While writing my previous headphone-related article, I started thinking about the variety of artists who have collaborated with manufacturers of audio equipment to produce branded products with which their fans could display allegiance while – of course – rocking out to their music. From Metallica to Lady GaGa to J-rockers Beat Crusaders, here’s a list of some of the most memorable.

Copenhagen’s AIAIAI, which emerged from the city’s Studio 54-esque club The A-House, is a relatively new entry into the audio equipment scene, having manufactured headphones and earphones since 2005 [it also designs and sells laptop accessories and t-shirts.]

In the last week or so, music blogs – at least those that weren’t deleted by Google for posting copyrighted content – have exploded over “zef”, an energetic hybrid of rave and hip-hip with a self-consciously white-trash aesthetic [the word itself refers to the South African redneck subculture] typified by bands such as Cape Town collective Die Antwoord.

From 2Pac to Carly Simon, the annals of popular music are filled with songs targeting other musicians, exes, record companies and anyone else who fails to share the songwriter’s point of view. Here are ten of the best.

Who would have thought bad singing could get you killed?
Apparently, in the Philippines, it can: according to the New York Times, at least six karaoke singers in the past ten years have been slain during renditions of Frank Sinatra’s 1969 classic “My Way”.