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Curiouscast

Ongoing History of New Music looks at things from the alt-rock universe to hip hop, from artist profiles to various thematic explorations. It is Canada’s most well known music documentary hosted by the legendary Alan Cross. Whatever the episode, you’re definitely going to learn something that you might not find anywhere else. Trust us on this.

Ongoing History of New Music

Why does music move us so deeply...even when we don’t hear it? 

From brain scans lighting up with musical memories to how songs can fight loneliness, boost productivity, and even repel mosquitoes, this episode dives into the strange science behind sound with another exploration into the medical mysteries of music.

🧠 Discover:

Why music survives memory loss in Alzheimer’s

 How your taste in music shifts with the time of day

 What your favourite song might say about your personality

 The truth behind earworms (and how to get rid of them)

 How music affects taste, mood, and even hearing loss

📲 Listen now wherever you get your podcasts🔗 ajournalofmusicalthings.com
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Medical Mysteries of Music - The Sixth Edition

There are plenty of unexplained things in the world of music…these are things that we often don’t even question…why do we do these things?...what is this called that?...who came up with that idea?

Let’s deal with some of that.

This is another episode of something I call “The Rock Explainer”.
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The Rock Explainer - 6

Taj Khyber Rowland knows he’s not who people think he is but he can’t quite remember how his life went so off course. 

He decides to spool backwards, to his younger self. A daredevil seven year old Chellamuthu, living happily, but in abject poverty, with his large family in rural India. 

But when Chellamuthu disobeys his mother and goes to play at the bus station, he’s persuaded to board a bus with some bigger boys. 

He’s kidnapped. And there’s no going back.

﻿Contact:

Facebook: ⁠⁠@BlanchardHouseStories⁠⁠

Instagram: ⁠⁠@BlanchardHouseStories⁠⁠

X (formerly Twitter): ⁠⁠@BlanchardTweets⁠⁠

Blanchard House website: ⁠⁠blanchard-house.com⁠
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Introducing... Stop Rewind: The Lost Boy | Through A Glass Darkly | 1

This episode is about giving credit where credit is due. Specifically to musicians who were so far ahead of their time that the public and the industry just didn’t get it, and as a result, they were ignored, shunned, unrewarded, or otherwise omitted from music history.

Most of these names might be new to you, but that’s not your fault…the music world just dropped the ball on these people… but that’s just wrong…they just happened to offer something when we weren’t quite ready for it…in other words, they peaked too soon…let me show you what I mean.

 
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Peaked Too Soon - Bands That Were Ahead of Their Time

This is the second half at a look at the stories behind some of the most iconic album covers of all time…on part one, we looked at the Ramones, the Sex Pistols, Depeche Mode, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, the Beastie Boys, Alice In Chains, Nirvana, Pearl Jam, and Smashing Pumpkins, all in chronological order, ending in 1993.

 Now we’re going to pick things up in 1994.

This is part two of a show that looks at some of the most iconic-looking albums in history, along with some secret stories they contain.
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The Stories Behind Iconic Album Covers Part 2

This 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 podcast…so i need to work with me on this…

 Vinyl is back in a way that no one could have ever predicted…in countries like Canada, the US, the UK, Australia, and beyond, vinyl is once again outselling CDs…and a surprising number of people are buying vinyl even if they don’t have a turntable… 

What’s the point of that? ...simple…vinyl is a tangible and physical manifestation and representation of the music…it is something you own, something that resides with you, and no matter what happens, it is yours… 

Many fans stream the music while holding the vinyl in their hands…that’s the best of both worlds…the vinyl never gets damaged, but you get to hear the music just the same…

And the attraction is the same as it ever was…liner notes, lyric sheets—and the artwork…

For a while, we were in real danger of seeing the glories of album artwork disappear…first, it was shrunk down to cd-sized…then with sometime like iTunes, you got a little postage-same image…and with streaming, you get almost nothing when it comes to something that visually embodies all the blood, sweat, tears, talent, and inspiration that went into making that album… 

So here on the radio (or the podcast), I’m going to ask you to conjure up images of these album covers in your mind…then you can go back to your vinyl library and take a look…

We’re revisiting album artwork on this episode of “The Ongoing History of New Music” with a look at the stories behind some iconic covers…and after this, you may not look at some of your albums the same way again…
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The Stories Behind Iconic Album Covers Part 1

I’ve always been fascinated with recording studios…the atmosphere, the equipment, the musical gear, the slight scent of ozone from all the electricity running through the circuits.

 Yeah, you can make very good records at home, but there’s
something special about recording a song or making an album in a professional recording studio…

This time, I’ve compiled a list of some of the best-known Oasis songs, and we’re about to go deep into how they were created.

When we’re done, you won’t listen to any of them the same way again.

This is "In the Studio with Oasis"
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In the Studio with Oasis

This program begins with an advisory…no, no—not that kind…there’s nothing dirty or obscene or controversially political coming up…it’s just that, well—what you’re about to hear is different…very different…and I mean really different.

There are thousands of music genres out there…but on this program, we’re going to look at something special…it’s a genre known as “outsider music” 

You know the kid at school who seemed to live a little beyond the status quo?... He or she wasn’t quite normal…and i do not mean that in any judgmental or pejorative way…they just marched to their own beat…whatever was going on inside their head may have been a little hard to grasp.

