A UK study titled 100 Ballads by Christopher Marsh of Queen’s University Belfast and Angela McShane of the University of Warwick explores the commercial music market of 17th century England. They collaborated with The Carnival Band to recreate top ballads from that era, which are available for free on the project's website. The study reveals that songwriters earned a penny per sheet, a rate that remained constant despite inflation, drawing a parallel to modern royalty models like Spotify's. The research also indicates that English ballads were preserved better than their European counterparts, though there was significant overlap in tunes across the channel. Ballads from the project tell stories of European events and reflect the cultural exchange of music between England and the continent.

The upcoming total solar eclipse is generating significant public interest, with many in the U.S. and abroad planning to view it. Eclipses have historically been seen as bad omens, with artistic and literary references dating back to ancient Egypt. Renaissance painters and expressionists like Egon Schiele have depicted eclipses in their work, often symbolizing darkness and despair. However, eclipses have also been portrayed in various ways, including in modern popular culture by authors like Stephen King and Stephenie Meyer. Despite the ominous interpretations, the article suggests that the darkness of an eclipse is temporary and will pass, as described by Virginia Woolf in her diary.