Ongoing History of New Music

Ever wonder which pieces of technology changed music forever? From Thomas Edison’s phonograph and the invention of the microphone to the Walkman, the iPod, and today’s streaming platforms, we take a geeky trip through the biggest innovations that transformed how music is created, recorded, distributed, and enjoyed.

Plus the stories behind headphones, magnetic tape, synthesizers, CDs, and digital recording, while looking ahead to what AI and future tech could mean for music.

If you love music, gadgets, and the stories behind how we got here, this one’s for you. 

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Think we were done with alt-rock one-hit wonders? Not quite.

After our original deep dive into the biggest alternative one-hit wonders since 1976, the emails and DMs kept pouring in.

You pointed out...rightfully so... songs we missed, artists we overlooked, and a few bands that many people think are one-hit wonders but actually aren't.

So we're back for one more sweep through the archives.

Along the way, we uncover some fascinating stories about mysterious bands, unlikely hits, and artists who built entire careers on a single song. We also set the record straight on acts like a-ha, Fastball, Tonic, Orgy, Lit, and others who don't quite fit the one-hit wonder label.

No rankings. No logarithmic formulas. Just great songs, surprising backstories, and a little unfinished business.

Because sometimes all you need is one hit.

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Trip-hop was one of the coolest sounds of the 1990s, blending hip-hop beats, dub, soul, and moody atmospheres into something completely new.

And to be honest, I can't believe we haven't done a deep dive on it yet!

So it's time to fix that.

We trace its roots from the streets of Bristol to artists like Massive Attack, Portishead, Tricky, and DJ Shadow, exploring how a dark, experimental underground movement became one of alternative music's most influential sounds.

This is the story of Trip-Hop

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Most of us have at least one band T-shirt stuffed in a drawer or hanging in a closet. Maybe it's a concert souvenir, a vintage find, or a shirt you've worn so often it's barely holding together. But where did band T-shirts come from, and how did some of them become worth thousands of dollars?

I think it's time to dig into the surprisingly fascinating history of band merch, tracing its roots from the early days of Elvis and The Beatles through the explosion of rock, punk, metal, and grunge culture.

Now to get the full story, I talk with vintage band T-shirt expert James Applegarth of Toronto's Defunkd Vintage about rare finds, iconic designs, and why collectors are willing to pay a fortune for the right shirt.

Whether you're a serious collector or just someone with a closet full of concert tees, this is the story behind one of music's most enduring pieces of memorabilia. 

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After surviving some of the darkest years of his life, John Frusciante returned to the Red Hot Chili Peppers and helped create some of the biggest albums of their career. But for John, success has never been simple.

On part 2 of "The Long Strange Trip of John Frusciante", we go through his second and third acts: Grammy wins, solo projects, artistic reinvention, another surprising departure from the band, and the comeback nobody expected. It's the story of a brilliant, complicated artist who refuses to stand still.

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John Frusciante might just be rock’s ultimate survivor.

So let's trace the wild, unpredictable journey of the Red Hot Chili Peppers guitarist, from teenage guitar prodigy to the creative force behind Blood Sugar Sex Magik, through addiction, isolation, and a near-fatal collapse that almost ended everything.

Along the way, we explore his rise with the Chili Peppers, his troubled relationship with fame, his dramatic exit from the band at the height of their success, and the dark years that followed. But this is also a story of recovery, redemption, and one of the most remarkable comebacks in modern rock.

It's Part One of the long, strange trip of John Frusciante, and trust us, the story is only getting started.

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What happens when music meets neuroscience? This time, we take a fascinating trip inside the human brain to explore why music can make us dance, cry, smile, remember, and even get chills.

From dopamine rushes and musical memory to live concert highs and the science behind your favourite songs, we uncover some of the weirdest and most amazing connections between music, the brain, and the body.

And, you'll learn why certain songs hit so hard, why we can't resist a good groove, and what researchers are still discovering about the soundtrack of our lives. It's science, music, and plenty of mind-blowing facts all rolled into one episode

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Pop-punk is one of those musical contradictions that somehow makes perfect sense. Punk was supposed to be loud, fast, and rebellious. Pop was all about hooks and mass appeal. But somewhere along the way, the two got together and created one of the biggest movements in alternative rock.

In part two, we pick up the story in the early 1990s as grunge begins to fade and bands like Green Day, The Offspring, Rancid, and Bad Religion help bring punk into the mainstream. From the explosion of Dookie and Smash to the rise of the Warped Tour and the global success of Blink-182, we'll look at how pop-punk went from underground clubs to selling millions of records around the world. 

We'll also explore the backlash from punk purists, the genre's evolution through the 2000s, and why pop-punk continues to find new generations of fans decades later. Whether you grew up on Green Day and Sum 41 or you're just discovering the genre, this is the story of how punk and pop became one of rock's most unlikely partnerships. 

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Punk rock comes in a lot of different flavours, but few have had the impact of pop-punk. In Part One of this series, we dig into how a genre that was supposed to be the enemy of pop music ended up borrowing some of its best ideas.

From the Ramones and Buzzcocks to Bad Religion, Descendents, Hüsker Dü, and Social Distortion, we'll follow the bands that started mixing punk's speed, attitude, and DIY spirit with melody, hooks, and songs you couldn't get out of your head.

We'll also look at the underground scene that helped shape the sound and set the stage for bands like Green Day, Blink-182, and The Offspring to take over the world.

It's the story of how punk and pop learned to get along... and changed alternative rock forever. 

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When someone dies, our first reaction is disbelief...we’re stunned...that’s immediately followed by a need to know what happened...how?...where?...it’s only natural...we need information to help us process the news and the emotion that comes with it...

The next stage is might be “could anything have been done to prevent this?”... “Could someone have helped or intervened?”...In some cases, perhaps...in the case of health issues, maybe not...

And finally, there’s this:... “could what happened to that person happen to me?”...again, totally normal.

When it comes to the death of a famous musician, there’s an additional aspect to processing the news...chances are we never knew this person as, you know, a person...our only relationship with them has been as a fan...so why does their death affect us?

Here’s a possible answer...although we never knew them, it was through their music that we learned more about ourselves...and in a way, when they die, a little of us dies, too.

This might only cause us to go deeper into what happened...we just need to know, to make sense if it, and to put everything to rest the best we can...yes, some people get very nosey and gossipy and intrusive, but there’s always a way to handle what’s known through the public record: family statements, doctors’ accounts, police reports, coroners’ testimony, toxicology examinations, and autopsy results.

And we often can’t look away because we just need to know...this is “the last moments of, part 2”

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