Hit Parade | Music History and Music Trivia - More Than a Feeling Edition

If you were watching cable TV around midday at the turn of the millennium, there’s a good chance you saw a commercial for a compilation CD called Monster Ballads. It promised you more than two hours of musical cheese—some of the most over-the-top, cornball, leather-clad romantic jams ever to grace the charts, from “Heaven” to “High Enough,” “Carrie” to “Amanda.”

There’s another, more common term for these rockin’ romancers: power ballads. And while this TV ad suggested the power ballad was perfected in the ’80s—preferably sung by a dude in spandex, with long, flowing locks—its roots go back decades earlier. Acts as seemingly mild as Roy Orbison, Harry Nilsson and even the Carpenters were pivotal to the way these mega-devotionals evolved. R&B divas would turn power vocals into an athletic sport, alongside hair-metal howlers. Eventually, power ballads colonized the charts in the ’80s, the ’90s and beyond.

Maybe they’re cheesy, cringeworthy and melodramatic—but power ballads have proven remarkably enduring, with even 21st-century Zoomer stars like Olivia Rodrigo offering their own variations. So, join Chris Molanphy as he brings on the heartbreak, finds thorns on every rose, explores feelings we can’t fight anymore and celebrates pop fans’ greatest love of all: the power ballad.

Podcast production by Kevin Bendis

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Tämä jakso on lisätty Podme-palveluun avoimen RSS-syötteen kautta eikä se ole Podmen omaa tuotantoa. Siksi jakso saattaa sisältää mainontaa.

Jaksot(3012)

ICYMI - A YouTuber Made Your New Favorite Horror Film

On today’s episode, host Kate Lindsay speaks with Rachel Barker, host of Girl on Film on YouTube. The internet has been rich with horror content for decades, but only recently have iconic creepy stori...

13 Kesä 34min

Culture Gabfest - One Last Taylor Swift Throwdown Edition

As you may have heard in last week’s episode, the Culture Gabfest is hanging up its microphones after 18 years of cultural commentary. But before our final episode, we’ve still got much to discuss!On ...

10 Kesä 1h 22min

ICYMI - You Keep Falling For Secret Ads

On today’s episode, host Kate Lindsay is joined by Rachel Karten, a social media consultant and the writer of Link In Bio. Storytimes and other caught-on-camera content frequently goes viral on social...

10 Kesä 33min

Death, Sex & Money - Something Rotten at Stanford

Theo Baker was seventeen when he enrolled at Stanford and stumbled into one of the biggest stories on campus: academic misconduct allegations against the university's president. His reporting eventual...

9 Kesä 50min

ICYMI - Beware The Boy Mom

On today’s episode, host Kate Lindsay is joined by writer Stephanie McNeal to discuss the internet phenomenon of “boy moms.” As an internet culture expert, and recent mother of a boy herself, Stephani...

6 Kesä 39min

Culture Gabfest - Stuck in the Backrooms Edition

This week Steve, Dana, and Julia convene once again—this time with some big news. Also, they make a classic Gabfest episode. First up, it's the alienating fluorescent buzz, infinite carpeted sprawl, a...

3 Kesä 1h 14min

Decoder Ring - Tina Turner and the Dance That Conquered Australia

In Australia, no wedding or school dance is complete without the Nutbush, Australia’s unofficial national dance. The Nutbush – a simple line dance to the song “Nutbush City Limits,” by Ike and Tina Tu...

3 Kesä 49min