You know what Top 40 radio is. But…think about it for a second. Top 40 what? Songs? Albums? Bands? And top for who? Once you get started, the supposedly homogenous “mainstream” at the center of American listening is actually pretty complicated. To help us explore the past of pop, we talk with Eric Weisbard, music critic and professor of American Studies, whose book “Top 40 Democracy: The Rival Mainstreams of American Music” examines how radio formats and the artists that populated them helped make modern music. We go from the bizarre pan-ethnic brass band sounds of Herb Albert to the Cleveland station that invented classic rock—with a stop along the way for some Dolly.
Subscribe to our newsletter!
Buy Top 40 Democracy: The Rival Mainstreams of American Music by Eric Weisbard
Karaoke and Personal Pop
Millennials Nostalgia Tour
Keep on Streamin’ in the Free World
A Living Wage and a Tik Tok Ban: Could…Congress Transform Music?
Imagine Dragons: The Most Popular Band of the Millennium?
Universal VS. TikTok: The Showdown No One Should Have Wanted
Pitchfork, GQ, and the Music Criticism Lifestyle
Royalty Rumble at Spotify and a Crisis at Hipgnosis
BMI Sells Out
Can You Actually Support This Podcast On Patreon? (w/Penny Fractions)
E-Zoo and the Future of Nightlife
Bandcamp Blues: (Penny Fractions 4 Nothing)
Scooter, Baby! The Life and Times of the Most 2010’s Manager You Can Possibly Imagine
Moog’s World: The Story Behind the Synthesizer Behind Modern Music (feat. Albert Glinsky)
State of Pl-A(i) With Cherie Hu
Astroworld and the opposite of ”Utopia”
Super Fans and Super Strikes
Ambient Music: Functionality and Liberating Potentials
K-Pop Merger Mania (feat. the Idolcast)
Merlin and What It Means (and Meant) to be Indie
Create your
podcast in
minutes
It is Free
Superfancast
Derringer Discoveries - A Music Adventure Podcast
R&B Money
One Song
Bandsplain