Music
- Fall in love with your favorite songs all over again.
20 YEARS, 20 PODCASTS WE LOVE
Fall in love with your favorite songs all over again.
- How a music icon reflects our culture back to us.
20 YEARS, 20 PODCASTS WE LOVE
How a music icon reflects our culture back to us.
- Chronicles of crime and dirty secrets from music history.
CREATORS WE LOVE
Chronicles of crime and dirty secrets from music history.
- Bono on his new documentary and immersive storytelling.
NEW EPISODE
Bono on his new documentary and immersive storytelling.
1
takin' a walkiHeartPodcasts2
The Joe Budden PodcastThe Joe Budden Network3
Joe and JadaiHeartPodcasts and The Volume4
Song ExploderHrishikesh Hirway5
A History of Rock Music in 500 SongsAndrew Hickey6
Dem Vinyl BoyzPodcast Playground7
Celebrity Jobber Podcast with Jeff ZitoPodcast Playground
More in Music
- Music CommentaryUpdated Biweekly
- Music HistorySeries
- Society & CultureSeries
- Society & CultureUpdated Semimonthly
- MusicUpdated Monthly
- MusicUpdated Weekly
- MusicUpdated Biweekly
Get to Know: Anything for Selena
Honoring the Tejano icon's legacy.
- TRAILER
Anything for Selena: A Podcast About BelongingMaria Garcia was nine years old and living on the U.S.-Mexico border when Selena was murdered. 25 years later, Maria is on a quest to understand what it means to love, mourn and celebrate Selena. In this intimate, sometimes wrenching, cathartic journey, Maria explores what Selena’s legacy shows us about belonging in America — and Maria’s own place in the world.- 01/12/2021
Selena and MeGrowing up along the US-Mexico border, Maria Garcia felt torn between her two identities as Mexican and American. But then, something changed her life. She discovered Selena Quintanilla—the Mexican-American pop icon who proved she didn’t have to choose. In the premiere episode of Anything for Selena, host Maria Garcia explores how Selena helped Maria find her own place in the world.- 01/12/2021
Selena and AbrahamMaria knows that to truly understand Selena as a person and not just an icon, she needs to go to Corpus Christi. Maria’s quest takes her to Abraham Quintanilla, Selena Quintanilla’s notoriously guarded father. Maria confronts his complicated legacy and reflects on fatherhood in Latinx cultures.- 01/19/2021
Birth of a SymbolIn her life, Selena was a symbol of hope. She became a role model for how Latinos could achieve the American dream and find acceptance. But a forgotten culture war following her death painted a different picture. In the 25 years since her murder, Selena’s image has taken on new meaning. In this episode, Maria traces how Selena became a symbol of solidarity and resistance.- 01/26/2021
Big Butt PoliticsNearly 30 years ago, Sir-Mix-A-Lot’s “Baby Got Back (I Like Big Butts)” hit the airwaves to the delight and shock of listeners. Today, the obsession with big butts is still strong with idols like Cardi B and Beyonce. It has also permeated white culture, with Kim Kardashian “breaking the internet” and butt selfie queen Jen Selter. Maria has a theory about how big butts went from taboo to obsession--and it involves Selena and Jennifer Lopez. She uncovers that booty politics is ultimately about race and brings us to a long overdue conversation about anti-blackness within the Latinx community.- 02/02/2021
Tejano TensionSelena is often called the "Queen of Tejano music." In the 1990s, she brought this underdog genre to international heights. Tejano award shows were glitzy affairs and Tejano radio DJs were like rock stars in Texas and the Southwest. Even the New York Times called it the fastest-growing Latino genre in the country. But when Selena died, Tejano went from boom to bust. The story of Tejano's decline isn't so simple, though. Maria discovers that it's a story of immigration, money and how two often-ignored groups were pitted against each other.
Apple Music Shows
The stories behind the songs.
- MusicUpdated Mar 9
- Music CommentaryUpdated Daily
- Music CommentaryUpdated Daily
- Music InterviewsUpdated Monthly
- Music CommentaryUpdated Weekly
- Music CommentaryUpdated Daily
- Music CommentaryUpdated Daily
Get to Know: Song Exploder
The untold stories behind hit songs.
