In 1993, Nirvana was the gravitational center of the entire alternative rock moment. The band that had dragged the underground into the mainstream whether they liked it or not. That’s where they were, that’s who they were, when MTV Unplugged invited them. Smells like a classic in the making, wouldn’t you say? Let’s dig in!

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The audio clips included in this episode are used for critical analysis purposes under the quotation exception provided for in Article L122-5 of the Intellectual Property Code. They are short, contextualized, non-monetized, and are not subject to any claim to rights. This podcast is distributed free of charge with no commercial intent. If you are a rights holder and wish to contact us: [email protected] 

In 1997, Janet Jackson released The Velvet Rope.

The rollout proved something very simple: when the vision is clear, you don’t need excess noise. You need alignment, the right infrastructure, and then let the work speaks.

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The audio clips included in this episode are used for critical analysis purposes under the quotation exception provided for in Article L122-5 of the Intellectual Property Code. They are short, contextualized, non-monetized, and are not subject to any claim to rights. This podcast is distributed free of charge with no commercial intent. If you are a rights holder and wish to contact us: [email protected] 

From surface to interior, The Velvet Rope documents a difficult road to redefinition of self. A record that looked inward, it carried a lot of weight from the past. It felt private in a way pop rarely allows itself to be.

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The audio clips included in this episode are used for critical analysis purposes under the quotation exception provided for in Article L122-5 of the Intellectual Property Code. They are short, contextualized, non-monetized, and are not subject to any claim to rights. This podcast is distributed free of charge with no commercial intent. If you are a rights holder and wish to contact us: [email protected] 

December 13, 2013.

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The audio clips included in this episode are used for critical analysis purposes under the quotation exception provided for in Article L122-5 of the Intellectual Property Code. They are short, contextualized, non-monetized, and are not subject to any claim to rights. This podcast is distributed free of charge with no commercial intent. If you are a rights holder and wish to contact us: [email protected] 

In her documentary Life Is But a Dream, Beyoncé could be heard saying: “I want to sing from my heart.” A simple sentence that, in retrospect, explains the rupture that followed.

Fewer interviews, fewer red carpets, fewer public moments. The silence was anything but absence though. For Beyoncé, the industry lost its ability to dictate her timing.

And this state of mind was the catalyst and foundation for her highly-praised, highly anticipated, soon-to-be classic fifth album. Boys, girls, gays and theys, THIS is BEYONCÉ.

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The audio clips included in this episode are used for critical analysis purposes under the quotation exception provided for in Article L122-5 of the Intellectual Property Code. They are short, contextualized, non-monetized, and are not subject to any claim to rights. This podcast is distributed free of charge with no commercial intent. If you are a rights holder and wish to contact us: [email protected] 

In 2000, The Marshall Mathers LP entered a pop industry built on purity, colorful imagery and synchronized choreography. Eminem arrived through the same doors but played a different game at the time of release of his breakthrough album. His rollout used spectacle and provocation as strategy. The singles, the videos, the press were all calculated to test how far a rapper could go inside a system built for pop.

When Eminem dropped The Marshall Mathers LP,  he went from being the loudest newcomer in rap to one of its defining figures.

The album sold millions, but its impact ran deeper. Hip-Hop in the mainstream world, what a white rapper could represent inside a Black art form,  controversy used as power… this record which was built on skill, rage, and contradiction made the world argue about rap, art, and who gets to belong in both.

Take a seat, because the Real Slim Shady is about to stand up!

We have already broken down Spice, the debut album of classic British girl band, the Spice Girls. We talked about the music, the hooks, the way each track carried its own flavor... But none of that would’ve mattered if the world hadn’t heard it. And the reason the whole world did hear it? That’s what this episode is about. Today, we’re dissecting the global roll out for Spice by the Spice Girls.

How did a girl group with no proven track record, no chart history, and no cosign from the existing pop elite become one of the biggest acts of the decade? With debut album that changed music in a matter of months. This is Spice by the Spice Girls. The band members went from total unknowns to pop titans, fashion icons, feminist conversation starters, and branding pioneers.  Let’s open the cookbook.

When HIStory: Past, Present and Future, Book I came out in June 1995, it arrived like an event. A global campaign, for the biggest artist on the planet.  Join us as we try to decipher just how MJ’s team did all they could to further cement the man into a myth and a legend.