Explorez tous les épisodes du podcast Vinyl Maelstrom

It would have taken a particularly gifted Nostradamus in the 1990s to predict both the demise of the traditional western rock band and the rise and rise of their South Korean replacements. yet that's what happened?

But how did it happen? Join me as we take a medium-sized dive into what K Pop is all about and how come it's been such a runaway success.

Be expertly briefed each week on a wide variety of intriguing musical topics.

The best and worst double albums ever. The 50 greatest cover versions of all time. The 100 greatest British albums of all time. The greatest indie anthems ever. The 100 greatest albums you've never heard. The 50 darkest albums of all time. The 101 albums to hear before you die.

Why must we always rank rank rank these records?

Let's have a medium-sized dive on the urge to rank, whether it's helpful or not, the pluses but also the minuses. 

Be expertly briefed each week on a wide variety of intriguing musical topics.

The terminally uncool "pop" programme from the terminally uncool state TV station, BBC1. A recipe for failure, surely. And yet, everyone watched Top of the Pops. Why was that?

Take a trip back in time to the culturally hegemonic imperial phase of the programme; to a time when it was great act of subversion to play air guitar as you mimed to your hit live on air; to a time when Tony Blackburn was being driven round a lagoon by a Womble in a speedboat.

Let's find out why Top of the Pops was so uncool it went all the way back round and became cool again.

Be expertly briefed each week on a wide variety of intriguing musical topics.

In July 1979 Steve Dahl organised a Disco Demolition Night at a baseball game in Comiskey Park, Chicago. Infuriated by disco music and its chart dominance it was the latest in a growing nationwide "Disco Sucks!" campaign. That night ended in a riot. But some have argued it also ended disco as a genre.

But now, is the distrust between a liberal elite and an embittered midwest back to where it was almost half a century ago? On this episode we look at the weird and unpleasant "Disco Sucks!" campaign and ask: "Could it happen again?"

Be expertly briefed each week on a wide variety of intriguing musical topics.

Sure, we've all got a favourite carol or maybe anthem and words matter with them. Hard to imagine a hymn with la-la-las instead of lyrics halfway through.

But you know how people say "I never forget a face, but I'm no good with names." It seems to be a badge of honour for some people to say they can't be bothered with lyrics, almost as if it shows strength of character.

But do lyrics matter? What's the history of lyrics in songs? Are they becoming more popular or less? How do they fit the current zeitgeist?

Take a medium-sized dive with Vinyl Maelstrom and find out. 

Be expertly briefed each week on a wide variety of intriguing musical topics.

Nigel Marsh has been hosting the 5 Of My Life podcast for many years now and in that time has interviewed all the great and the good, from prime ministers to rock stars, comedians to novelists, community workers to poets.

https://open.spotify.com/show/0SwVzJ5JWezUpuJoKUA1OU?si=af32aa090fd64575

One element of his show is guests picking out a track of their life - a song that, for whatever reason, means a great deal to them.

I asked Nigel to join me and pick out 10 musical highlights from over the years, and, after much ruthless shortlisting, he did just that. And, in an EXCLUSIVE, we discover what Nigel's own choice would be, were he to interview himself.

Here's a link to Nigel's list: 

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0vH1JbXp3LzKLdP4EWLbmI?si=1d47e58cadf64f47

Be expertly briefed each week on a wide variety of intriguing musical topics.

La jour de gloire est arrivée. Things can only get better. It's time. Born in the USA. Keep on rockin' in the free world.

Can music change anything when it is used in political campaigns?

Come with us now as we travel through various countries and multiple songs and anthems which have been devised to sway the voter. Some have been written especially for the task, some have been repurposed and some have been deployed in the teeth of fierce opposition from the people who actually wrote them in the first place.

And don't forget to vote!

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A few weeks ago Richard Osman on the Rest Is Entertainment podcast pointed out that only 3 bands had had #1s this decade. This was in contrast to the end of the previous century when bands dominated the charts.

Why is this? Have all bands disappeared? (Spoiler alert: no.). Why have pop bands fallen off a cliff? On this episode we investigate this new phenomenon and uncover some fascinating theories.

Be expertly briefed each week on a wide variety of intriguing musical topics.

If you're not an Australian it can be hard to identify a distinctive Australian sound or movement. One candidate is the Aussie Pub Rock phenomenon which flourished in the 70s and 80s and out of which bands like AC/DC emerged.

