h.Club 100 Awards: Music - opening up the future

h.Club 100 AWARDS: MUSIC This year's shortlist recognises visionaries in the studio and music business

This year's shortlist recognises visionaries in the studio and music business

The second decade of the 21st century will undoubtedly be remembered for huge innovations in accessing music, just as much as for the music itself. As well as acknowledging upfront talent, then, the Hospital Club’s h.Club 100 Music shortlist for 2017 makes it clear what’s going on behind the scenes is currently as important as what’s out front.

Whitney: Can I Be Me review - tragic account of superstar who fell to earth

★★★ WHITNEY - CAN I BE ME How did it go so wrong for pop's most glamorous diva? Nick Broomfield investigates

How did it go so wrong for pop's most glamorous diva? Nick Broomfield investigates

The statistics of Whitney Houston’s career are flabbergasting in this post-CD era. Her 1985 debut album sold 25 million copies. “I Will Always Love You” is the best-selling single by a female artist in music biz history. Its parent album, the soundtrack to The Bodyguard, sold more than one million copies in a week. She had more consecutive Number One hits than The Beatles. She has sold 200 million records worldwide.

Lost in France

LOST IN FRANCE Nostalgic music documentary gets a hero's welcome at Glasgow Film Festival

Nostalgic music documentary gets a hero's welcome at Glasgow Film Festival

Pulling together a music documentary strikes me as a simple enough concept. Gather your talking heads in front of a nice enough backdrop, splice with archive footage in some semblance of a narrative order and there you go. There’s no need to, say, hire a minibus and attempt to recreate a near-mythological gig from 20 years ago. Especially if that gig happened in France.

On the road with Bob Dylan: the mother of all rockumentaries

ON THE ROAD WITH BOB DYLAN: THE MOTHER OF ALL ROCKUMENTARIES DA Pennebaker’s 'Dont Look Back' created new myths for musicians

DA Pennebaker’s 'Dont Look Back' created new myths for musicians

Dont Look Back is the Ur-rockumentary, the template for hundreds of hand-held rock tour films, a source of inspiration as well as a model to aspire to.

Vinyl, Sky Atlantic

VINYL, SKY ATLANTIC Scorsese and Jagger's series is prone to warping, skipping and scratches

Scorsese and Jagger's series is prone to warping, skipping and scratches

You can almost hear the words ringing out in the dramatic pauses. “We should call it Vinyl. Like, y’know... when you could hold music in your hand... touch it... FEEL it. When it was really WORTH something.

The Easybeats to AC/DC: The Sound of Aussie Rock, BBC Four

THE EASYBEATS TO AC/DC: THE SOUND OF AUSSIE ROCK, BBC FOUR The story of the band's long way to the top was engaging, but too short

The story of the band's long way to the top was engaging, but too short

Australia has long been a country shaped by its arrivals and, as this BBC4 documentary set out to show, so it was with rock music. Using the twin journeys of the Albert family from Switzerland and the Youngs from Scotland, it went on to map out the particular path that would eventually lead AC/DC on to global domination. The Youngs, you see, included guitarists Angus, Malcolm and George.

Rock History Revisited in HBO's Vinyl

ROCK HISTORY REVISITED IN HBO'S VINYL Scorsese and Jagger shine a light on the Seventies music business

Scorsese and Jagger shine a light on the Seventies music business

It was 20 years ago that Mick Jagger suggested to Martin Scorsese that they should make a film "that spanned four decades of the world of music in New York City". The idea has finally come to fruition as Vinyl, HBO's new 10-part series that kicks off on Sky Atlantic on Monday 15 February.

theartsdesk in Groningen: Uniting Europe with Music

THEARTSDESK IN GRONINGEN: UNITING EUROPE WITH MUSIC Frontiers are breached at Eurosonic festival and the European Border Breakers Awards

Frontiers are breached at Eurosonic festival and the European Border Breakers Awards

The nature of Europe, its administration, institutions and its porousness are hot topics. Sectors of Britain’s media and political class hyperventilate over trumped-up concerns while real issues which are just about impossible to address remain unresolved. In this climate, the European Border Breakers Awards are ripe for misinterpretation. Instead of being for those devising the shrewdest ways to slip in and out of countries, they are an annual European Union-sponsored award presented to pop musicians achieving success beyond their own borders.

Opinion: The new London hall - 10 Questions we need to ask

OPINION: THE NEW LONDON HALL – 10 QUESTIONS WE NEED TO ASK What a new concert venue for London should be – and what it must avoid

What a new concert venue for London should be – and what it must avoid

So the feasibility study for the new concert hall – The Centre for Music – has finally surfaced, a little later than planned. It’s being greeted, generally speaking, as if it’s to be the next London Olympics. “A global beacon,” declares the Evening Standard... Nicholas Hytner (he who said that building the Southbank Centre extension would spoil the view from his National Theatre) compares it to Tate Modern, which he says enlarged audiences for other visual arts rather than taking them away. This should, he says, be “a Tate Modern for music”.