Redferns / Getty Images Before Bob Dylan played his historic shows in China, the Chinese government had already lowered, however carefully, its longstanding barriers to Western culture. Beyonce and Usher both performed there recently despite Bjork's little rebellion during a 2008 performance in Shanghai when she chanted "Tibet! Tibet!" ...

WireImage Thirty years ago, the hard rock powerhouse known as Van Halen was just coming into its own, and by April of 1981, the original group was already in deep trouble. At the end of the month, Van Halen would release its fourth album, 'Fair Warning' and the last track, sung by frontman David Lee Roth, was called 'One Foot Out the Door.' ...

Redferns / Getty Images November is not the month for April Fools jokes. But a story that came out that month in 1992 turned out to be one of the music industry's best pranks. When the New York Times asked a reporter to get to the bottom of a suddenly ubiquitous musical style and anti-fashion statement called grunge, the paper of record ...

EmittRhodesMusic.net In the early 1970s, he was "one of the finest artists on the music scene today," according to Billboard. At age 20, he'd already recorded "one of best albums of the decade" -- singlehandedly. And by 24, Emitt Rhodes was effectively finished with the music industry, a victim of stiff contracts, band brawls and career ...

Rick Diamond, WireImage When Willie Nelson visited the White House last December, it was just days after the singer's arrest for possession of 6 ounces of pot. The 77-year-old singer, who is on the advisory board for the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML), has never bothered to hide his famous habit. It had been ...

Sean Gallup, Getty Images These days, Bob Geldof is better known as a political rabble-rouser, founder of Live Aid and the father of celebutante Peaches Geldof than he is as the one-time frontman of the Boomtown Rats. But that hasn't curbed his desire to write songs. The droll, notably profane singer is set to kick off the American ...

WireImage, WireImage, FilmMagic The original shock rocker, the "Jewish Elvis Presley" and the man Elton John called the "Jackson Pollock of song" led the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame's Class of 2011. The black-tie-optional ceremony took place Monday night at the Waldorf-Astoria in New York. Alice Cooper, Neil Diamond and Tom Waits ...