The 1966 Royal Albert Hall Concert.

Updated on Jul 26, 2025 09:19 IST

The reggae rebels of punk rock: Sanjoy Narayan on the legacy of Bad Brains

Bad Brains at a gig in the 1980s.

Updated on Jul 19, 2025 07:32 IST

© 2026 HindustanTimes