If a Song Doesn't Have a Chorus, You're Probably not Listening

It is not hard to estrange the idea of the chorus. Why should songs have some parts that are repeated and others that are not? Imagine other works of art in which a quarter or half of the work is repeated: a movie that shows the same 10-minute sequence every 20 minutes, or a book that repeats every other chapter. Yet, in popular music, the chorus seems necessary. It is, in many cases, the point of the song.

Marimba! How Apple's Default Text-Message Alert Was Born

It started, as so many things do, with SoundJam. In 1998, a trio of developers released the Mac-friendly MP3 player -- the WinAmp-style software that would evolve into iTunes. This isn't the story of iTunes, though. It's the story, oddly enough, of the text message alert -- the default sound built into every iPhone that's been manufactured.

What Does the Sun Sound Like?

Data sonification specialist Robert Alexander works with NASA and ESA to convert data into sounds, creating a soundtrack for the sun.

8 Classic Tech Sounds that Defined Our Digital World [VIDEOS]

Audio is a big part of our computing and mobile lives, but how often do we stop and think about the individual sounds, their origin and who might be behind them? Some examples of tech audio are in fact so well-known that they cross over into mainstream culture, as some of our examples below will show. We've picked eight classic sounds that will send you down memory lane, with some interesting snippets of info to go along with them, giving you the background behind the sound.