Since its humble beginnings in the Bronx during the 1970s, hip hop has become a global musical phenomenon with attendant forms of style and protest. Perhaps one of the greatest examples of hip hop's recent impact is in the Arab world where formed the soundtrack to the revolution with rappers like Hamada Ben Amor from Tunisia, Cheikh Oumar Cyrille from Senegal, and Mohamed el Deeb from Egypt.

Twenty years ago American folklorist and ethnomusicologist Alan Lomax designed "The Global Jukebox," a database that used descriptive tools to identify and link archival music and dance footage. The Global Jukebox was essentially Pandora — but conceived long before technology that could realize it existed. Ten years after his death, Lomax's dream may finally be realized: all of his recordings have been put online, but it will take at least another year to get his collection of dance film into the database.

Some might joke that his vocal chords are indeed much older, but celebrated folk legend Bob Dylan turned 70-years-old last year. Recently audio has surfaced from 1966, in which the singer speaks to a good friend during a flight from Nebraska to Colorado about struggling with addiction and contemplating suicide. It's the latest in a long narrative about a truly singular singer whose mysteries are still being revealed. We take a listen to some of the audio in question, and music that made Dylan a force of musical nature.

Country music has enjoyed a long tradition of reflecting the everyday concerns of working men and women, good times and bad times. With 14 million Americans currently out of work, a crippling national debt, and a record number of people living below the poverty line, country music may be going through a sea change. Call it an indicator of economic times but in the time it took pickup trucks to go from stripped down working class boxes of mud and steel to plush seated luxury vehicles, country music went from the folksy tinny common man voice of Woody Guthrie to the likes of Tim McGraw singing about the perils of being rich.

In September, musician and poet K'Naan wrote an op-ed about returning to his native Somalia for The New York Times. He had left the country, which is in the grip of a devastating famine and violent civil war, twenty years earlier, fleeing with other members of his family for safety in Canada. He came on the show to discuss this in September.

Many people know Julian Koster as the saw, bass, and banjo player for Neutral Milk Hotel. But in addition to contributing to the sounds of this wildly and widely-acclaimed band, Julian is an enormous holiday enthusiast. Each year, he partakes in a holiday caroling tour with his experimental pop group The Music Tapes. He joins The Takeaway as part of our week-long "Remixing the Holidays" series.

With Christmas rapidly approaching, The Takeaway asked you to help us craft the ultimate holiday song. Listeners submitted their lyrics, and Takeaway producer Hsi-Chang Lin and former interim digital editor Ben Brock Johnson composed the music and performed it. Happy holidays from everyone at The Takeaway! (Download the song after the jump.)

It’s the week before Christmas, and The Takeaway is celebrating with our annual "Remixing the Holidays" series. All week long we're talking with musicians, music lovers, and you about the best, and worst, songs of the season. On Wednesday, The Takeaway spoke with Jon Solomon, a DJ who hosts an annual 24-hour Christmas show on Princeton University's WPRB. Today, we speak with Jason Segel, star of the new "Muppet Movie," as well as "How I Met Your Mother," "Forgetting Sarah Marshall," and "Freaks and Geeks."

For many of us, the holiday season is a time for family and celebration. But for others, it's a time for snuggling up with someone special under the mistletoe. And in honor of those folks, we bring you a very special "Remixing the Holidays" interview, with three of our favorite, and flirtiest performers. The Puppini Sisters are Marcella Puppini, Stephanie O'Brien and Kate Mullins.

The Takeaway begins the holiday season with a week-long "Remixing the Holidays" series. All week long, we’ll be talking with musicians, music lovers, writers, and you, our listeners, about the best songs of the season. Jon Solomon, a DJ who hosts an annual 24-hour Christmas show on Princeton University's WPRB gives us his best and worst Christmas music of the year.

Fifty years ago, four young men named Paul McCartney, John Lennon, George Harrison, and Pete Best stepped into a studio for the first time to record a few songs. They called themselves the Beat Brothers, and they were more or less a backup band for a singer named Tony Sheridan. The Beat Brothers did not remain a backup band for long. Pete Best would be replaced by Ringo Star, and the Beat Brothers became the Beatles, one of the most enduring and popular bands in history.

It's everywhere in the air right now — at the supermarket, the pharmacy, in elevators, and in streets of cities across the country — not good cheer, but that endless loop of holiday music. Aside from annoying cynics or providing a soundtrack to Norman Rockwell-times around the dinner table, well-worn tunes like "White Christmas" or "Here Comes Santa Clause" mostly mean big business for bands releasing Christmas albums.

His days as prime minister of Italy are coming to an end, but Silvio Berlusconi isn't fading away quietly. On Tuesday, his fourth album of love songs will be released to the public. Titled "Il Vero Amore" (True Love), the album features 11 ballads, which are performed with the help of his long-time collaborator Mariano Apicella. But Berlusconi is hardly the only politician with musical aspirations. Here in the States, political figures from Bill Clinton and Ted Kennedy to Orrin Hatch and Condoleezza Rice have tried their hands at music.

Everybody knows the riffs from Black Sabbath's "Iron Man" and "Paranoid." They may seem timid by today's standards but in 1970, when the songs were released, they displayed the most ferocious sound in all the music world. Black Sabbath inspired legions of metal and hard rock musicians in the coming years. The good news for metal fans is that the original line-up of Ozzy Osbourne, Geezer Butler, Bill Ward, and Tony Iommi will get back together for a new album in 2012. This will be the first time that the band has recorded together since 1978's "Never Say Die!"

Takeaway co-host Celeste Headlee went on a swing through the West Coast recently where she visited with artists and newsmakers and took back her reporting. She had the chance to talk with multi-talented author and musician Colin Meloy. Colin is best known for his role as the lead singer and chief songwriter of the band The Decemberists. But Colin has also just written a children's book called "Wildwood" — his wife Carson Ellis illustrated the novel.

While the politicians engage in high level summitry, The Takeaway looks at another instrument of power — the banjo. Songwriter and banjo player Abigail Washburn is being sponsored by the State Department to carry out a ground breaking diplomatic mission of her own. She has been speaking to Matt Wells, a correspondent for Takeaway partner the BBC.

For as long as there's been music, seemingly mismatched artists of different religious backgrounds have teamed up on songs in unexpected ways. On the album "Higher and Higher," all the music is written by the late songwriter, Rabbi Schlomo Carlebach, who famously composed over five thousand Jewish songs during his life. And they're performed by two primary voices: one is that of his daughter, Neshama Carlebach. But the other voices are more surprising, it’s the Green Pastures Baptist Church Choir.

A satirical music video by the pop rock band Beygairat Brigade which openly mocks the military, nationalist politicians, and religious conservatism in Pakistan has become an internet sensation with more than 400,000 views in a few short weeks. “Aalu Anday,” which means “Potatoes and Eggs,” encourages open thought and a repeal of the country's anti-blasphemy laws. 

Dr. Conrad Murray, the personal physician of Michael Jackson, was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter in the pop star's death on Monday. Two and a half years after Jackson's death at age 50, a jury found that Murray acted recklessly when giving Jackson propofol, a surgical anesthetic Jackson used to sleep. Sharon Waxman, founder and CEO of TheWrap.com, discusses the trial.

In music, there are few things more insane than an amateur going and trying to sit down with a real player. But that's just what John Hockenberry did earlier this week, when he went to the house of comedian, author and banjo aficionado Steve Martin. A documentary called "Give Me the Banjo" airs tonight, and is narrated by Martin. But in the comedian's New York City apartment, talking about the banjo — as well as Martin's long career in comedy and interest in music — was augmented by some performance and a lesson or two.