Stuff from the B-Side

Inspired by listener mail, Mark and John take a look at Auto-Tune, an audio processor that automatically corrects the pitch and tone of a vocal track. Has this practice gone too far? Learn why Jay-Z thinks so in this podcast from HowStuffWorks.com.

Symphonies have been around for a long time, but everything has to start somewhere. Can Mark and John discover the father of the symphony? Tune in and find out in this podcast from HowStuffWorks.com.

When the Beatles toured the U.S. for the second time in 1965, the sound systems were terrible in many venues. That all changed in Atlanta, Georgia, however. Learn more about the first use of concert monitors in this podcast from HowStuffWorks.com.

The sound of a babbling brook, an ocean tide and drizzling rain have all been called musical. Join John and Mark as they explore the music inspired by the natural sound of water in this podcast from HowStuffWorks.com.

In the world of digital music, mp3 files are compressed audio files that shed the high and low ends of a recording to save space. Does this omission matter? Listen in and learn more about digital music files in this podcast from HowStuffWorks.com.

You can often tell a lot about someone's personality by his or her taste in music. During the last election, each candidate's playlist became public knowledge. Learn more about the president's music in this podcast from HowStuffWorks.com.

The iTunes Genius feature will create a playlist based on the content you're playing. But how does it work? More importantly, are these playlists any good? Listen in as Mark and John assess the iTunes Genius in this podcast from HowStuffWorks.com.

During their workdays and long voyages, sailors sang sea shanties to pass the time. Join Mark and John as they take a look at the history and structure of sea shanties in this podcast from HowStuffWorks.com.

When Joe Satriani listened to Coldplay's "Viva La Vida", he detected a familiar melody -- one so familiar, in fact, that he suspected an act of plagiarism. Listen as Mark and John compare the melodies in this podcast from HowStuffWorks.com.

In 2003, researchers compared students' personalities to their music preferences. Could they predict a student's personality based on his or her favorite tunes? Learn the results -- which might surprise you -- in this podcast from HowStuffWorks.com.