The Ongoing History of New Music, episode 1053: Rock’s iconic musical instruments
Most of us probably go through a phase where we decide we want to make music for ourselves. Maybe we’ll do it alone, or perhaps we want to be part of a band.
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Ongoing History Daily: Some music-related conspiracies
Everyone likes a good conspiracy theory, right? Here are a few tinfoil hat theories that keep going round and round and round. (1) Kurt Cobain was murdered. This one just won’t go away.
Read MoreOngoing History Daily: Duophonic recordings
If you’re into collecting vinyl records and you want to get really nerdy about it, here’s something you can look for. They’re called “Duophonic” releases. These were fake stereo records. Lemme explain. Until
Read MoreOngoing History Daily: Mono recordings
All music that gets released today is, at a minimum, produced in stereo: two distinct channels (left and right) with the instrumentation and vocals mixed and balanced in such a way that our
Read MoreOngoing History Daily: Classifying music
Being creatures who crave organization, humans like to put things into nice, neat piles. That includes music, of course. Who doesn’t distinguish between sounds by using words like “rock,” “hip hop,” “pop” and
Read MoreOngoing History Daily: Modern 8-track tapes
If you’re old enough, you’ll remember a dead recorded music format called the 8-track tape. Officially, they went out of production in the 80s as everyone moved to cassettes and then CDs. But
Read MoreThe Ongoing History of New Music, episode 1052: Explaining Krautrock
After World War II, Germany was destroyed. The country was divided. The East was under the control of the USSR. The western part was part of democratic Europe. And then there was Berlin,
Read MoreOngoing History Daily: Sampling vs. interpolation
Modern electronic sampling has been with us since the early 1980s. This is when you use some specialized hardware and software to surgically excise a passage from an old piece of music that
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Ongoing History Daily: Amusia
You might have a friend who just isn’t into music. They might even find music annoying. This is a genuine medical condition called “amusia.” This happens when the brain can’t process or recognize
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Random music news for Thursday, May 15, 2025
There’s now a Shazam for rocks. There’s also music news for May 15, 2025. More music news? Go here. BONUS: If you’re in your 40s or older, this will hit hard. (Via Tom)
Read MoreOngoing History Daily: Mark Hoppus’ memoir
If you’re looking for some music-related summer reading, Mark Hoppus of Blink-182 has a new memoir entitled Fahrenheit-182 that’s pretty revealing. Not only does it tell the story of the band and Mark’s
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