Some of these people may have felt a need to express themselves artistically…and the art that came out didn’t exactly fit anywhere…if it was music, it wasn’t the sort of music other people were making.

Outsider musicians are often self-taught…they’re perhaps a little naïve when it comes to the conventions of music and how it is performed…traditions, music theory, and experience mean nothing to them…they don’t care what other people think because they believe in themselves so much…for them, it’s all about the sheer joy of music.

No two outsider musicians sound alike…some have intellectual disabilities or suffer from some kind of mental illness (like schizophrenia, for example), while others are just a little left-of-centre when it comes to their outlook on reality, something that comes through in their music.

But all outsider musicians have something in common…there’s often a child-like quality to what they create…and they are motivated by the sheer joy of making music—and damn what other people may think.

If we look at them through that lens, their spirit is to be admired—even if the music is a little, uh, challenging.

Now that you’ve been warned and I’ve explained myself, let’s dive deeper into the fascinating world of outsider music…prepare yourself.
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Still More Outsider Music

This episode is directed at people who need to understand how their favourite bands got their names. 

I will present you 60 band names over the course of this program…the first 20 will be a study of current popular groups…then we’ll move to some retro names, followed by some random labels.

 And we’ll conclude with groups filed under “what were they thinking?,” “terrible original names,” “offensive names” (I’ll have to be careful about that)…and we’ll end with names that are just plain dumb—dumb on purpose, of course. 

Ready? Let us begin.

 

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60 More Band Name Origins in 60 Minutes

Every once in a while, something extraordinary happens in rock’n’roll…I hate the use of the cliché of “a perfect storm,” but that’s precisely what I’m talking about…a bunch of things involving culture, politics, demographics, economics and technology all collide and mix in just the right way for something totally new and unexpected to be created…

Lemme give you some examples…Elvis came along in the 1950s just as millions of post-war kids—these new constructs that were now called “teenagers”—began gravitating to new radio stations that played music derived from a mix of the blues, country and R&B… This music greatly annoyed their parents, something that made it dangerous and forbidden…

In 1964, the Beatles appeared on the Ed Sullivan show with a fresh, new sound that helped drag America out of the funk that followed the assassination of JFK…as far as rock is concerned, the 60s really began that February night in 1964…

Let’s try something more current…you might remember the appearance of the music video in the early 80s transformed the industry…. or the time you heard “smells like teen spirit” for the first time and immediately you somehow knew that whatever came next in the 90s would be very, very different…

And hip hop? don’t get me started…there are people—academics! —who will argue that the appearance of hip hop in popular culture was an even bigger deal that the Beatles…

There’s one other event that we need to include on this list: the rise of punk rock in the mid-70s…as it was happening, it was no big deal…it was an aberration, a niche thing that indulged weirdos and misfits… “It’s just noise,” said the rock purists. “Ignore it and it’ll go away.”

But it didn’t…in fact, we’re still talking about punk…and punk became more than just a form of music… it became a way of thinking and acting and creating and presenting…it’s music, film, visual art, literature, dance, politics… it altered much of western thought…the punk aesthetic—that “screw you, I’m gonna do it anyway” ethos—can be found virtually everywhere in society today…

But what led to this? What were the factors that led to the rise of this music? And how did it appear worldwide at virtually the same time in an era long, long before the internet? Great questions…. let’s see if we can find the answer to the question: “Why did punk happen at all?”
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Why Punk Happened

The music world went a little weird on February 13, 2011…and I remember it very, very well because I was in a hotel room in Vancouver with nothing to do but watch TV…I think I was coming back from a speaking thing in Victoria and my flight home had been cancelled…

I ordered up a club sandwich from room service and lay on the bed watching the 53rd Grammy awards…all the usual suspects were there…lady gaga, whose album “the fame monster” had been, well, a monster…six nominations, including best album…

Katy Perry…seven nominations for her “Teenage Dream” album…Eminem was back…Rihanna had a bunch of nominations…there was buzz about Justin Bieber, Jay Z, Alicia Keys, Bruno Mars, Lady Antebellum….

Finally, after more than three hours of awards and speeches and performances, it was time to present album of the year…the presenter was Barbra Streisand, who, earlier in the evening, was feted with the “musicares person of the year” honour—a big deal…

She stepped onstage with the envelope….the crowd buzzed… “it’s gonna be Katy Perry” ….”No way! They’re gonna give it to Eminem!...”Are you crazy? Lady Gaga has this sewn up”…

Babs opened the envelope and—well, just listen…

Didn’t she sound so confused?...let’s listen again…and note the long pause as she stares at the printing on the card as if she doesn’t know what to do…

Twitter exploded…I mean, it just melted down with indignation, outrage and hate…“The Suburbs?”…by who?...what’s an “Arcade Fire?….never heard of them…you people are Grammy…how come I don’t know who they are?....no one knows who they are…who the hell is Arcade Fire!”

It was epic....and for those who still don’t get it, hang on…we can fix things for you…or at least try to…
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Who the Hell is Arcade Fire? Part 1

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