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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

This is my annual data dump featuring music information you didn’t know you needed…over the last 12 months, I’ve collected this material on scraps of paper, post-it notes, on my iPhone’s “notes” app, and in various files on my computer…and these are the best 60 mind-blowing facts about music I can offer for 2025.

 This is the 11th year that I’ve been doing this…maybe there’s a book in here somewhere…i don’t know…maybe…one day…

Whatever…a lot of random information is about to come your way…do your best to ingest what you can…ready?....let’s go.
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60 Mind-Blowing Facts About Music in 40 or so Minutes (2025 Edition)

In this third and final chapter of our look at Why Bowie Still Matters, we explore the last two decades of his life and the innovations that cemented his legacy. 

From pioneering digital music distribution and launching BowieNet, to creating “Bowie Bonds”...something that changed the music business...Bowie was always ahead of the curve. 

We revisit his late-career albums, his secret comeback with "The Next Day", and the farewell gift of "Blackstar". 

Plus, the stories behind his art, his influence on countless genres, and why his impact continues to grow even ten years after his passing. 

Bowie didn’t just make music...he reshaped culture...and this is Why Bowie Still Matters.
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Why Bowie Still Matters - Part 3

David Bowie wasn’t just a rock star...he was a cultural architect who reinvented music, fashion, and identity. 

In part 2 of "Why Bowie Still Matters", we explore Bowie’s groundbreaking mid-70s to early-80s era: from the cocaine-fueled chaos of Station to Station and the birth of the Thin White Duke, his "Berlin Trilogy" with Brian Eno that shaped post-punk and electronic music. And we’ll explore how albums like Low, Heroes, and Lodger influenced everyone from Joy Division to Duran Duran, Depeche Mode, Radiohead and others.

Meanwhile, Bowie’s constant creativity sparked movements like New Wave and the New Romantics. And then we reach Bowie’s bold reinvention...again... in the 90s with Tin Machine and Trent Reznor. 

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Why Bowie Still Matters - Part 2

It’s been nearly a decade since David Bowie left us, and the world hasn’t really been the same since.

In the first of a three part series, we explore why Bowie’s influence goes far beyond music...shaping fashion, art, technology, and even social movements. From his early days writing songs he would really rather forger about...to the birth of Ziggy Stardust...his role in shaping glam rock, gender expression, and even the evolution of punk.

Bowie changed everything.

David Bowie redefined what it meant to be a rock star...and this is why his legacy matters.
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Why Bowie Still Matters - Part 1

If there’s an official mission statement for the kind of music we all love, it’s “sex, drugs, and rock’n’roll” …these are the three main food groups in this world…

All three of these things affect the same portions of the brain: the amygdala, the nucleus accumbens, and the cerebellum…. All of them are involved in the secretion and regulation of dopamine, the “feel-good” hormone… 

Dopamine is a very addictive hormone…whenever our brains squirt it out, the body goes “this is good! I want more!” …it happens when we hear a great song….it happens with certain drugs and alcohol, which is the basis of addiction…and it happens with an orgasm…

Once you’re inside this bubble, you may find things rather permissive…as long as you’re producing, people will look the other way…there’s no one to tell you “no”…and it doesn’t take long for some people to get lost in this world, coming to believe that normal rules of polite society don’t apply….you’re special, meaning that you can do anything…

That’s when your judgement starts to become suspect…and that’s when things start to get strange…how strange?...well…

Welcome to a show all about rock’n’roll and weird tales of sex.
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Tales of Weird Rock’n’Roll Sex

Going on tour is hard…you’re away from home for months at a time…there’s little sleep, bad food, too many drugs, a surfeit of alcohol, late nights, temptations into bad behavior, crazy people, and that bass player who refuses to wash his feet, probably because he’s on his phone moaning to his girlfriend about how miserable he is…

 

All that occupies about 22 hours of the day…the best times come when you’re at the venue…there’s the excitement of the lead-up, the after-show satisfaction, and in between, the gig itself…

 

But every show is different…a different city…a different place to sleep…vans, buses, and, if you’re lucky, airplanes…for that time on the road, your sanctuary becomes the dressing room, the one place over which you have some measure of control—if you know what you’re doing…

 

This brings me to the concert rider, the part of the contract with the promoter that specifies what an act has to be provided with before, during, and after a show…

 

Once the band arrives, the road manager is the point-person…he or she has to make sure the promoter adheres to the terms of the rider…

 

Most of the details are pretty mundane because they’re basically logistical…the times of the load-in and load-out…electrical requirements and the number of local electricians required to make them happen…how many forklifts and drivers are needed to move gear around…catering for the crew…parking for the tour buses…how merch sales are going to work…that kind of thing…

 

Where things get interesting are the artist’s requirements, the things they need backstage to ensure they’re in a good headspace to play a great show…mess up the rider and the promoter runs the risk of having a pouty, petulant, and otherwise pissed off performance…

 

And i get it…if you’re an artist and you don’t get what you need before a gig, then you’re going to feel disrespected…

 

Coming up with a list of requests that can be enforced night after night, venue after venue, city after city, and country after country is a delicate and essential thing…and let’s just say that some bands are better than others at this sort of thing…

 

Welcome to the wild work of the backstage rider…
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The Backstage Rider

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

Whenever you’re having a bad day, I want to think of this number…the probability of you existing—that you’re this sentient being, alive in this vast universe—is exceedingly small…in fact, it’s about zero…

Your mom and dad have to meet…they have to stay together long enough to have kids…then that egg and that sperm have to connect, and so on…

A guy by the name of Dr. Ali Binazir has calculated the odds of you being you…by that number is 1 followed by 2,685,000 zeroes…

By way of analogy, here’s how he describes it…

Imagine there was one life preserver thrown somewhere in some ocean and there is exactly one turtle in all of these oceans, swimming underwater somewhere. 

 The probability that you came about and exist today is the same as that turtle sticking its head out of the water — in the middle of that life preserver. On one try.

Mind-boggling, right?...now let’s get even weirder…add in the chances of you getting into a band that becomes successful…and not just successful, but a group that becomes world-changing…add another six zeroes to that last number…

Now consider this: what if you got into a second successful band that stays together for decades and also becomes one of the biggest things rock has ever seen…that’s good for, what, three more zeroes?...

So in this completely unscientific extrapolation of Dr. Binazir’s estimation of the uniqueness of existence, the chances of Dave Grohl being Dave Grohl is approximately one in two quadrillion, 685 trillion…give or take…

 

This is the third and final part of our ultra-deep look at the guy…
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Ultra-Deep Background on Dave Grohl: Part 3

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