Ongoing History of New Music

The Weird History of Concert Tickets Part 1 15.07.2026 36min

Buying a concert ticket should be simple and easy...but has it ever been? In this two-part series, we're going to try to unpack the surprisingly long, messy, and often corrupt evolution of ticketing, from ancient Greek theatres to the rise of computerized systems in the late 20th century. We'll dig into how tickets evolved from physical tokens and box-office lineups to early computer-driven services like Ticketron, Select-A-Seat, BASS, and the early days of Ticketmaster. We've seen persistent problems that never seem to go away: scalping, service charges, bribery, counterfeit tickets, unequal access, and frustrated fans. From the very first rock concert disaster in 1952 to the technological growing pains of the 1970s and ’80s, there were never any “good old days” when it came to buying tickets. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Key Alt-Rock Movie Soundtracks 08.07.2026 30min

Movie soundtracks once shaped the direction of popular music...and nowhere was that more true than in alternative rock. This week, we go back into the Ongoing History vault to trace the evolution of movie soundtracks from their early, days to their cultural impact in the ’80s and ’90s. These are albums that helped define, amplify, and sometimes completely redirect alternative music. From the electronic shock of A Clockwork Orange to the cult chaos of The Rocky Horror Picture Show...from the John Hughes films that introduced a generation to British alt‑rock, to era‑defining releases like Singles, Judgement Night, The Crow, and Trainspotting...this is an exploration of how film and music collided at exactly the right moments. Soundtracks may not dominate the charts the way they once did, but their influence is everywhere. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Roots of the CanRock Explosion of the 90s 01.07.2026 28min

There was a time when Canadians didn’t believe in Canadian music...unless someone else told us it was good first. To celebrate Canada Day, we're exploring how that mindset changed, and how Canada went from cultural insecurity to producing one of the most influential rock movements of the 1990s. From early radio bias and the “Guess Who?” prank, to CanCon rules, FACTOR funding, the rise of FM radio, and the national impact of MuchMusic, this is the long story of how a domestic music industry was built...piece by piece. We trace the conditions that led to the CanRock explosion of the ’90s, spotlighting key artists and moments along the way: Rush, Martha and the Muffins, Blue Rodeo, The Tragically Hip, Sloan, Our Lady Peace, I Mother Earth, and many more. We also dig into the demographics, economics, and cultural shifts that turned Canadian bands into hometown heroes...and international stars. It took decades, smart policy, and a generation ready to embrace its own voice...but the payoff was enormous. This is the story of how Canadian rock found its confidence…and changed everything. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Late Bloomers 24.06.2026 27min

Rock music is supposed to belong to the young...but history tells us a different story. This time, we look at artists who refused to quit, even as the years passed and the industry insisted their time was over. From Deborah Harry breaking through with Blondie in her 30s, to James Murphy reinventing himself with LCD Soundsystem at 35, to Leonard Cohen becoming a global icon in his 50s, these are the musicians who proved that success doesn’t always come on schedule. They've had to deal with ageism baked into the music business, the realities of grinding it out for decades, and the moments when persistence, timing, and reinvention finally collide. It’s a reminder that while breaking through gets harder with age, it’s never impossible...and sometimes, the best work comes later. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

18 Bands Who Changed Lead Singers 17.06.2026 30min

What happens when a band loses its lead singer? Usually, it’s the end...but not always. In this episode, we explore 18 bands that survived... and sometimes thrived... after changing singers. From Stone Temple Pilots and Sublime to Alice in Chains, Faith No More, and New Order. Losing your singer doesn’t have to mean the end… but surviving it is one of the hardest things a band can do. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The History of Distortion and Feedback 10.06.2026 37min

Distortion was once considered a mistake...now it’s a defining force in modern music. This episode explores how broken gear, happy accidents, and fearless artists turned fuzz, feedback, and overdrive into powerful creative tools, shaping everything from early rock to experimental soundscapes. This time, we dive into feedback, overdriven amps, drop-D tuning, and distortion beyond the guitar, touching on organs, synthesizers, experimental music, shoegaze, noise, and drone. From the elegance of controlled sustain to the chaos of Metal Machine Music, this is the story of how musicians learned to embrace imperfection and changed music forever. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Golden Age of Synths, as told by OMD 03.06.2026 36min

This week, we dive into the Golden Age of Synthesizers, the period from the mid‑’70s to the mid‑’80s when synths became smaller, cheaper, and powerful enough to transform popular music forever. From early experimental machines that filled entire rooms, to the groundbreaking work of innovators like Bob Moog and Don Buchla, we trace how synthesizers moved from academic curiosity to pop‑culture force. Along the way, we hear key moments from artists who helped define the era: Wendy Carlos, Hot Butter, Kraftwerk, Depeche Mode, MGMT, and more. We explore how techno‑pop emerged alongside punk’s DIY spirit. Our guides through this electronic frontier are Andy McCluskey and Paul Humphreys of Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark (OMD), who were right at the center of the movement. They share insights into the gear, the sounds, and the creative mindset that shaped a generation of music, and still echoes through today’s electronic and alternative scenes. From Autobahn to Electricity, from Mellotrons to MIDI, this is the story of how machines rewired music, and how the studio itself became an instrument. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The History of Portable Music - Part 2 27.05.2026 36min