One of Australia's leading copywriters joins me in the studio to explain its origins, the secret to its success and its eventual demise. A fascinating episode and one from which I personally learned a lot.

Join me, your host Ian Forth, and Michael on this episode to have your Aussie pub rock questions answered. 

Be expertly briefed each week on a wide variety of intriguing musical topics.

Some people say there's no such thing as guilty pleasures in music. You either like it or you don't. So, own it.

Still, would it have a name if it didn't exist? 

(Well, yes, it might. There are no unicorns, after all.)

This episode seeks to understand why some people do feel a sense of guilt when they listen to certain types of music and why that should be. We cover the history of the idea, subjectivity versus objectivity, musical canons, forms of identity and so much more. 

See where we end up, if anywhere.

Be expertly briefed each week on a wide variety of intriguing musical topics.

Some academic bod has analysed every US presidential election and worked out the Keys To Success. He claims to correctly predict every populist vote.

Can we do the same for musical success? We can have a go. This is my equivalent - The Ten Keys To Music Success. It's obligatory to say "You won't believe Number 7!", but in reality it's entirely credible.

See if you agree.

Be expertly briefed each week on a wide variety of intriguing musical topics.

This episode is the the second of a double header. Steve Pringle, author of the classic Fall analysis "You Must Get Them All", gave us his thoughts on why the group resonate so strongly for so many in Part One. Here, he suggests to a nominal newcomer to the group's work where to get started on The Fall's vast catalogue. A handful of representative tracks from across the four decades the band flourished to get a rounded idea of where their appeal lay.

I took the liberty of adding a few of my own choice of tracks and assembled a playlist which complements the episode. There are a couple of tracks chosen by Steve not available on Spotify (New Puritan and Leave The Capitol) but they should be accessible on Youtube. Here's that playlist - and thanks again to Steve for his expert views.

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/6li5EHzkgG3Yel86A85oGm?si=ff505d67af4743de

Be expertly briefed each week on a wide variety of intriguing musical topics.

If an author writes a book analysing every single, every album, every phase and every lineup change of a band, it might be a decent-sized tome.

In the case of The Fall, there's over 50 members, over 30 albums, over 500 songs and over 40 years to process. 

That is exactly what Steve Pringle undertook to carry out and he achieved his aim magnificently in his definitive 650 page chronicle on the group entitled "You Must Get Them All".

It was a pleasure to talk to Steve and drill down on what made the Fall the wonderful and frightening group that they were. This is the first of two podcasts with Steve and in the second he'll be revealing where to start for those new to the group and their work.

Be expertly briefed each week on a wide variety of intriguing musical topics.

Oasis are reforming for a reunion tour. Have you heard?

What marks out Oasis as so different from their contemporaries? It's hard to believe it's their musical sophistication or their profound lyrics. But something makes them incredibly popular.

We also take a look more broadly at why people get so misty-eyed about the 90s. Is it just harking back to a non-existent recent golden age, or is there something specific about the 90s themselves? Something to do with technology or society that was very different from now?

Join me, Ian Forth for an entirely reasonable discussion.

Be expertly briefed each week on a wide variety of intriguing musical topics.

On our previous show, Paul Burke proposed that punk was unimportant at the time, left no lasting musical legacy and the reason people still bang on about it is because the middle classes act as its gatekeeper in the media that we all read and watch.

In this riposte, while not dismissing all of Paul's points, I'll try to put punk in its cultural context and show how profound its influence has been, not just the music, but in design, a DIY spirit, female inclusivity and racial integration. 

And here's a compilation of 25 songs from the first flower of punk in '76 and '77. https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/vinyl-maelstrom/id1739501489?i=1000666490941

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Contrariness - we've got it.

"If you were born after 1970 and don’t remember punk, you’ve almost certainly been misled by people who do. You’ve probably been told – through countless paean-to-punk retrospectives, documentaries and newspaper culture pages ­– that it was a glorious, anarchic revolution that swept all before it. I can tell you first-hand that it wasn’t.

Punk was as middle-class as a Labrador in a Volvo. Far from being hugely influential, punk was a passing fad that made little impression on the charts and left the lasting legacy of a spent firework."

So says Paul Burke, novelist and columnist.  He's also put a playlist together of what people like him were actually listening to in 1976-77:-

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/37Gk0WBbatuSq6CNHqO6fH?si=8e3a8c336bab435e

Paul has the conch for this episode, then I'll follow up next week with a counter blast on why punk was really rather important, after all.

