Michael Hogan

It's Black Music History Month, and HuffPost Entertainment is celebrating with a revamped installment of "Spotify the News."

In this special edition, we've rounded up 10 songs (and about as many runners-up) from trailblazing or otherwise notable black musicians that speak with special authority to the biggest news stories...

No need to worry that "Bad News Is Coming." It's already here! So let HuffPost Entertainment's Spotify playlist of good music take away the sting.

Europe's leaders met again, looking in vain for a way to get their economy to "Stop Breaking Down." But investors looking for a...

Forget what you heard about that infamous slap. "Men in Black 3" star Will Smith loves having a movie to promote and absolutely adores being the center of attention.

And thank heavens for that. There are enough sulky, misunderstood artists clogging the red carpets these days, and not...

Long before technology enabled each of us to cram our entire record collections into digital slivers the size of cigarette cases, there were essentially two ways of storing high-fidelity recordings: big tape and vinyl. But in the 1950s, the transistor came along and changed everything. Yes, it enabled greasers to...

"Spotify the News" is a new HuffPost feature designed to translate the week's big headlines into a weekend-worthy playlist featuring classic hits, unfairly overlooked obscurities and a good deal of what's in between.

Well, "Today Is The Day" we've been waiting for -- the big Facebook I.P.O.! Will...

Three decades after his untimely death, Bob Marley is rewriting the rules of film distribution.

The trailblazing reggae singer, who succumbed to cancer in 1981 at the age of 36, remains a hugely inspirational figure to millions of people from Division Street to Dar es Salaam, and the producers of...

Introducing "Spotify the News," a new HuffPost feature designed to translate the week's big headlines into a weekend-worthy playlist featuring classic hits, unfairly overlooked obscurities and a good deal of what's in between.

Gay marriage led the "Headline News" this week, thanks to Vice President Joe Biden's unusual...

At last night's gala benefit for The Moth, a non-profit dedicated to the art of storytelling, Darryl "D.M.C." McDaniels shared a few memories of Adam "MCA" Yauch with The Huffington Post.

In the 1980s, McDaniels' group, Run-D.M.C., and Yauch's group, the Beastie Boys, were tag-team partners locked in combat...

UPDATE: According to news reports, Beastie Boys founding member Adam Yauch has died at age 47. The original story continues below.

The Beastie Boys and the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame have one major thing in common: they both hit the big time in 1986....

Boom!

"The Avengers" is two and a half hours of pure, unadulterated fun -- the cinematic equivalent not just of a roller coaster ride but of the whole damn amusement park. Drop tower, log flume, Tilt-A-Whirl, Gravitron -- you name it, it's in there.

No, it's not a dark, moody...

Dr. Richard Leakey is the first to admit that his friendship with Paul Simon is unlikely. "I really don't like music and he really doesn't like old bones," Leakey told the audience at last night's intimate fundraiser for the Turkana Basin Institute (T.B.I.), a non-profit organization dedicated to assembling a...

Neil Young and Crazy Horse are at it again, putting their trademark proto-grunge spin on a song most people associate with banjo-pickers and gold-rushers.

"Oh Susannah," which debuted on Stereogum this morning, isn't instantly recognizable as a cover of "Oh! Susanna," the 19th-century minstrel tune written by "Camptown...

Susan Sarandon says she was recently denied security clearance to visit the White House. And Michael Moore absolutely hated the Davis Guggenheim documentary "Waiting for Superman."

Those were just two of the juicier revelations that emerged as the actress and filmmaker, two of Hollywood's most unabashed liberals, chatted with audience...

A formidable lineup of writers, editors, actors, scientists, and assorted intellectuals gathered at Cooper Union's Great Hall, at 7 East 7th Street, to revive for one last occasion the voice of Christopher Hitchens, which was silenced by esophageal cancer on December 15, 2011.

The novelist Martin Amis delivered a heartfelt...

The Tribeca Film Festival kicked off its 11th annual edition with the world premiere of Nicholas Stoller's "The Five-Year Engagement" at the Ziegfeld Theatre in midtown Manhattan on Wednesday night. Stars Jason Segel, Emily Blunt, Alison Brie, Dakota Johnson and Kevin Hart joined Stoller, producer Judd Apatow and...

Are we living in the future that Kraftwerk once imagined?

It's become something of a cliché to say so, now that the German pioneers of electronic music have been inducted into the art-world canon thanks to an eight-date engagement at the Museum of Modern Art that wraps up...

Don't accuse Mitch Glazer of trying to capitalize on the one-hour cable drama craze. The veteran screenwriter's new show,"Magic City," which premieres on Starz this weekend, actually began as a pilot for CBS.

"It really wasn't a network show. It never was,” admitted Glazer, who said he's...

The very first scene of "Girls," HBO's new comedy about the lives of four young women in New York City, is set in the kind of upscale restaurant that once would have housed Carrie, Samantha, and the rest of the "Sex and the City" gang. But Mr. Big isn't picking...

Bryan Cranston tried out for a role in Alexander Payne's next project, the road-trip movie "Nebraska," but probably won't get the role, the director told The Huffington Post today.

"He's auditioned already," Payne said of Cranston in an interview timed to coincide with yesterday's release of "The Descendants" on Blu-ray...

Bryan Cranston tried out for a role in Alexander Payne's next project, the road-trip movie "Nebraska," but probably won't get the role, the director told The Huffington Post today.

"He's auditioned already," Payne said of Cranston in an interview timed to coincide with yesterday's DVD release of "The Descendants." "I...