How We Heard It

howweheardit
  • 5.0 (8)
  • Music Commentary
  • Updated Weekly

Veteran entertainment journalists, music columnists and longtime friends Wayne Bledsoe and Chuck Campbell host ”How We Heard It,” a breezy and sometimes offbeat take on how music and movies got to where they are today and where it’s all going. They break down who are the most promising Generation Z singers one minute and the next they debate who are the most overrated acts from the past. Sexy songs, soundtracks, controversies and weird movies find their way into the discussion, and they also weigh in with recommendations on who to hear and what to see in music and film from the past and present. Wayne and Chuck have more than 65 years of experience in professional journalism between them, but they don’t waste time indulging in scholarly breakdowns of their institutional knowledge. Instead, they share behind-the-scenes stories about their odd, funny, inspirational and embarrassing encounters with celebrities, managers, fans and readers. And they laugh at themselves and each other. A lot. Because being an entertainment journalist does that to you. An important third voice in the ”How We Heard It” podcast is engineer John Baker, himself a musician and producer who reins in Wayne and Chuck when they need it. John’s tastes are a little bit Wayne and a little bit Chuck, and he’s a friendly sort. Wayne’s primary role in his nearly four decades at the Knoxville News-Sentinel was his work as an entertainment writer and critic. He currently hosts ”The Six O’Clock Swerve” weekly radio show on WUTK, 90.3 FM in Knoxville, he’s a former Grammy nominee, and he’s an organizer of the annual concert series ”Waynestock: For the Love of Drew and Rylan.” He’s also an artist and unconventional garden writer - see more at www.waynebledsoe.com. Chuck started his career in journalism at the Daytona Beach News-Journal in Florida before joining the staff in Knoxville. He has reviewed more than 5,500 albums, and his column was distributed by the New York Times, Gannett, Cox News Service and the Scripps Howard News Service. He was an entertainment and travel editor in both Florida and Tennessee and a regional news planner for Gannett’s South Region. ”How We Heard It” is a Cozy Planet Productions podcast recorded at The Arbor Studio in Knoxville, Tennessee. Send requests, comments and suggestions to HowWeHeardIt@gmail.com

  1. 22h ago

    Party songs! These are some of the best, worst and weirdest ones

    It's time to party up and party down. End of summer blowout? Back to school bash? Check and check. Even Halloween shindigs aren't so far away. And after that, Christmas and New Year's Eve and ... OK, we're getting way ahead of ourselves. Besides, you don't even need to have a party if you want to listen to party songs. This week on "How We Heard It," your hosts are checking off great party songs for the ages. Always the methodical one, Chuck comes up with lists of guaranteed crowd-pleasing songs to suit varying age groups with diverse interests in genres and differing levels of interest in music. His rule of thumb: Don't overwhelm partygoers with unfamiliar music, yet don't bore them with cliches. Balance your playlists. Meanwhile, John thinks a party is just the place to expose partiers to new music because folks will be loose, and his kind of crowd is likely to include mostly dedicated music fans. And Wayne would take it a step further: He's the kind of guy who wouldn't hesitate to break out a James Brown song for a crowd of Gen Zers who never heard of Brown. And Wayne being Wayne, he also shares a generous collection of offbeat party songs you've never heard of. Obviously, there's disagreement among the guys on the best (and worst) party songs, and there's truth to what each of them has to say. It just depends on the kind of party and the guest list. Or you could just crank up these songs in your car and take a long drive. Alone.

  2. Aug 1

    Even music legends can hit sour notes

    We all have our off days, including the most beloved and successful among us. Of course, we tend to let our heroes off the hook by looking the other way and pretending their missteps never happened.   Take your favorite singers and bands, for instance. Maybe they did an album that you quietly avoid or they released a hit song you can't bring yourself to play anymore. We just pretend those inferior works don't exist and go on loving the performers who make us happy.   But this week, the hosts of the podcast "How We Heard It" boldly criticize the best of the best artists in music, because nobody's perfect and it isn't honest to pretend they are.   So during this episode they reveal some of the worst releases (albums and singles) from some of the best artists.   No one is spared. They look at the worst work from rock's earliest legends like the Beatles, the Beach Boys, the Who and Bob Dylan and move on to everyone from Elton John and Michael Jackson to R.E.M. and Prince. And if that's too much testosterone for you, they pick at the worst from iconic women singers like Whitney Houston, Madonna and Mariah Carey, and they even isolate the least-impressive releases from the biggest figures in modern popular music such as Taylor Swift, Drake, Lady Gaga and Beyonce.   It's important to note that no one is saying these aren't amazing artists who've created music that millions will forever cherish. The show's hosts are just saying that once in a while even our favorite performers churn out something that's not worth more than a shrug and a "meh."   Think about your favorite singer or band. There's got to be something they did that you aren't crazy about.   Right?

