Your Playlist Sucks Natalie Lum-Tai and Thomas Francis

Now that the election fatigue has hopefully worn off, we bring you episode 8 - the final episode in Season 1 of Your Playlist Sucks Podcast. What a wild ride it has been, a huge thank you goes to our listeners for sticking with us! Recorded prior to Election Day, hosts Enbani and Mark talk about elections, democracy, protest music, and civic engagement. Listen to the playlists on our website www.playlistsuckspodcast.com or follow us on Spotify. 
What are voters looking for when they head to the polls (Somebody To Love by Jefferson Airplane) to choose their commander in chief (Mr. November by The National)? You'll get a laugh when Enbani surprises Mark with a game of Who Said It? the Kanye or Trump Twitter edition and join us in reflecting on the past four years and the state of the union today, as Mark and Enbani discuss how those feelings have been perfectly captured by artists of all genres (FDT by YG and Nipsey Hussle, Normalization Blues by AJJ). 
Finally, our hosts know that there is anti-racism work to be done regardless of the outcome of this election and have one last call to action for you. If you have 10-20 minutes a day, invest in your community and become more informed by taking the The Unity Collective Challenge. Sign up at https://www.unitycollective.co/ to receive bite-sized emails for 21 days that focus on foundations, connection and activation. 
Follow us on Instagram @playlistsucks and connect with us by email at info@playlistsuckspodcast.com and stay tuned for news about Season 2!

This episode Dr. Alan Shiner regales us with stories that span his career of over 50 years in the music industry. From composing his first jingle (967-1111 Call Pizza Pizza) in high school, a jingle so famous it has been cited in case law for being used by border guards to tell real Canadians from the would-be Canucks, to writing an international hit with over 15 million copies sold, Alan Shiner gives us a glimpse into his work as a composer, music director/conductor, producer and a performer. His music career is astounding both in its longevity and breadth, not to mention the fact that for many years he was simultaneously running his own dentistry practice. Mark and Enbani get the origin story, beginning with his first composition at age 11 and then the The Nova Sounds, a band that Alan entered into a high school talent show on a dare (and won!) and now has thousands of performances under their belts. 
Join our hosts as they discuss what makes a tune persist in people's minds with the King of Jingles (Marineland, Sleep Country Canada, African Lion Safari, Coca-Cola, to name just a few) and learn how Alan's charm, audacity and a little knowledge of celebrity gossip got him playing his song on the piano for Mariah Carey and then being flown to London to record.  You can find out more about Alan's work at vwww.collageweddings.com. 

We're back this week with an episode about ear worms that might just make their way onto your rotation! Mark and Enbani talk about the song that you have on repeat, the song that got stuck in your head and then you couldn't get it out, no matter how hard you tried.  Maybe you even tried listening to another song (God Save The Queen/The National Anthem or maybe you're a Happy Birthday freak) to push it out of your head.
Listen to our hosts' 10-song Spotify playlists on our website here or follow us on Spotify.
This week you'll learn about the tunes that are burrowing into Enbani and Mark's minds and how they experience these hits, whether classic pop, hip hop or chill wave.  Our hosts discuss why a song may be impossible to ignore (whether you like it or not) and ponder why the hell is whistling so catchy anyway?

Hosts Enbani and Mark interview Olivia Podolak Lewandowska, PhD, Assistant Professor with the Department of Psychology at the University of Toronto Scarborough, delving into the interdisciplinary field of music cognition, which combines music, psychology, neuroscience, music theory, musicology, music therapy, computer science and linguistics.
 
Olivia discusses her life-long passion for music as a pianist, how it led her to study the science of music more intensely, and her research, which investigates how the structural elements of music can guide performance and listening. She also compares musical processing between musicians versus non-musicians, both at the behavioural level and the neural level using EEG.  Olivia lets Mark and Enbani pick her brain on topics such as the relationship between music and performance, how popular music has changed over time, what the research says about what sounds good to our ears and the role of music in a society.
 
You'll learn about atonal music (check out Olivia's YPS Atonal Bangers playlist here), how people with perfect pitch process music differently, and get her recommendations about the best soundtrack to listen to when you're writing a thesis (Interstellar by Hans Zimmer). 
 
Olivia received her B.Sc. in Psychology, Neuroscience and Behaviour, with a specialization in Music Cognition at McMaster University in 2012.  She recently completed her doctorate at the University of Toronto Scarborough in 2019, where she works as an Assistant Professor (Teaching Stream), primarily teaching statistics, but also music cognition when the opportunity arises.

Episode 6, AKA the episode when Mark and Enbani finally tear into each other and go for the jugular.  The time for puff pieces and complimenting each other has passed.  In this episode, our hosts investigate how masculinity is depicted in popular culture and what it means to be a man through their 10-song music playlists available on Spotify here.   
Enbani discusses the importance of self-determination and gives credit to businessman Jay-Z for making it out of Marcy Houses in Brooklyn (I Did It My Way by Jay-Z), while Mark gives a sharp critique of "shiny suit" rap.  You'll also learn about the curious but disturbing social phenomenon of My Way karaoke killings.  Our hosts consider the subtle ways in which boys are taught how to express (or not express) their emotions (Boys Don't Cry by The Cure), and the musical figures that have shed light on issues of gender identity and expression, consequently pushing their listeners and all of us toward a more just and inclusive society (Androgenous by the Replacements). 
Not to worry, Enbani and Mark eventually come together over their shared love of Kid Cudi (Heart of a Lion), as they discuss his struggles with mental health and his immense impact on the genre of rap.

Hosts Enbani and Mark catch up with multi-instrumentalist and fellow Winnipegger Sebastian Gaskin to discuss his leap of faith into a career as a professional musician, his feelings towards the marketing of indigenous artists in Canada and his identity as a member of the Tataskweyak Cree Nation (more commonly known as Split Lake).  Despite growing up in a musical family, Sebastian discusses the moment when he decided to leave behind expectations of an academic life to pursue the path of creativity and healing.  In this episode, you'll hear Sebastian's new single Snakehold, learn about his decision to delay its release in the midst of the Black Lives Matter protests and his views on the role of the artist in protest movements.  Mark and Enbani dig into the impact of the pandemic on musicians, the disappointment of cancelled festivals, and the unique opportunity to write in different genres and to explore collaborations with artists.