Song Stories

In focusing on U2’s “Red Hill Mining Town,” Miriam Mindel’s rigorous and exploratory podcast integrates two mutually-informing analysis: in it, Miriam builds the history of labor abuse in Appalachia alongside her granular sonic and lyrical analysis of the song itself. Listening to what she calls “U2’s America,” Miriam expands the possibilities of the song and questions the possibilities of our future.

At the end of this podcast, you'll be able to hear an interview with its creator, where she digs deeper into her podcast research, conclusions, and production process.

In her podcast, Grace Bassett places “Gimme Shelter” at the center of the anti-war and Civil Rights movements as a song that, in her words, “somehow captured the feelings of impending doom felt by many Americans” in 1969. Using the lens of apocalypse to analyze the song’s lyrical and sonic chaos, the anxiety and righteous anger of the moment, and the biography of Merry Clayton (whose fiery vocals elevate the song’s power), Grace delves deeply into the song’s social overtones and brings them into the present.

At the end of this podcast, you'll be able to hear an interview with its creator, where she digs deeper into her podcast research, conclusions, and production process.

Ana Cordova is interested in the relationship between music and emotions, and spends the duration of her podcast discussing these connections through the intersecting and diverging lenses of listener and artist. Strikingly, she does this through a mix of personal anecdote, close-listening, and scientific research, focusing on Eric Clapton’s “Tears in Heaven”; his song about the death of his four-year-old son.

At the end of this podcast, you'll be able to hear an interview with its creator, where she digs deeper into her podcast research, conclusions, and production process.

In her podcast, Payton Jager gives a brilliant and encompassing listen not just to Pete Seeger’s version of “We Shall Overcome,” but to the folk song in its myriad versions from slavery through labor strikes, the Highlander Folk School, the Civil Rights Era, and into the present. Asking what made the song so conspicuous and prevalent in the 1960s, Payton analyzes its musical qualities, its lyrics, and its cultural moment, situating it among other “freedom songs” and exploring the song’s political resonance today.

Daeja Hopkins’s podcast on Mariah Carey’s mega-hit “All I Want For Christmas Is You” is generous and upbeat, honing in on the sounds of Carey’s “Christmas-y chords” and “cozy core sequence” as well as on her masterful vocal style. Beginning by asking why the song has had such enduring success, Daeja’s podcast is a paean to its music, to the holiday season, and to Mariah Carey herself.

Where biographical writing often follows a chronological progression, Carina Anderson’s brilliant podcast approaches the question of how Jackson expresses himself through his music by focusing closely on specific lyrics, sounds, and instruments as vehicles for her complex and engaging discussions of the frenetic line that Jackson walks in his relationship to his race, gender, childhood, and sociality.

With caressing care and striking depth of description, Ahana Rosha creates her podcast in order to describe the sonic, lyrical, social, and personal value that she believes makes Elvis Presley’s “Can’t Help Falling In Love” so enduring.

In her podcast, Maia Kantorowski melds biographical elements with scientific and ethnomusicological research to tie together the nonsense sounds, joyful lyrics, and endless cyclicality of Earth, Wind & Fire’s “September.” Maia takes an exploratory approach to what she calls the song’s “timelessness,” leading the listener close to an answer to the timeless musical question: what makes you groove?

In response to the question of why Eminem’s “Lose Yourself” evokes such intense emotions from its listeners, Bogdan’s answer brings his listener into his own physical and psychological responses to the song. In a podcast that grapples with experiential listening through intimate and thoughtful instrumental and lyrical analysis, Bogdan’s analysis of “Lose Yourself” is a visceral response to the song, to the artist, and to the genre of rap music.

Rebecca Herzog’s podcast on The Spice Girls’ “Wannabe” puts the song into rigorous and expansive conversation with the third-wave feminist movement (which overlapped with the 1996 hit). Beginning with the premise that both song and movement pushed to redefine social standards, Rebecca guides the listener with humor, insight, and plenty of song clips, through three analytic themes: unity while maintaining independence, ambiguity, and of course, girl power.

At the end of this podcast, you'll be able to hear an interview with its creator, where she digs deeper into her podcast research, conclusions, and production process.