Be expertly briefed each week on a wide variety of intriguing musical topics.

What even defines indie?

It used to mean something way back when. Groups that were on independent labels with a DIY approach and a different take on the world.

But in a world where Lana Del Rey and Billie Eilish with their billions of listens are indie - even Taylor Swift - does indie mean anything at all any more? How did we get to where we are now?

Join me, Ian Forth for a short history of independent and indie music.

Be expertly briefed each week on a wide variety of intriguing musical topics.

That lime green colour. That blurry font. And now BRAT has been picked up by the Kamala Harris campaign (this is August 2024).

Is this something worth finding more about or will it all blow over by the autumn, like Gangnam Style and Barbie did? Almost certainly yes. But, it is intriguing and is, I believe, worthy of analysis.

If nothing else, you can outwit your nephew and niece - or your sceptical mother and father - by sounding incredibly well-informed on the subject. You are, as ever, most welcome.

One of the topics on CharliXCX's Brat album is insecurity. I've put together a Spotify playlist on this very topic for you: 

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/6y1jMp1i61h4MgF5M7vQWs?si=1de421fcef08489c

Be expertly briefed each week on a wide variety of intriguing musical topics.

Turn on commercial radio and what time signature are you 95% likely to hear in the  first song? 4 beats to the bar, that's what. Is that just the natural pace of music or is something else going on?

In fact, if you went to a dance in the nineteenth century, it would most likely be in 3 time, or a waltz. Travel to, say, Burundi, Bulgaria, Bengaluru or Bursa and outside of commercial radio, local time is quite different - 11/8, to take one example.

So how did 4 time come to dominate? Was it the classical composers? Radio managers? The Romans? Join me, Ian Forth for a discussion of how we ended up with the ubiquity of 4 beats to the bar.

Be expertly briefed each week on a wide variety of intriguing musical topics.

Why do sports fans chant? Is it just to support their team or is there more to it than that? (Spoiler alert: there is more to it than that.)

Join me, Ian Forth, in a spirited discussion which will take in the Chip Butty Song, organic living folk traditions, secular rituals, the Maori hakka, Sufi whirling dervishes, the Covid effect, Pat Nevin, various professors, Posh Spice and the origin of language. 

Then, finally answer the question - Why do sports fans chant?

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Poet and author Paul Feldwick arrived for the first day of school in 1963 just as it The Beatles were starting their domination of the decade. As Paul made the journey from awkward 11 year-old to a sixth-former on the cusp of entering the adult world, The Beatles embarked on a journey of their own, from lovable Merseyside mop-tops to conquerors of the world.

Paul takes us through what it was like growing up in sync with a band that was producing the most astonishing collection of pop songs witnessed before or since. He also expands on the other cultural changes of that decade, some familiar, many unexpected, from long hair and kaftans to the death of the steam train.

I've put together a playlist of songs name-checked in the episode, all of them by The Beatles apart from the first by Peter and Gordon.

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2GLqeuCn3RK0qBy7dlSCNb?si=d894f20eb818441e

A world without love
Help
Michelle
Girl
Eleanor
She's leaving home
Lucy in the sky with diamonds
Penny Lane
Strawberry Fields Forever
A day in the life

Paul is a consummate raconteur, as well as being my first boss in London, by which time he had rather shorter hair. This is an episode rich in detail and reflection, not to be missed.

Be expertly briefed each week on a wide variety of intriguing musical topics.

By the end of her 131 date worldwide Eras tour, Taylor Swift will have generated an additional $5 billion for the economy. Other artists have been phenomena before, but surely never before have we seen an artist have this sort of effect. No artist, let alone a female country singer, has ever been Time Person Of The Year before.

She seems to be at the heart of every conversation - music, creativity, streaming, relationships, empowerment, writing, celebrity gossip, business. And now because of her new boyfriend she's also in the middle of sports conversations as well. And you may ask yourself - how did this happen? Granted she's an outstanding songwriter singer, but is that all there is to it?

That is indeed very much not all there is to it. Join me, Ian Forth, as I attempt to unravel exactly what lies beneath the Taylor Swift phenomenon.

Be expertly briefed each week on a wide variety of intriguing musical topics.

The American accent in pop and rock music is ubiquitous. It has become the default accent for any aspiring artist to sing in, to the extent that it's virtually taken for granted and no one finds it odd.

