Freya Parr
A longtime BBC Music Magazine contributor, Freya Parr has also written for titles including the Guardian, Circus Journal, Frankie and Suitcase Magazine, and runs The Noiseletter, a fortnightly arts and culture publication. Freya's main areas of interest and research lie in 20th-century and contemporary music. She's a regular sea shanty singer, folk obsessive and occasional flautist, pianist, organist and musical theatre director.
Recent articles by Freya Parr
Bats, butchers and bed-ins: rock's 15 most infamous publicity stunts
From libellous postcards to rogue inflatable pigs, rock history is littered with headline-grabbing publicity stunts
Hard luck stories: rock's 12 unluckiest bands, ranked
Whether thwarted by crooked managers, catastrophic timing or financial naivety, these rock bands never nailed the greatness they deserved
Regrets? 14 rock musicians who quit bands JUST before fame came knocking
The rock musicians who walked away – or were pushed out – just before their bands exploded into global superstardom
14 bands who went huge... then just vanished
One moment they owned the airwaves; the next, they were ghosts. Discover the legends who conquered the world... then disappeared
Confessions: 11 iconic love songs – and who they're ACTUALLY about
From Patti Boyd to Janis Joplin, discover the real-life muses who transformed private rock romances into legendary public confessions
These 15 iconic rock partnerships notoriously turned sour
From wavering friendships to outright feuds, some of rock music’s most legendary partnerships are also some of its most flammable
Odd couple: rock's 16 most far-fetched collaborations
Guitar heroes and hip-hop pioneers: these unlikely collaborations reveal what happens when rock stars step outside their usual boundaries
Off with a bang: Rock’s 23 most unforgettable intros, ranked
From pounding riffs to unexpected openings, these iconic rock intros grab your attention from the very first note... and never let go
Rollercoaster bands: 9 iconic groups who spun from success to failure
From creative disagreements to musical missteps, these legendary rock bands rode dramatic waves of success and failure
The 21 most unforgettable 1970s album covers – ranked
As vinyl sleeves grew into larger creative canvases, musicians in the 1970s increasingly turned to visionary photographers, painters and design studios to translate sound into image
These 11 legendary bands nearly broke up before getting anywhere
From creative dead ends to personal turmoil, these bands were on the brink of breaking up – until something changed
Rock's 9 luckiest breaks: the freak accidents that created enduring icons
From rain-soaked concerts to last-minute substitutions and happy accidents, rock history is full of chance moments that changed everything
These are the 19 best 1980s album covers – ranked
We count down the greatest album artworks of the 1980s, where bold visual ideas matched the groundbreaking musical statements within...
Feel the bass! Rock's 18 greatest basslines, ranked
From psychedelic grooves to minimalist pulses and stadium-shaking riffs, these are the basslines that have shaped rock music from the 1960s to today
Ranked: the 20 greatest opera composers of all time
Here are the best opera composers of all time, from the 16th century to the modern day
Is this music's eeriest instrument?
We explain the workings of the unusual instrument, the Ondes Martenot, that takes centre stage in Messiaen's Turangalîla Symphony
Ravi Shankar: the visionary musician George Harrison called 'the Godfather of World Music'
Ravi Shankar's biographer Oliver Craske introduces us to the fascinating musical life of the great sitar virtuoso, composer, father of Norah Jones and Anoushka Shankar, teacher of Philip Glass and friend of Yehudi Menuhin
Struggling to sleep? Try these 11 dreamlike melodies
We guide you through the pieces of music that will help relax the mind, calm the nerves and send you off to sleep
The Lark Ascending: the origin story of Vaughan Williams's atmospheric masterpiece
A guide to The Lark Ascending, Vaughan Williams's much-loved work for violin and orchestra
Review: Fantasie (Jeneba Kanneh-Mason)
The first solo offering from Jeneba Kanneh-Mason, the fifth in the seven-sibling chart-topping Kanneh-Mason family
This is the world's most famous classical concert. But it had some dark beginnings
How Clemens Krauss and the Nazis set off a Vienna New Year tradition in 1939
These are the 21 greatest piano concertos of all time
We count down the 21 greatest piano concertos - the finest works ever written for piano with orchestra
Music about time: 15, er, timeless masterpieces
Musicians across eras have explored time’s beauty, mystery, and melancholy. These 15 masterpieces don’t just measure time—they feel it, using rhythm, lyrics, and emotion to remind us that music, like time, never stands still
Ennio Morricone: the poor Italian boy who forged the sound of the American Wild West
Ennio Morricone’s iconic film scores evoke images of the great American landscape like no other. But, in an exclusive interview with BBC Music Magazine back in 2016 at his house in Rome, he proved his horizons stretch well beyond that