- 10/02/2024
Jon Batiste - We AreJon Batiste is a pianist, songwriter, and composer from New Orleans. He’s been nominated for multiple Grammys, and just won the Golden Globe and got an Oscar nomination for the soundtrack to the Pixar film Soul, which he composed along with Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross. Jon is also a recipient of the American Jazz Museum’s Lifetime Achievement Award, and on weeknights, you can see him as the bandleader on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. In March 2021, he put out his new album, We Are. But the title track from it actually came out much earlier, in June 2020. In this episode, Jon talks about how he drew from his roots, both at a personal level and at a cultural level, and wove all of it into the song. For more, visit songexploder.net/jon-batiste.- 11/17/2021
Hans Zimmer - DuneThe movie Dune was released on October 21. It's the most recent adaptation of Frank Herbert's epic science fiction novel from 1965. The film was directed by Denis Villeneuve, and the score was written by Oscar-winning composer Hans Zimmer. Hans Zimmer has scored over 200 films, been nominated for Oscars eleven times. He and Denis Villeneuve first worked together on the film Blade Runner 2049. Dune tells the story of the Atreides family as they relocate from their home world to the desert planet Arrakis. When Hans Zimmer first started working on the music, he made what he calls a "sketchbook" – creating motifs and themes that might occur in the film. And in this episode, he takes us through the first sketch he did for Dune. It’s called "Paul's Dream." For more, visit songexploder.net/dune.- 12/04/2024
Gracie Abrams - I Love You, I'm SorryGracie Abrams is a singer and songwriter from Los Angeles. She started putting out music in 2020, and in June 2024, she put out her second album, The Secret of Us. She was nominated for a Grammy for Best New Artist, and this year she’s up for another Grammy, for Best Duo Performance, for her collaboration with Taylor Swift. But for this episode, I talked to Gracie about her song “I Love You, I’m Sorry.” It was produced by Aaron Dessner, at Long Pond Studio in upstate New York, and it was co-written with Audrey Hobert. Coming up, you’ll hear the isolated tracks from the studio recording, but you’ll also get to hear a lot of the voice memos that Gracie recorded during the writing process. I think it’s so nice to have these raw moments documented because, as you’ll hear, they give you an insight not just into the song, but into the relationship that Gracie and her co-writer Audrey have as friends. For more, visit songexploder.net/gracie-abrams.- 09/18/2024
Troye Sivan - One of Your GirlsTroye Sivan is a singer and songwriter from Australia. He’s been nominated for a Golden Globe, two Grammys, and he’s won four of Australia’s ARIA awards. His song “My My My!” was a #1 hit on the Billboard Dance Chart, and his third album, Something to Give Each Other, was one of Billboard’s picks for the best albums of 2023. Troye’s also an actor; he was in the HBO series The Idol, which figures into the story that he tells about this song. Troye came to the studio and we talked about how he made one of his big hits, the song “One of Your Girls.” For that song, he worked with two of his longtime collaborators: his frequent songwriting partner, Leland, and producer Oscar Görres. For more, visit songexploder.net/troye-sivan.- 06/01/2022
Rick Astley - Never Gonna Give You UpRick Astley is a singer and songwriter from England, whose debut single, "Never Gonna Give You Up," became an international smash hit. The song came out in July 1987 and won the BRIT Award for “British Single of the Year.” It hit number one in 25 countries, and Rick Astley was nominated for a Grammy for Best New Artist. And then, 20 years after the song came out, it became a new kind of phenomenon, when the meme Rickrolling was born. Last year, the music video for "Never Gonna Give You Up" passed a billion streams on YouTube. The song was written and produced by the production team Stock Aitken Waterman, who became hitmakers for artists like Kylie Minogue, Dead or Alive, and others. For this episode, I spoke to Rick Astley, and songwriter and producer Mike Stock, and the two of them tell the story of how "Never Gonna Give You Up" was made. For more, visit songexploder.net/rick-astley.- 03/22/2023
Seal - Kiss from a RoseSeal is a multi-Grammy-winning singer and songwriter from England. His song “Kiss from a Rose” was first released in 1994, on his second album. It was a huge hit, thanks in part to being featured in the movie Batman Forever. It landed on the top ten charts in multiple countries, and eventually went quadruple platinum in the US. At the 1996 Grammys, it won Song of the Year, Record of the Year, and Best Male Pop Vocal Performance. But "Kiss from a Rose" becoming a hit was not a foregone conclusion. Seal almost didn’t record it. And when it was first released, it didn’t make much of a splash. But for this episode, the 250th episode of Song Exploder, Seal and his longtime collaborator, producer Trevor Horn, told me the story of what it took to bring "Kiss from a Rose" to life. For more, visit songexploder.net/seal.
- HistoryWeekly Series
- Music HistoryUpdated Monthly
- MusicWeekly Series
- MusicSeries
- Music HistorySeries
- Music HistoryWeekly Series
- Music CommentaryUpdated Weekly
- MusicUpdated Weekly
- MusicUpdated Weekly
- Performing ArtsUpdated Weekly
- MusicUpdated 2d ago
- MusicUpdated Daily
- Music HistoryUpdated Weekly
- Music InterviewsUpdated Weekly
Featured Channels
- Music HistoryUpdated Weekly
- Music HistorySeries
- Music HistoryUpdated May 16
- Music HistoryUpdated Biweekly
- Music HistoryUpdated Weekly
- Music HistoryBimonthly Series
- Music HistoryUpdated Biweekly
- Music CommentaryUpdated Weekly
- Music CommentaryUpdated Weekly
- Music CommentaryUpdated Biweekly
- Music CommentaryUpdated Daily
- Music CommentaryUpdated Weekly
- Music CommentaryUpdated Biweekly
- Music CommentaryUpdated Weekly
- Music InterviewsUpdated Biweekly
- Music InterviewsUpdated Weekly
- Music InterviewsBiweekly Series
- Music InterviewsUpdated Biweekly
- Music InterviewsUpdated Weekly
- Music InterviewsUpdated Daily
- Music InterviewsUpdated Daily