But it is a bit odd. This episode attempts to unravel the question as to whether singing this way is physiological or sociological. In other words, is there something about the accent which uniquely lends itself to pop and rock; can you decide to sing in your own country's accent; do young singers feel the weight of cultural exceptions to sing this way; and is it all forms of singing or do other genres have an American accent issue also.

Join me, Ian Forth, for a medium-sized dive and an entirely reasonable debate.

Be expertly briefed each week on a wide variety of intriguing musical topics.

Short stories in songs and music in stories. An episode of two halves, which coincidentally is the name of one of the tracks mentioned.

In the first half, I choose ten of my favourite "short story songs" - tracks which form a more or less complete narrative. To give you a flavour, I also read out some sample lyrics from each. Those songs (in chronological order) are:

1. Ode to Billie Joe, Bobbie Gentry
2. Cat's in the cradle, Harry Chapin
3. Up the Junction, Squeeze
4. Winter, The Fall
5. Regulate, Warren G with Nate Dogg
6. The First Big Weekend, The Arab Strap
7. The Fall of the Star High School Running Back, The Mountain Goats
8. Funeral, Phoebe Bridgers
9. Two Halves, Richard Dawson
10. Quarry, Wednesday

And here's a link to the Spotify playlist: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/6Zimdc9wgQueQ7vvgfDmwm?si=b331eea854594966

Then in the second half, a discussion on music in books, drama and even ads with the brilliant award-winning Melbourne crime novelist, Sarah Bailey. 

Be expertly briefed each week on a wide variety of intriguing musical topics.

"Why don't young people write protest songs any more? It's not like the 1960s when we cared about the world and weren't glued to a screen."

You might have heard this argument. Protest songs are usually thought to have disappeared or at the very least dwindled in their power and influence. But is that true?

A careful examination reveals a quite different story, of an art form that not only never  went away but evolved into something less visible to many but still vibrant and compelling.

And if you'd like to hear some 21st century protest songs, here's a playlist:-https://open.spotify.com/playlist/3GGEnB8SpbaRCz6zhyJTW2?si=ac0645a5c8c14a5b

Join me, Ian Forth, on a quest to discover whatever happened to the protest song.

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Tim Sommer in LA Weekly sums up the debate: 

“It is not just that Kraftwerk invented the future of music; it is that a startling amount of the music you hear today, from the most obscure indie rock to the most mainstream pop to literally everything in between, bears the impression of their invention.

Until the moment “Autobahn” hit the airwaves in the autumn of 1974, nothing like it had ever existed. Kraftwerk placed cheerfully familiar pop modes within an entirely synthetic and rhythmic framework. Today, the idea of synthetic pop is so common that it seems odd to consider that one single artist indisputably did it first; but that’s the case. 

None of this is meant to diminish The Beatles' leviathan achievements; it’s just to say that although the pop century has been dominated by the goliath shadow of Mount Beatle, they are no longer the most influential pop band in the Western world. Kraftwerk are.”

Is he right? And what exactly were The Beatles' "leviathan achievements"? Join me to discuss who really is the most influential group in musical history.

Be expertly briefed each week on a wide variety of intriguing musical topics.

Film aficionado James Hillhouse takes us through his choice of the ten maverick soundtracks which changed the movie rules for good. Here are some clips from them:

1. King Kong (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MMNICLfHE3M)
2. Alexander Nevsky (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IcPixaWL2Pg)
3. The Adventures of Robin Hood (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5UJ6g2Zhwgg)
4. Citizen Kane (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sdrzbpnls6g&list=PLh3-icSKvfhm4ggXDrKqyuafvfZdW_wed)
5. Forbidden Planet (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=snLleErh-i8)
6. Lift to the Scaffold (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1OKQdp6iGUk)
7. Easy Rider (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=egMWlD3fLJ8)
8. Shaft (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pFlsufZj9Fg)
9. Romeo + Juliet (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RTLoTD1AnBE&list=PLwsSkdPzRDuI2Fb0gWAIJGThFpqlpfvos)
10. Baby Driver (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6XMuUVw7TOM)

Here's a link to a Spotify playlist you can put on while the episode is playing: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0t4H136MSakdexG78CO8Ip?si=b34ada315bfd4072

Join James and me to find out the reasons behind his choices.

Be expertly briefed each week on a wide variety of intriguing musical topics.

