
Sign up to save your podcasts
Or


EP.608
Did pop music hit its high note in 1970 and start sliding downhill after? In this episode, we unpack James Perloff’s deep dive into what he calls pop’s “golden year.” From soulful ballads and lush orchestration to disco fever and corporate playlists, we look at how melody, meaning, and variety gave way to formula and repetition. Perloff connects the dots between music, media control, and cultural engineering asking whether the decline was just changing tastes or something more deliberate. Part nostalgia trip, part cultural postmortem, it’s a fascinating look at how the soundtrack of our lives got standardized.
By Michael Decon4.5
7171 ratings
EP.608
Did pop music hit its high note in 1970 and start sliding downhill after? In this episode, we unpack James Perloff’s deep dive into what he calls pop’s “golden year.” From soulful ballads and lush orchestration to disco fever and corporate playlists, we look at how melody, meaning, and variety gave way to formula and repetition. Perloff connects the dots between music, media control, and cultural engineering asking whether the decline was just changing tastes or something more deliberate. Part nostalgia trip, part cultural postmortem, it’s a fascinating look at how the soundtrack of our lives got standardized.

3,415 Listeners

1,609 Listeners

9,428 Listeners

839 Listeners

1,833 Listeners

1,086 Listeners

627 Listeners

810 Listeners

1,821 Listeners

326 Listeners

691 Listeners

757 Listeners

328 Listeners

462 Listeners

177 Listeners