Here’s a simple question with a very complicated answer—and I’m not even sure we know the answer: why do we have music? There’s no known evolutionary or biological need for
Read MoreThere are so many things in this universe that we just can’t explain. Science, law enforcement, researchers, internet detectives—they continue to come up empty. The fate of Amelia Earhart is
Read MoreEver hear of Jeremy Bentham? He was an Englishman, a political philosopher who lived in the 18th and 19th centuries—and he was, by all measures of his time, a radical.
Read MoreIn 1938, a 23-year-old graphic designer named Alex Steinweiss was hired as the first-ever art director for Columbia Records in New York. He was assigned a project: to help promote
Read MoreThis is going to be a very visual program, which may be a bit of a challenge because you’re either listening to this as a radio show or a podcast,
Read MoreIt’s one thing to simply listen to a song. We find certain forms of organized noise very pleasant—and it can be great. But there’s a way to make listening to
Read MoreThis program begins with an advisory. No, no, not that kind. There’s nothing dirty, obscene, or controversially political coming up. It’s just that, well—what you’re about to hear is different.
Read MoreLet me tell the story again. In 2007, a couple of listeners asked if I would do another Ongoing History episode on the origins of band names. I’d done a
Read MoreOne of the most important parts of music is beat and rhythm. Without beats, without rhythm, there’s no groove. Without a groove, there’s no movement or dancing or physically getting
Read MoreAnyone with a passing knowledge of rock is aware of its origins back in the late 1940s and early 1950s when blues, rhythm and blues, western, country, folk, and hillbilly
Read MoreThe way I see it, there are three types of bands that stretch across a spectrum. First, there’s the extreme sort, a group that will do almost anything to attract
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