Spotify. All the music, all of the time. That's got to be a good thing, right? Not everyone agrees. In this episode, we'll take a look at:

- Does Spotify pay artists fairly?
- Does it provide access to bands that didn't exist before?
- Has it encouraged disposability in music listening?
- Has it created a musical echo chamber for listeners?
- Has it created a new world of haves and have-nots in music?

Join us for a discussion on the rights and wrongs of the world's most popular streaming platform. 

Be expertly briefed each week on a wide variety of intriguing musical topics.

Back in 1985 Band Aid and Live Aid raised over 100 million pounds for famine relief in Ethiopia. Few question that it saved many thousands of lives. So, job done, case closed?

The reality is more nuanced.

In this episode we ask the questions:

- What are the problems with the song "Do they know it's Christmas?" (the clue is in the title)
- Where were the African artists at Live Aid? Was "fame" really the only thing that mattered in choosing the performers?
- Did all the aid go where it should or did some fall into the wrong hands? Does that matter?
- Far from helping Africa, did the Live Aid phenomenon create a Frankenstein? A view of Africa as broken and helpless? And with the west who caused the problem in the first place happy to pose as white saviours?  

Lots to chew over. Join us for an entirely reasonable discussion.

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Curious about jazz and blues but don't know where to begin? Join aficionado Tony Bishop, legendary jazz and blues singer and harmonica player on the London circuit, who will give you a whirlwind expert briefing to hold down your end of the coffee machine conversation with the annoying boffin from accounts.

Tony glides effortlessly through a short history of the genres as they emerged from their sleazy New Orleans origins early in the last century; the creation of Bluenote and Chess records; the great rupture in jazz around about 1959; some more modern developments; and then finally his picks of porky prime cuts to start us on our journeys.

Tony's choices were:

Blues

Death letter, Son Hous
Drop down mama, Sleepy John Estes
29 ways, Willie Dixon
Juke, Little Walter
Hellhound on my trail, Robert Johnson

Jazz

Kind of blue, Miles Davis
Time out, Dave Brubeck
My favourite things, John Coltrane
Watermelon man, Herbie Hancock
Ella Fitzgerald Sings The Duke Ellington Songbook
View with a room, Julian Lage

Here's a Spotify playlist of Tony's "First XI".

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4pVruox3Yo0xr7HCbWW6PR?si=50bdcfffa6d043d4

To get the download on why these bubbled to the top, tune into the episode. Thanks, Tony!

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What did The Kinks ever do for us?

The Beatles invented pop music as we know it and The Stones were the bad boys. But, like a middle child in the family struggling to fill a role, where does that leave The Kinks?

Arguably with the richest legacy of all. Go with us on the journey and start to discover  that The Kinks might have an equal stake in inventing pop music as we know it alongside The Beatles and they probably destroyed more hotel rooms than The Stones as well. 

From heavy metal to punk to power pop, they were the godfathers of many musical genres we take for granted today.

So, please do join your host Ian Forth to discuss the legacy of The Kinks.

Be expertly briefed each week on a wide variety of intriguing musical topics.

Comments under Youtube videos of songs from the 70s and 80s have a grim consistency. "Back when music was music" is the gist.

But I can remember older people saying the same about those songs when they first came out. Why do many - not all - of us - come to be so distrustful of new music? Neophobes, if you like.

Join Ian Forth on Vinyl Maelstrom for this week's provocative discussion.

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Walk down any high street in the world and you'll see someone wearing that t-shirt. The one with the wavy lines. Yet many people wearing it may never have listened to the album whose cover hosts the artwork.

Cool design, but why does it resonate? And if you wear the t-shirt, should you bother listening to an album that's almost half a century old?

Join Ian Forth for a discussion on the enduring legacy of Joy Division's Unknown Pleasures.

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50 years ago the NME ran a Best Albums Of All Time poll. There were 3 female artists on it and zero female-only bands.

Glance through any poll from the last few years and it's essentially a 50:50 male:female split.

So, what exactly happened? Join Ian Forth on this week's podcast to trace the evolution of women's role in modern music - and discover that everything is not quite as diverse as it may initially seem.

Be expertly briefed each week on a wide variety of intriguing musical topics.

If you want to be expertly briefed next time you're chatting away round the famous water cooler, Vinyl Maelstrom is here to help. 

Why not join Ian Forth, host of the internationally successful podcast Sombrero Fallout, and his guests to listen in on a wide variety of intriguing musical topics. 

Be expertly briefed each week on a wide variety of intriguing musical topics.