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 w...
We’ve all sat listening to music and though to ourselves “what does this song mean?...what’s the singer (or the band) trying to say?”.
Sometimes it’s nothing…it’s just a bunch of words strung together in a way that sounds fun…other times, lyrics to a song may be just some kind of stream of consciousness thing that somehow made sense to the singer or the lyricist at the time…or maybe it didn’t…lots of songs are written in altered states.
A song could be an oblique and opaque form of poetry that’s supposed to resolve itself in the brains of each individual listener…there have been many times when I’ve asked a singer “what does this song mean?”… and their answer is “well, what does it mean to you?...whatever you say is the right answer”.
Okay, i get it…it’s art…art is supposed to be open to personal interpretation…when you hear something beautiful or provocative or inspiring, who cares what the initial intent was—if there even was one…all that matters is that the song somehow hits you on some kind of emotional level that’s difficult or impossible to quantify or describe.
Then again, some songs have a very specific point…they tell a story…or they’re inspired by something that happened in real life and the composer is trying to capture what he or she felt and saw.
And then there are the stories of the creation of the songs themselves…something happened for that song to be born…what was it?...and what were the circumstances, the serendipity, the accidents, the crazy coincidences that needed to manifest for a great song to come to life?.
Let’s explore that…this is another episode of stories behind songs.
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38:47
Murder Ballads (and Other Deadly Songs)
This is an episode about murder…call this a crossover episode with my true crime podcast, “Uncharted: Crime and Mayhem in the Music Industry”.
For as long as rock music has existed, people have been blaming it for turning impressionable people to the dark side, inspiring them (if not outright encouraging them) to do evil things.
My opinion is that an unstable mentally ill person is liable to be triggered by anything…and yes, sometimes that trigger might be a song…there are, however, not that many documented cases of this happening. I call this episode “murder ballads (and other deadly songs)”…and what you’re about to hear is not pretty.
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33:52
Introducing... Haunted Canada
When Nadine Bailey was 7 years old she woke up terrified of dark figures looming at the end of her bed and an eerie presence all around her. From then on every night was the same, she was visited by phantom-like shadows and no matter where she went, the ghostly encounters followed her. Ever since that moment, hauntings, spirits and the unexplained have consumed her entire life and for the past 20 years she's been an award-winning guide with Edmonton Ghost Tours Along the way she has taken people into the shadows, uncovering the macabre tales that linger in the darkness and inside some of the most haunted houses, hospitals, prisons, and more. On Haunted Canada, Nadine journeys through terrifying and bone chilling stories of the unexplained. Join her if you dare.
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23:29
Celtic Rock - A History
Anyone with a passing knowledge of rock is aware of its origins back in the late 40s and early 50s when blues, rhythm and blues, western, country, folk, and hillbilly traditions began to mix and match, eventually coalescing into what became known as “rock’n’roll”.
If you’re an alt-rock fan, you’ve heard the story of how all this began with the garage bands of the late 60s and the punk rock explosion of the mid-70s.
The birth of modern electronic music?... It has a rich and complicated origin story that stretches back to the 40s before the technology was cheap enough for young musicians to give it a go in the 70s.
Ska and reggae?... Understanding those sounds and their enduring appeal requires a deep dive into Jamaican culture and politics.
Once we get to the 80s, things really begin to separate, segment, and stratify…goth, industrial, punk-funk, hardcore, dream pop, all the various flavours of metal…the last time I checked into Spotify’s classification system, the platform had sorted music into more than 2500 different genres—and that number keeps growing.
This program has looked at many of these origin stories…and it’s time that we did another one.
If you have ever enjoyed a pint in a traditional pub, you’re going to love this…it’s the history of Celtic rock.
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30:02
Mighty Managers of Rock
If you’re a musical artist and you start to do well, the point will come when you need a manager.
The manager is the person who looks after all the business stuff so the musician can get on with the business of making music…managers deal with booking gigs, marketing, promotions, promoters, publicity, support staff and road crews.
They collect the money and pay the bills…and the oversee all the infrastructure of your career: lawyers, accountants, and all the other people involved in running the business that is you and your music.
But it doesn’t stop there…managers can also function as advisors, sounding boards, fixers, father and mother figures, referees, bail bondsmen, bouncers, psychologists, and even amateur physicians and pharmacists—for good or for not-so-good reasons.
They need to be on top of trends, have all the right connections, understand audiences, be able to navigate record companies, and translate contracts…it can be a 24/7 job.
Bottom line is that a manager can make or break a career…they are incentivized by their commission, which is usually somewhere around 15%...the more you make as an artist, the more they make…if they’re good at their job, your career grows and the money roles in.
These are the stories of nine managers who have had an impact—mostly good, but also, you know, not-so-great.
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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.
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