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When The Beatles' members started Apple Records 40 years ago, they still depended on larger companies for the basics. Independent labels, including some run by musicians, have come a long way since. A small but growing number of musicians are taking the idea of the independent label even further.

Quincy Jones went from performing and arranging to producing. As a record executive, he churned out chart toppers. Always restless, he moved to producing films and TV shows in the 1960s and '70s. Through the '80s and '90s there were more hits: The Color Purple, Michael Jackson's blockbusters and humanitarian work in Africa. At 75, he's still keeping up a blistering pace.

A stalwart of the outlaw country movement in the 1970s, Jennings bucked the conventions of Nashville with a tough sound and attitude. He died in 2002, but his son Shooter, now an outlaw country star in his own right, has just released a collection of songs he made with his dad in the mid-'90s — the last recordings Waylon Jennings ever made.

One hundred years before McCain and Obama saturated the airwaves with ads, the era of mass-media presidential campaigns kicked off with mannequins and wax cylinders.

Can a children's author strike gold twice? R.L. Stine's Goosebumps series sold more than 300 million copies in the 1990s. Now, he's hoping to revisit that success with Goosebumps: HorrorLand.

Davenport claims the distinction of being home to America's largest sitting zither orchestra. This homegrown music scene revolves around the city's German-American community, as well as a tradition of hausmusik its ancestors brought to this country.

The Bright Eyes singer made Conor Oberst on an impulse while visiting the mystical mountain town of Tepoztlan in Mexico earlier this year. The approach is straight folk-rock, but it's less simple than it seems at first. But it also sounds like the next installment in the Bright Eyes catalog.

For An Invitation, George wrote the songs with just her voice and a guitar, then sent them away to master arranger Van Dyke Parks. The result is a lushly orchestrated, theatrical song cycle, which buoys George's unique vocal phrasing with a small orchestra.

Education and musicians in residence fuel a robust contemporary classical scene in the Texas city. It's supported by the success of the Houston Symphony and local public radio, which has helped build an open-minded audience for music that's both cerebral and fun.

At 20, the guitarist and songwriter from Glasgow has already sold 1 million copies of her debut album overseas. On the eve of the U.S. release of This Is the Life, MacDonald played a few songs and spoke with Scott Simon.