A podcast about music is a natural fit for podcasting since music and podcasting are audio formats. However, the ability to play clips of songs during a show is fraught with innumerable threats of lawsuits, cease & desist orders, and financial risk.
Despite that drawback, music podcasting represents an area of strength for podcasting. Song Exploder even collaborated with Netflix to produce episodes with artists like Dua Lipa.
In no particular order, here are Ear Worthy's Five Best Music Podcasts of 2024.
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Switched On Pop
Switched on Pop launched in 2014, quickly growing a devoted audience before joining Vox in 2019, where it moved from a biweekly to a weekly schedule and more than tripled its downloads.
Switched On Pop is hosted by musicologist Nate Sloan and songwriter Charlie Harding.
Harding is a music journalist, multi-instrumentalist, and songwriter. He is the executive producer and co-host of Switched on Pop and the co-author of Switched on Pop: How Popular Music Works and Why it Matters, published by Oxford University Press in 2019, and nominated for a 2021 PROSE Award for Excellence in Humanities by the Association of American Publishers.
Nate Sloan is an assistant professor of musicology at the University of Southern California’s Thornton School of Music, and the co-author of Switched on Pop: How Popular Music Works and Why it Matters, published by Oxford University Press in 2019, and nominated for a 2021 PROSE Award for Excellence in Humanities by the Association of American Publishers.
Besides the strong chemistry between Harding and Sloan -- sometimes funny, sometimes sarcastic, and other times competitive -- the podcast is an "under the hood" look at the music world.
"Must-listen" episodes this year include:
Fleetwood Mac perfected turning drama into hits, the last decade of pop explained, and Sabrina Carpenter is more than short n' sweet.
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Slate's Hit Parade
Now, if any of this knowledge of popular songs and artists holds any interest for you then Slate’s Hit Parade podcast should be number one on your playlist. The podcast is hosted by Chris Molanphy, a chart analyst and pop critic, who writes about the intersection of culture and commerce in popular music.
Molanphy is the perfect deejay – if you will – for the podcast. His “made for audio” voice is crisp, authoritative, passionate and brewing with the aural magic of a master storyteller. And he can weave some stories. Molanphy and Hit Parade don’t just spit out pearls of music trivia. The show covers trends, directional switchbacks, and the shifting tides of the audience, who truly determine the direction of popular music.
Hit Parade began in the Spring of 2017, and is a podcast cleverly built for several audiences. For pop music nerds who can tell you that Shania Twain’s 1997 album Come On Over is the fourth highest selling album of all time. For people who attend trivia nights for more than the $2 beers, it’s the challenge of answering music trivia questions. For casual music listeners, it’s the storytelling prowess of Chris Molanphy, the host. And for popular culture observers, it’s the linkage between politics, economics, race and popular music preferences that makes the podcast a terrific listen.
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A History Of Rock Music In 500 Songs
Andrew Hickey presents a history of rock music from 1938 to 1999, looking at five hundred songs that shaped the genre.
Creator
and host, Brit Andrew Hickey is in familiar territory here. He is the
author of several books about popular music, including ones on the Beach
Boys, the California music scene in the 60s and 70s, and The Monkees.
If you
want a thumbnail sketch of popular music, its iconic songs and
influential artists, this podcast is not for you. Hickey immerses you in
each song and the artist that recorded the tune. Episodes can run for
longer than two hours. Hickey doesn't skim, he dives deep, and it shows.
For example, in song # 144 by The Monkees, Hickey discusses the origin of the group, the biography of the four members, and their impact on popular music. Hickey fascinates us with small details. On the night of The Beatles first appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show -- February 9, 1964, Monkees band member Davy Jones played The Artful Dodger from the Broadway cast of Oliver on the same show as the Beatles's first U.S. appearance.
Hickey dives into the subtle anti-war message in the song, "Last Train To Clarksville" and details the melodic similarity of the song to the classic country song, Night Train To Memphis" by Roy Acuff.
