Chance The Rapper, Kehlani, & The Shifting Sound of R&B — with Oak Felder
The sound of R&B is difficult to pin down. Since the 1950s, the label has been used both as a genre and as a catch-all for the entirety of black popular music. Soul, funk, disco and even hip-hop have ...
13 Aug 201954min
Beyoncé's Gift To Africa (with Ivie Ani)
For the live action remake of the Lion King, Beyoncé, (who voices Nala in the film), recorded and curated a companion soundtrack called The Gift. She worked with leading Afropop stars to expose the mu...
6 Aug 201937min
LCD Soundsystem and the Unbearable Sameness of Restaurant Playlists
Why is it that every hip restaurant plays the same music? When Eater restaurant editor Hillary Dixler Canavan kept hearing similar songs while dining for work assignments, she compiled a playlist of w...
30 Jul 201934min
The $50M Beat Marketplace That Broke the Billboard
Lil Nas X licensed the beat for “Old Town Road” from an e-commerce platform. He originally bought a non-exclusive copy of the backing track for just $29.99 from a 19 year old Dutch record producer cal...
23 Jul 201929min
Shawn Mendes and the Rhythm of Rhyme
Shawn Mendes’ hit song “If I Can’t Have You” is so ridiculously catchy that Charlie had it stuck in his head after the first chorus. How is that possible?! Declamation, or the way that text is set to ...
16 Jul 201932min
Space, The Final Frontier: Madonna, Stephen Puth and Street Studios
Find out how music creates a feeling of space in this three part episode. First, we may not realize it when we listen to Madonna's new record, but the location of her music is essential. In exploring ...
9 Jul 201958min
What BTS's "Boy With Love" ft. Halsey Can Teach Us About K-pop
How should we listen to K-pop? This music has become a global phenomenon, charting on the Billboard Hot 100, taking over social media feeds, and touring the world. In particular, the group BTS has cap...
2 Jul 201939min
"Prince Ali" and Why We're All Music Theorists
Fans are not happy with Will Smith's update of the classic Disney song "Prince Ali" in the live-action Aladdin. Their complaint? The new "Prince Ali" is slow, sluggish, and dull. Indeed, the Smith ver...
25 Jun 201929min