  3. Jul 25

    What has reality TV done to us?

    There's long been some form of "reality TV" kicking around - in the form of news programs, documentaries and game shows, for example. But in the 1990s and especially the 2000s, there was such an explosion of "unscripted" programming on television coinciding with wholesale changes in society that it was hard to separate the two. It could be argued America in particular has been susceptible to the influence of reality television. The country even elected a reality TV star - Donald Trump of "The Apprentice" - as its president. Beyond politics, reality TV has become a key platform for upcoming music stars with shows such as "The Voice" and "American Idol" and made stars of people just living their lives in front of the camera on shows like "Keeping Up With the Kardashians," "The Real Housewives" and even "Jersey Shore." And it seems we've become more likely to reward brash behavior than ever before, pulling for "villains" on shows like "Survivor" and "Big Brother." As entertainment journalists, Chuck Campbell and Wayne Bledsoe, hosts of the podcast "How We Heard It," have had their brushes with reality shows and reality stars over the years. And in this episode of the podcast they discuss and debate their experiences and observations. Has reality TV made Americans less empathetic? Has it dumbed down the country? Has it helped us in some ways by teaching us lessons about human behavior? Has it diversified our entertainment beyond the generic fare of many scripted shows? Bottom line: Is reality TV simply another form of escapist entertainment, is it a sinister force in our society, or is the truth somewhere in between? What do you think?

  4. Jul 18

    Here's how we handled racy band names, Christian rock and the Sex Pistols

    Just looking at the music you've gathered over the years can give you insight into who you are and what you're about.   Whenever the hosts of "How We Heard" dig into their music collections, they always seem to find out more about themselves - sometimes more than they're expecting.   The guys are at it again on this week's episode, which prompts a free-flowing conversation about everything from old jazz to electronic dance music, from the glory to the pitfalls of live albums to the vague joy and uncertainty of rediscovering old albums they don't quite remember.   They discuss artists ranging from Radiohead and Beck to Santana and Ravi Shankar and focus on far-flung singer-songwriters including Aimee Mann and Ron Sexsmith.   Hosts Chuck Campbell and Wayne Bledsoe, both veteran music critics, also talk about how they handled reviews of Christian rock for the mainstream media as well as how they dealt with artists who used obscenities in their names or song/album titles.   And they dive into the past of Ryan Murphy, acclaimed Emmy-winning producer/director/screenwriter of TV's "Glee," "Nip/Tuck," "American Horror Story" and other shows as well as film adaptations of "Running With Scissors," "Eat, Pray, Love," "The Normal Heart" and "The Prom." Wayne explains what Murphy was doing in Knoxville, Tennessee, in the 1980s and what was he like back then.   When was the last time you really looked at your music collection? It could take you places you don't expect to go.

  5. Jul 11

    Need energy? Put away the caffeine and crank up these songs!

    If you can find the energy you need to get through every day, how do you do it? A well-balanced diet? A consistent exercise regimen? Regular restful nights? Maybe you need a little boost - like, say, a methodically steady stream of caffeine during the day balanced with diphenhydramine HCl at bedtime? Well, don't forget the power of music. Whether you require a special blast of energy to get through a particularly demanding time or you simply need an extra dose of oomph to help you complete the daily grind, music can help you instantly and cleanly, without all that planning or stress on your kidneys. This week on "How We Heard It," your hosts compile a list of high-energy songs from the ages that will gas up your tank. These are the songs that prompt primal reaction with extra electricity and/or jacked-up beats per minute. Or they may use any number of other tricks, such as rousing rhythm sections, spiked vocals or even explosions of horn. These songs can start suddenly and all at once, without all the prelude and layered setups employed by other songs. And they can bust out of the gate at a full gallop and then just keep gaining momentum until they blow up at the end. However they do it, they get the job done. And you don't have to go to the gym, eat a power lunch or juice your system with energy drinks.

  6. Jul 4

    These songs bring the heat! Can you handle it?

