Song Exploder Podcast Now A Netflix Four-Part Documentary

 Song Exploder is one of those podcasts that helped to break the “audio ceiling” that had hindered podcasts since inception. Once it took off in 2014, it not only spawned a host of other noteworthy music podcasts (Slate’s Hit Parade, Switched On Pop, etc.) it also cast the mold for the perfect utilization of the podcasting format.

Created and hosted by Hrishikesh Hirway, each episode begins with the host introducing the show’s featured musician (or musicians) and giving a brief history of the musical act. The artist (s) then deconstructs the song from the initial melody to layering tracks with different instruments. 

Last week, Netflix unveiled a four-part documentary series, which is a video companion to the podcast. Each Netflix episode runs around 20 to 30 minutes, mimicking the podcast’s running time.

 

With just four episodes, selecting the artists to interview was no doubt a challenge, especially when trying to represent a wide spectrum of creative methods. For this limited-run, Alicia Keys, Lin-Manuel Miranda, R.E.M., and Ty Dolla $ign are the featured guests, with cameos from their many collaborators like Sampha, Brandy, Blaq Tuxedo, and Alex Lacamoire. While Keys’ episode has a soft nuance, Miranda’s is multi-tracked and dramatic, and Ty Dolla $ign’s episode has this deliberate flakiness to it, evidenced by its use of animation.

R.E.M.’s episode is an outlier because it doesn’t recount the creation of a recent track, but instead their biggest hit, “Losing My Religion.” The interview leans on their recollection of the era, plus archival footage to give a glimpse into the song’s recording and release in 1991. 

In contrast to the podcast, where Hirway edits out his half of the interview, the Netflix show places his presence center stage, adding a welcome glossiness to the series. As a host, he’s warm, friendly and excels at drawing out his guests without the pushy swarminess of a Dr. Phil. He brings this out most in the final episode, where he’s given a little more screen time and has no trouble navigating between light-hearted banter and acting as a doula when a song is birthed — from a musical phrase and word jumbles into a recorded track.  

It’s obvious right from the first Alicia Keys episode that Hirway revels in nerding out about audio. Hirway makes the most of the visual medium, guiding viewers inside the studio, in the writer’s room, behind the piano — and showcase the musicians’ personalities from a new perspective. 

These four Netflix episodes seem to reveal that this experiment is a success, the only caveat being that “video” not the optimal medium for “scoping out” new music. 

In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Hirway explains that TV show began as simply an extension of the podcast. On the first call with Keys, however, he already knew he had struck gold. “She said, ‘I’ve listened to a bunch of episodes of the podcast, and I’d really love to do it.’ That blew me away,’” Hirway says in the interview.

Although the Netflix show has debuted to positive reviews and healthy Netflix viewer numbers (Netflix doesn’t release ratings for its shows which reduces fans and reviewers to parsing Netflix cryptic comments for clues as to popularity), not all media outlets heaped on the praise.

The Harvard Crimson, for example, said in its publication, “ Everything about this show makes sense in podcast form. The visual content, however, adds nothing to the story of how each song was made.”

For listeners who love the podcast, the four-part Netflix documentary toils earnestly to leverage the video component of Netflix to expand the sonic experience. 

It largely succeeds because Hirway’s voice alone is an earworm and the podcast’s scaffolding provides a robust foundation for the narratives. What we re-learn from these video episodes is that creating music in this sonic universe of audio technology goodies still relies on the the dynamic and mystical brew of tapping the human unconscious for words, melody, mood and tempo in a coherent form.