A (Mostly) 80s Music Podcast: What Difference Does It Make?

By Dave Sloan and Holly Cantos - 80s Music PodcastMusic Music Commentary Music Interviews Music History

A (Mostly) 80s Music Podcast: What Difference Does It Make? episodes

March 06 Steven Blush Was Raised On Disco, Reggae, Hip-Hop, And Rock
Author Steven Blush has just completed his rock trilogy, When Rock Met Disco, When Rock Met Reggae, and the just-released When Rock Met Hip-Hop. Steven recalls times spent with Rick Rubin, The Beastie Boys, Run DMC, and Russell Simmons, and the huge influence they had on the 80s music scene and pop culture.

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44 min
February 27 Paul Rees Was Raised On Radio
Paul Rees was a young lad living in Scotland during the heyday of Album Oriented Rock (AOR). From a distance, Paul became a fan of American radio and the artists played on those stations, which led him to write the book Raised On Radio: Power Ballads, Cocaine & Payola – the AOR Glory Years 1976-1986. It's an oral history of the golden era of critically derided, yet monumentally popular radio rock, when Journey, Boston, REO Speedwagon, Toto, and others ruled the airwaves. Paul joins the podcast to chat about his book, and to fanboy about his favorite artists from this era.

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47 min
February 20 Please Refer To Roddy Bottum As The Royal We
Roddy Bottum is one of the founders and keyboardist of the iconic band Faith No More. In his memoir, The Royal We, Roddy shares his coming-of-age and out-of-the-closet stories in a pre-tech-boom San Francisco. He joins our podcast to chat about the bands, his upbringing, his addictions, and how he managed to survive it all with a sense of humor.

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56 min
February 13 Valentine's Day 80s music favorites
We at What Difference Does It Make love love and what better way to say it, than with a song from the 80s? We discuss a number of our favorites that make us feel all warm inside. Happy Valentine's (and Gal-entine's) Day!

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49 min
February 06 Arielle Nissenblatt Podcasts On This And That
Arielle Nissenblatt, Founder and Head Curator of Earbuds Podcast Collective AND a 2026 Podcast Hall Of Fame Inductee, joins our podcast to share her origin story, and insights into the industry. She then steps out of her comfort zone and into our favorite topic, 80s music! Arielle offers up her Millennial opinion on music from 1989 based on Los Angeles radio station KROQ's year-end playlist.

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1 hr 2 min
January 30 Andy Greene: Rolling Stone Magazine's Secret Weapon
Andy Greene, Senior Writer for Rolling Stone, has been with the storied magazine since 2004. Andy shares with us his origin story of how a shy, young boy from the suburbs of Cleveland finds his way to New York City to write about his idols and rub shoulders with artists like Phil Collins and Bruce Springsteen. We also asked his opinion on the music played on Los Angeles radio station KROQ in 1989, specifically songs 100 to 91 from their year-end playlist.

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1 hr 11 min
January 23 1989 KROQ Countdown
And so it begins again, as we start our look at the top 106.7 songs played on radio station KROQ in Los Angeles in 1989. Upcoming episodes will feature ten songs each and a special guest, but for this episode, we’ll look at the bottom seven songs, 106.7 to 101, based on the station's year-end playlist. It's quite a start to the last year of 80s music, and a fine intro into the type of music featured on The World Famous KROQ.

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40 min
January 16 Pop Culture In 1989
The year 1989 was more than just the number...another summer...the sound of the funky drummer. It was the year we first fell in love with The Simpsons, the Game Boy, and The Arsenio Hall Show. It was also the year of amazing movies, and of course, music. While we can't do a "We Didn't Start The Fire" type of song with the year, we can revisit as much as possible in under sixty minutes. Tune in and bust a move!

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52 min
January 09 80s Rock Star Commercials
Back in the 80s, we thought they were selling out. Turns out, they were ahead of the curve. Rolling Stone’s Andy Greene rounded up some of his favorite commercials featuring 80s rock icons from David Bowie and Genesis to Whitney Houston and Michael Jackson. We revisited those ads, plus a few more we couldn’t forget, to bring you this special episode celebrating 80s music commercials.

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40 min
January 02 Bill Janovitz Lets The Cars Story Be Told
New York Times Bestselling author Bill Janovitz is a founding member of the Boston-based band Buffalo Tom. Bill's latest book on fellow Boston musicians is called The Cars: Let the Stories Be Told. It features a foreword from The Cars’ Greg Hawkes, and full participation from all three surviving band members. It’s the definitive book about The Cars, and Bill joins the podcast to share some details about this Rock and Roll Hall of Fame band.

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52 min