@Harlan Culmer

Whether it’s a weekday morning or Saturday night, get going with this personalised set of upbeat music. Refreshed every Monday.

Songs to help you relax and unwind. Updated every Sunday.

Discover new music from artists we think you'll like. Refreshed every Friday.

The tracks you can’t get enough of lately, all in one place. Updated as you listen.

The songs you can’t do without. The more you use Apple Music, the more essential they become. Refreshed every Tuesday.

Born in England's pub rock scene, Dire Straits made a career of pushing roots rock into uncharted territory. Featuring Mark Knopfler's Dylan-esque drawl and spare guitar picking, 1978's forward-moving rocker “Sultans of Swing” is a moody, minimalist gem that contains subtle hints of jazz and country. In an improbable move, the band embraced synths in the '80s and unleashed an enduring anthem in “Money for Nothing”, a cryptic slice of futuristic blues rock. Throughout, their tasteful musicianship, streamlined boogie and encyclopedic knowledge of music gave their songs an unassuming and captivating propulsion.

Elton John and Phil Collins had crossed over into the classic-rock pantheon by the time the ‘90s started, they kept releasing tracks that showed off their maturity and songcraft. Newer acts took their cues from rock’s prevailing trends: Jangle-rockers like Hootie and the Blowfish and the Gin Blossoms brought indie ideals to the masses; Alanis Morrissette and Sarah McLachlan built mysteries by diving inward, writing disarmingly honest music that spoke to deep feelings; and Red Hot Chili Peppers flipped their funk-rock and incorporated psychedelia’s nuances. Soft rock’s sprawl reflected the decade’s tumult while offering listeners a gentle landing.

Tension can be a great motivator for a band, and no group has put that maxim to the test quite like Fleetwood Mac, a ’60s British blues-rock outfit that—through a series of lineup changes, stylistic shifts and rocky internal romances—became the paragons of ‘70s Californian pop. Since the band’s formation in London in 1967, drummer Mick Fleetwood and bassist John McVie have served as both the rhythmic and spiritual anchors for a group that has hosted a revolving-door procession of outsized personalities, starting with Peter Green, the budding guitar god responsible for early hits like “Black Magic Woman” (famously covered by Santana) and the tranquil instrumental “Albatross” (which The Beatles admittedly aped on their <I>Abbey Road</I> track “Sun King”).<br> After Green quit in 1970, the band cycled through different frontmen—Danny Kirwan and Bob Welch among them—while their keyboardist, McVie’s wife Christine, emerged as a female vocal foil. After a relocation to L.A., they welcomed singer/songwriter Lindsey Buckingham and his musical/romantic partner Stevie Nicks into the fold, heralding Fleetwood Mac’s transition into soft-rock hitmakers on their 1975 self-titled effort. But Nicks’ star turns on “Rhiannon” and “Landslide” revealed a darker mystique at the core of their easygoing sound and, as sudden success caused the long-term relationships within the band to disintegrate, their next release effectively invented a new genre: rock album as couples therapy. On 1977’s <I>Rumours</I>, Fleetwood Mac dressed up the bitterest break-up songs in the smoothest, sultriest arrangements to the tune of over 40 million copies sold; the album’s appeal is so universal that it’s been both cited by Courtney Love as an influence and used to soundtrack Bill Clinton’s presidential campaign.<br> But the band were eager to play against pop-star type—1979’s double-album colossus <I>Tusk</I> betrayed Buckingham’s affinity for post-punk, and though it was deemed a commercial disappointment at the time, it has since been embraced as a cult classic by discerning indie rockers. And even as more streamlined ‘80s efforts like <I>Mirage</I> and <I>Tango in the Night</I> reasserted their pop panache, Fleetwood Mac have remained a cauldron of drama and intra-band acrimony, the principal members seemingly coming and going without warning. In the wake of Buckingham’s departure in 2018, the group enlisted Crowded House singer Neil Finn and Tom Petty sideman Mike Campbell. Christine McVie, who wrote some of the band’s biggest songs, including “Don’t Stop”, “You Make Lovin' Fun” and “Over My Head”, died in November 2022 at the age of 79.