Encore: The Stories Behind The Songs You Love iHeartRadio

Choosing a song that truly defines the Foo Fighters in the 2000s is somewhat of a Herculean task: Dave Grohl and his Merry Band of Rock Stars have been putting out such consistently solid Rock N Roll since the mid 90s, one might be forgiven for having a hard time choosing just one.
After all, in the 2000s alone there’s the last hurrah of the 90s with the anthemic and sentimental ‘Learn to Fly’. 
In 2002/2003 there a dose of heavy and the heartfelt with the back to back smash hits ‘All My Life’ and ‘Times Like These’, 
And in the closing years of the aughts we were blessed with the frantic sounds of ‘07’s The Pretender and the smooth ride of 2009’s ‘Wheels’
I’ll forgive you if you want to take a brief pause to take a walk down memory lane and put on some Foo Fighters Artist Radio right now.
But perhaps the track that really gets the blood pumping and the devil horns raised to the sky is 2005’s aptly named ‘Best of You’ 
This is the story of Foo Fighters' Best of You with newly unearthed audio from the band!
Also contains audio from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VCmi_xLoH7Q
 

How many pop songs can you name that are universally adored? There aren’t many, are there? 
I think I can name one though: “Dancing On My Own” by Robyn. In case you’re unfamiliar with it, the 2010 banger was widely acclaimed by critics but not so much by the public. In fact, the only country it reached #1 in was Sweden - Robyn’s homeland. But man, oh man, if you can name a song from this millennium that has encapsulated pop music better than “Dancing On My Own,” well, I wouldn’t believe you. It is as perfect as pop songs get. And yet, the story behind it is just as good as the song.
It’s a multi-faceted narrative that would make a great movie one day. A real underdog, comeback story about a young girl who becomes world famous as a teenager, then chooses to give up everything when she realizes she’s viewed as a commodity, only to do it all over again on her own terms and become an archetype for so many artists out there who value making art and having full control over their careers. 
This is the story of Robyn's Dancing on My Own with newly unearthed audio from Robyn hereself!
Also Features Clips from:
Chappelle's Show S2 E01: Racial Draft
Red Bull Music Academy
 Lilla Sportspegeln

Welcome to Season FOUR of Encore!
By 2007, Avril Lavigne was Canada’s Undisputed Pop-Punk Queen. The 22- Year old Avril was two wildly successful albums deep into a career that seemingly knew no bounds.
Her Debut, the influential ‘Let Go’ had introduced her to the world at the young age of 17 - and would go a resounding SIX times platinum in America in less than a year. 
Songs like ‘Complicated’ and ‘Sk8er Boi’ blew up charts worldwide, winning her Juno Awards, MMVAs and MTV VMAS, and granting her critical acclaim with a handful of prestigious GRAMMY Nominations to boot. 
Her followup record - 2004’s Under My Skin was a darker, more moody affair that top the Canadian and US Billboard Album charts, also go multi platinum and give us such hits as ‘My Happy Ending’ and ‘Nobody’s Home’. 
After Touring the world with a gruelling 140 dates  throughout 2004 and 2005 Avril had entered her 20s and was ready to make some big changes to her music. 
Clearly, Lavigne had done some great things… but now she was ready to make: The Best Damn Thing. 
This is the story of Avril Lavigne's 'Girlfriend' - with newly unearthed audio from Avril Lavigne!

Lady Gaga is more than your average pop star. From the early modest days of sewing her own costumes and singing about disco sticks, she has continually reinvented herself along the way to become one of the planet’s biggest stars of both music and film.
She’s won Grammys, an Oscar and every award in between. She’s sold over 170 million records and generated hundreds of millions of dollars with her groundbreaking tours. She’s stolen the screen next to leading men such as Bradley Cooper in A Star Is Born and Joaquin Phoenix in this year’s Joker: Folie à Deux. Heck, she even pivoted to jazz with remarkable success, becoming BFFs with her mentor and collaborator, the late, great Tony Bennett. 
She’s also become a tireless advocate for UNICEF, the Rainforest Foundation, the LGBTQ+ community, and mental wellness. And let’s not forget, she is the matriarch to millions of little monsters out there who continue to worship their Mother Monster. How’s that compare to your résumé?Yes,
Lady Gaga is one of music’s greatest overachievers, but to quote one of her biggest hits: she was born this way.
Her breakthrough single, “Just Dance” instantly became a club hit, reaching the Billboard dance charts soon after. It would also hit the Hot 100 in the U.S., but it was in Canada where “Just Dance” would first reach #1.
Finally, Lady Gaga’s debut album, The Fame, was released via Interscope on August 19, 2008. The album would produce hit after hit - with fans waiting to see what she would be wearing, and how she would creatively one-up herself with ever video, and every public appearance.
On November 10, 2009, she released the song that would become arguably the biggest song and video of her career. “Bad Romance” was an instant smash hit, with its “Rah, rah-ah-ah-ah, Roma, roma-ma, Gaga-ooh-la-la” chant, Hitchcock references and a pounding beat that channels German techno.
This is the story of Lady Gaga's Bad Romance - with newly unearthed audio from Gaga herself!
Encore will be going on a brief summer hiatus! See you in July for season 4!
Also contains audio from:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HPmeKqC4H_M
https://soundcloud.com/howardstern/ladygaga-vomitartrape?utm_source=clipboard&utm_campaign=wtshare&utm_medium=widget&utm_content=https%253A%252F%252Fsoundcloud.com%252Fhowardstern%252Fladygaga-vomitartrape
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0101Sm7HAjs 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OPGwSgfGBB8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NJ5UQOMlEQo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X5Cfi7U4eL4 
 