Did you know that Buffalo Springfield were once called Buffalo Fish? Or Pink Floyd was called The Tea Set?
Hickey isn't just a nugget full of music trivia, he's an incisive analyst of music, its melodic DNA, and its cultural relevance.
My favorite episodes this year include: Good Vibrations by the Beach Boys, Respect by Aretha Franklin, For What It's Worth by Buffalo Springfield, and I Was made To Love Her by Stevie Wonder.
Hickey, with his throaty, monochromatic voice, is a master storyteller, who weaves multiple story lines into a larger tale of how music affects society and how social upheaval affects music.
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Behind The Song
Hubbard Broadcasting started Behind The Song in September 2018 with its first episode focusing on David Bowie's hit song, Heroes, which would be recognizable to many as the song at the end of the 2000 Keanu Reeves - Gene Hackman football movie, The Replacements.
Here's the podcast marketing pitch: "Dig deep into the lyrics of classic rock songs and the storytellers that
created them in Behind The Song, a podcast by The Drive's Janda Lane.
Hear what was happening behind the scenes while some of the most iconic
songs in rock history were being written.
With Lane's background, knowledge, and track record, it’s little wonder that Behind the Song has proven to be a popular podcast destination.
Here's the format and structure of the show. First, the episodes are blissfully short and yet content-rich at about 15 minutes. Second, Lane is an exceptional narrator infusing drama, pathos, and a respect for the creative process in her tale.
Second, Lane knows how to tell a story. For example, for an episode about Mr. Blue Sky
by ELO, Lane starts by setting the scene. Band leader, Jeff Lynne, is
in Switzerland in 1977 to write songs for the group's upcoming album, Out Of The Blue.
Lynne
arrived to a two-week period of constant rain and miserable weather,
which clogs his creative muse. Then one day, the sun suddenly comes out
and Lynne finds the path to write the lyrics and music to Mr. Blue Sky.
Lane leaves an Easter egg for us, just as Lynne did for vinyl listeners
at the end of the song, where most listeners think they hear, "Mr. Blue
Sky" repeated. In reality, Lynne says, "Turn the record over" since the
song ends side three of the double album.
As a podcast host,
Lane excels here. You would think that radio DJs would naturally excel
as podcast hosts with their broadcast experience, but that's not always
been the case. Lane, however, has perfect pitch for the podcast. It's
clear that the show is not a job but also a passion, and that intensity
flows into her narration.
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Music History Monday
Music History Monday, is a must-listen for those listeners with a passion for music -- all kinds, from different times, and from different artists.
The show's tepid marketing pitch is this: "Explore Music History with Professor Robert Greenberg one Monday at a time. Every Monday Robert Greenberg explores some timely, perhaps intriguing and even, if we are lucky, salacious chunk of musical information relevant to that date, or to … whatever. If on (rare) occasion these features appear a tad irreverent, well, that’s okay: we would do well to remember that cultural icons do not create and make music, but rather, people do, and people can do and say the darnedest things."
So over 120 episodes, what does the podcast cover? Everything and everybody. The episodes are short and appropriately so, about twenty minutes. On one of my favorite episodes, Greenberg marked the birth on April 15, 1894 – 130 years ago today – of the American contralto and blues singer Bessie Smith. Appropriately nicknamed “The Empress,” Bessie Smith remains one of the most significant and influential musicians ever born in the United States.
Greenberg has profiled cellist and conductor Arturo Toscanini, Bob Dylan, Swan Lake by Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Don McLean's American Pie, Ashbury Street in San Francisco in the 1960s, Robert Moog and his synthesizer, Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro and so many more conductors, musicians, singers, and songs.
The driving force here is the host, Robert Greenberg, who received a BA in music, magna cum laude, from Princeton University in 1976. In 1984, Greenberg received a Ph.D. in music composition, With Distinction, from the University of California, Berkeley.
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Honorable Mention: Song Exploder, Questlove Supreme, Disgraceland.
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