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

Gary Kemp is clearly a busy man. He's got his podcast, The Rockonteurs, with fellow musician Guy Pratt, his tour with Nick Mason’s (Pink Floyd) band Saucerful of Secrets, and acting with his brother Martin Kemp in their most recent mockumentary, The Kemps: All Gold.  He’s also added a new album to his discography, This Destination. The album finds Gary in a reflective mood, looking back on life with his family and band mates. Does this mean he wants to reform his 80s band, Spandau Ballet? We talk about it all as Gary joins us on What Difference Does It Make?: A (Mostly) 80s Music Podcast.

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Jason Narducy is living his musical dream. He plays songs with the artists that helped frame his musical taste. It all started at the tender age of ten, playing in his punk band, Verböten. This year, he will tour with Michael Shannon to perform R.E.M.'s 'Fables of the Reconstruction' and more. It will be followed immediately by a tour playing alongside Bob Mould to support his latest album, Here We Go Crazy. You can also catch Jason performing with Superchunk and Sunny Day Real Estate, and last year, he reunited with Verböten. Somehow we caught him in a rare spot, at his home in Evanston, to talk with us about his true fables of life on the road with his musical heroes.

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Happy Valentine's Day! We here at What Difference Does It Make love love songs, and so does Annie Zaleski. So much so, that she wrote a book about some of her favorite love songs, entitled We Found Love, Song by Song: The Stories Behind 100 Romantic Hits. Annie joins the podcast to talk about her favorite songs, from Fred Astaire and Frank Sinatra, to Adele and Usher. Simply put, if you love love, you will love this episode.

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Friend of the show, Craig Rosen, joins us for a record-setting fifth time. On this occasion, we look at songs 90 to 81 on the 1988 KROQ year-end chart. What do we learn? Craig's English teacher embarrassed him in the high school halls, he is still freaked out just by thinking of The Exorcist display at a local theatre, and as always, all roads lead to REM. Of course there's also great 80s music to discuss. Time may have forgotten some of these songs, but not us!

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And so it begins, as we take a look at the top 106.7 songs played in 1988 on radio station KROQ in Los Angeles. Upcoming episodes will feature ten songs and a special guest, but for this episode, we will examine the bottom seven songs, 106.7 to 101, based on the station's year-end playlist. It's an eclectic group, and a nice entry into the type of music explored on The World Famous KROQ.

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It was the year of debuts, from The Wonder Years to Roseanne toYo! MTV Raps. The Grammys finally recognized the significance of Rap and Heavy Metal, but (spoiler alert) failed to recognize the true innovators in each genre. It was also the year we believed two completely different looking men could be Twins and three womanizing bachelors could raise an infant. What would Brian Boitano do, besides win Gold at the Olympics? For more, you'll just have to tune in to our look back at the year 1988 in pop culture. 

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Rob B and Nick Hallam, collectively known as Stereo MC’s, have been releasing music since the mid-1980s when they co-founded the Gee Street recording studio and record label. They had massive hits in the 90s with "Elevate My Mind", "Step It Up”, and "Connected". They then focused on their studio work, creating re-mixes for artists like Madonna, U2, and The Jungle Brothers. They now have their own label, "connected", and have since become established in the ever-popular Afro House genre. Stereo MC's are now re-introducing themselves to a US audience with a brief tour, and the promise of new music, as well as stepping it up for a chat with the What Difference Does It Make podcast.

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Back in 2020, we had the opportunity to chat with Kathy Valentine of The Go-Go's. She had just released her rock n’ roll memoir, All I Ever Wanted. Since then, the Go-Go's have released their official documentary, and they were finally inducted into the Rock Hall. Since January 7 is Kathy's birthday, we wanted to recognize one of our favorite Capricorns by revisiting what previously was a two-parter, into one glorious podcast episode.

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It truly is the most wonderful time of the year. Holly finds a couple Hanukkah songs favorites via friend of the show, JC Douglas. We talk "Baby, It's Cold Outside" which leads into the film Little Mermaid and Holly reveals a shocking truth. Dave talks up the Phil Spector Christmas and we bring up the Die Hard controversy. And of course, what is an 80s Christmas podcast without talk of "Do They Know It's Christmas?" How many artists can you name that participated in the song? So do like Prince and enjoy a banana daiquiri and enjoy our talk of Holiday favorites

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It's been quite a year here at What Difference Does It Make. I mean, just look at the cover photo of us at an intimate rehearsal with Neil Finn from Crowded House, and you know we had a memorable year. While we didn't have Neil on the podcast, we did manage to get some of our other favorite musicians and music nerds to talk about 80s music and more. We've condensed some of our favorite clips from 2024 for a greatest hits episode.

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