Quickly - don’t think too hard - but is there a more immediately recognizable Rock riff of the last 25 years than The White Stripes’ Seven Nation Army? 
Not so much a song owned by a band anymore, and more of a tour-de-force piece of performance art for passionate sporting event-goers worldwide to make their own; Seven Nation Army has become a part of the public consciousness in ways that very few songs since the turn of the century have managed to.
Seven little notes, no real chorus, and a band who spent a lot of their existence arguably trying to *not* follow trends and gain worldwide celebrity status - it doesn’t really seem like the recipe for success on paper. 
This is the story of The White Stripes 2003 Classic - ‘Seven Nation Army’
Featuring newly unearthed audio from the band themselves!
Also contains audio from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6-7bSDbIePc

Like Madonna, Bono, Prince and Beyoncé before her, Adele is one of the great mononymous superstars of our time.
Adele Adkins was born on May 5, 1988 in Tottenham, a working class town in northern London known best for its football club, Tottenham Hotspur. Her mom Penny Adkins, was only 18 when she was born and when she was only two, Adele’s father upped and left for Wales; he would never be in the picture as Adele grew up.
From the age of 4, Adele began to sing at every opportunity she would get. When the Spice Girls emerged, young Adele would become obsessed with the Girl Powerful group. In 2016, she would tell Vogue, “People always think I joke about this, but the Spice Girls blew up when I was seven, and seeing them coming from a humble background — there was hope in it. It was really a massive part of my life when the whole Girl Power thing happened.”
When she was 11, her mum and stepdad moved her to West Norwood in south London, which she would immortalize in her 2007 hit “Hometown Glory.” It was there that Adele would fall in love with contemporary R&B and the big, classic voices that would shape her voice in the years to come.
“Hometown Glory,” was first released in October 2007 as a limited 7-inch on a small label called Pacemaker. The song didn’t do much until it was re-released the following year by XL. But the buzz was growing for Adele. As 2008 arrived, she became the youngest artist ever to win the BBC’s Sound of 2008 award, which is selected by music critics and industry figures searching for the UK’s most promising new music talent. She also took home the Critic’s Choice Award at the BRITs, which was given to the top rising star. 
Soon after, Adele released her debut album, 19, on January 28, 2008. She named it 19 because, well, that’s how old she was when she recorded the album. It didn’t take long for critics and fans to fixate on her age, and how mature she sounded for someone who was only 19. 
Adele was quickly popping up everywhere on both sides of the pond. 19 was on the shortlist of nominees for the coveted Mercury Prize, which is awarded for the best album released by a musical act from the United Kingdom or Ireland.”Hometown Glory” popped up all over TV, soundtracking huge dramatic scenes in countless TV shows like Grey’s Anatomy, So You Think You Can Dance, Coronation Street and 90210. But perhaps the greatest achievement, at least in Adele’s eyes, was one of her heroes, Beyoncé calling her “THE British singer,” separating her from the rest of the pack.
Her followup single “Chasing Pavements” earned Adele her first Grammy for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance, beating out her former classmate Leona Lewis. It was also nominated for Song of the Year and Record of the Year. Even bigger than that, Adele also won Best New Artist.
Now with a lot more pressure on her, Adele was ready to record her followup album Feeling the raw sting of a recent breakup, Adele reached out to Paul Epworth in October 2009 and immediately they headed into the studio. She brought him a ballad she had begun writing a couple years ago about a boy, which he felt needed to be stronger and more aggressive in its arrangement. With Epworth’s help they channeled the anger she felt from her recent split and used some guitar riffs he had previously written down.
As the two worked together, Adele began to feel her heart race, which became the beat of the song. The two of them came up with the verses and the chords of the song in under 15 minutes, with the rest only taking about two hours.
This is the true story of Adele's iconic song 'Rolling in the Deep' with newly unearthed footage from Adele herself!
Also contains clips from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U_mj1CuXrPE
and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H1wjMGosYa8