    Many of us in the Northern Hemisphere have already had our share of scorching days and steamy nights this summer, and there's only more to come. But rather than take shelter with a cool drink behind blackout curtains, the hosts of "How We Heard It" decided to face the heat head on with a collection of "hot" songs. Some are obvious, some you might have forgotten, and some you may never have heard. Some are recent, some go back several years, and some go back before any of us were born. And "hot" can mean almost anything. Songs about hot weather? Of course. Songs about hot people? You bet. Songs about fire and heat lightning? Naturally. These songs will make you want to celebrate. They'll make you uncomfortable. They'll turn you on. And they might even freak you out. But most importantly, they'll help you pass the time until the gentle kiss of autumn billows into your world again. So embrace the heat (like you have a choice) and make the best of it. It'll be over before you know it.

  7. Jun 27

    We expected more for these music acts, but it wasn't in the cards

    This week on "How We Heard It," your hosts talk about bands and singers they haven't mentioned often on the show but who deserve to have their stories told. For example: How did Lauryn Hill squander the record-breaking fame and adulation for her solo debut so badly that she never released another studio album? Or why didn't Lou Reed's counterpart in The Velvet Underground have anything close to Reed's success? Then there's the Australian pop sensation who has been churning out hits since the 1980s and has achieved Madonna-like status around the world, even though in the U.S. she's only a minor star ... because she HASN'T had a scandal? Also, there's the British act that's been a phenomenon all across Europe but has proven too acerbic for Americans. The episode includes others, from Marty Stuart and The Band to Men At Work and Jamiroquai. And find out what happened to the Chainsmokers during the 2020 pandemic that took them from the middle of everything right off the radar. That's show business: You can go from overwhelming success one minute to obscurity the next. But it's still better than some mind-numbing office job.

  8. Jun 20

    Two years later and we're still figuring it out

    "How We Heard It" is two years old this week, and Wayne, Chuck and John hope you're having a good time - because they are. Oh sure, they sometimes slip up, say "you know" and "right" too often, lose their way sorting out topics and forget what they're saying now and then. Yet they keep finding their way in sharing lose opinions and hard facts about music, movies and TV from before any of us were born to what's happening today and might happen tomorrow. In this week's podcast episode, the guys celebrate the show's highs and shame themselves for the lows. They share the most popular episodes - their own and those of the listeners (some of which surprised them) - and talk about the periodic chaos that happens when they aren't on the same page. They also share details about each other. But most of all, the team celebrates and deeply appreciates their listeners, who have found their way here from 101 different countries and most every state (we're still not sure what's happening in that Dakota). Thank you. It means everything.

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Ratings & Reviews

5
out of 5
8 Ratings

About

Veteran entertainment journalists, music columnists and longtime friends Wayne Bledsoe and Chuck Campbell host ”How We Heard It,” a breezy and sometimes offbeat take on how music and movies got to where they are today and where it’s all going. They break down who are the most promising Generation Z singers one minute and the next they debate who are the most overrated acts from the past. Sexy songs, soundtracks, controversies and weird movies find their way into the discussion, and they also weigh in with recommendations on who to hear and what to see in music and film from the past and present. Wayne and Chuck have more than 65 years of experience in professional journalism between them, but they don’t waste time indulging in scholarly breakdowns of their institutional knowledge. Instead, they share behind-the-scenes stories about their odd, funny, inspirational and embarrassing encounters with celebrities, managers, fans and readers. And they laugh at themselves and each other. A lot. Because being an entertainment journalist does that to you. An important third voice in the ”How We Heard It” podcast is engineer John Baker, himself a musician and producer who reins in Wayne and Chuck when they need it. John’s tastes are a little bit Wayne and a little bit Chuck, and he’s a friendly sort. Wayne’s primary role in his nearly four decades at the Knoxville News-Sentinel was his work as an entertainment writer and critic. He currently hosts ”The Six O’Clock Swerve” weekly radio show on WUTK, 90.3 FM in Knoxville, he’s a former Grammy nominee, and he’s an organizer of the annual concert series ”Waynestock: For the Love of Drew and Rylan.” He’s also an artist and unconventional garden writer - see more at www.waynebledsoe.com. Chuck started his career in journalism at the Daytona Beach News-Journal in Florida before joining the staff in Knoxville. He has reviewed more than 5,500 albums, and his column was distributed by the New York Times, Gannett, Cox News Service and the Scripps Howard News Service. He was an entertainment and travel editor in both Florida and Tennessee and a regional news planner for Gannett’s South Region. ”How We Heard It” is a Cozy Planet Productions podcast recorded at The Arbor Studio in Knoxville, Tennessee. Send requests, comments and suggestions to HowWeHeardIt@gmail.com

Information

  • Creator
    howweheardit
  • Years Active
    2024 - 2026
  • Episodes
    111
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © Copyright 2024 All rights reserved.
  • Show Website
    How We Heard It