One of the many great things about music is that we can enjoy it anywhere…I’m talking about the recorded kind…everyone has a smartphone, and every smartphone has the capability of playing music, whether you’re listening to tracks stored in its memory or streaming something from a service like Spotify or apple music…as long as your device has juice, you can enjoy listening to music anywhere you are… Take this program, for example…in its radio show form, it’s being heard in homes, cars, offices, and workplaces either over the air or through a stream…if you’re listening to the podcast, you might have downloaded it to a phone, a tablet or a laptop which you can fire up anywhere at your convenience… But imagine for moment that you couldn’t take your music with you…if you wanted to listen to your favourite songs, you had to be present in a specific place and you couldn’t move from it…and that usually meant music inside the home—or perhaps someplace with something like a jukebox… This might sound absolutely awful to you…I mean, we’re so used to conjuring up music whenever we want and wherever we are…we take it with us everywhere…it’s hard to imagine life without that ability… That’s the way it was for most of human history, though…for centuries and centuries, the only way to make music portable was to bring a musical instrument with you and play it yourself… The idea of making recorded music portable—at least in a way that is convenient, cheap, and reliable—is more recent than you might think…and it went through way more incarnations than you may realize… What do you say we take a look at the history of portable music?... Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Introducing "Hostile History" 23.05.2026 45min

Since the dawn of time, humanity has been at war. Conflict in one form or another has been part of our existence since we first walked the earth. In this first episode of a four-part series, join military historian David Borys as we travel back in time to Iran, where we chart how a modern monarchy, which was armed, wealthy, and globally backed, lost control. On our journey, we'll be helped by historian Roham Alvandi from the London School of Economics and Political Science. While conflict and armed rebellion have evolved to look very differently over the centuries, if you want to understand the world today, you need to go back because history doesn't just repeat itself; it echoes. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The History of Portable Music - Part 1 20.05.2026 38min

One of the many great things about music is that we can enjoy it anywhere…I’m talking about the recorded kind…everyone has a smartphone, and every smartphone has the capability of playing music, whether you’re listening to tracks stored in its memory or streaming something from a service like Spotify or apple music…as long as your device has juice, you can enjoy listening to music anywhere you are… Take this program, for example…in its radio show form, it’s being heard in homes, cars, offices, and workplaces either over the air or through a stream…if you’re listening to the podcast, you might have downloaded it to a phone, a tablet or a laptop which you can fire up anywhere at your convenience… But imagine for moment that you couldn’t take your music with you…if you wanted to listen to your favourite songs, you had to be present in a specific place and you couldn’t move from it…and that usually meant music inside the home—or perhaps someplace with something like a jukebox… This might sound absolutely awful to you…I mean, we’re so used to conjuring up music whenever we want and wherever we are…we take it with us everywhere…it’s hard to imagine life without that ability… That’s the way it was for most of human history, though…for centuries and centuries, the only way to make music portable was to bring a musical instrument with you and play it yourself… The idea of making recorded music portable—at least in a way that is convenient, cheap, and reliable—is more recent than you might think…and it went through way more incarnations than you may realize… What do you say we take a look at the history of portable music?... Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A Triple Ramones Anniversary Tribute 13.05.2026 40min

2026 is an important year in Ramones history… The 25th anniversary of Joey’s death, the first member of the band to leave us. The 30th anniversary of the last Ramones show. The 50th anniversary of their debut album's release. Let’s cover all of that with this triple tribute to one of the greatest and most important bands in the history of rock. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The 50 Biggest All-Time Alt-Rock One-Hit Wonders 6 (Bonus) 06.05.2026 32min

This is chapter six of a five-part series on the greatest alt-rock one-hit wonders of the last 50 years…yes, chapter six of five…after going through a ton of data—radio charts, Spotify plays, and YouTube views, mostly—I thought I’d compiled a really solid list…and it was—except for a few things that need some attention: the errata… This means songs that should have been on the original top 50 list but were for whatever reason left out…those omissions need to be addressed—and we will…I’ve identified five such songs, so if you’ve been following along and were wondering why a certain favourite one-hit wonder was left out, maybe you’ll find some satisfaction… We’ll get to those later…first, though, I want to talk about some songs that did not fit the criteria of making international radio charts and fell under the minimum threshold of Spotify plays and YouTube views…at the same time, though, it feels like the stories of these songs should be told…you know what I mean?...they are great but not the biggest… This is a bonus episode on the 50 biggest all-time alt-rock one-hit wonders Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The 50 Biggest Alt-Rock One-Hit Wonders of All Time: Part 5 (10-1) 29.04.2026 39min

Through the first four episodes of this Top 50 Biggest Alt-Rock One-Hit Wonders of All Time series, we’ve gone through songs 50 to 11, so that means we are ready for the top 10 songs. If you’ve been following along, there may have been a few surprises along the way…and you may have been trying to guess what songs will finish in the upper regions of this list…now we’re going to find out. These are the final 10 songs in our countdown. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The 50 Biggest Alt-Rock One-Hit Wonders of All Time: Part 4 (20-11) 22.04.2026 33min

How does an artist become famous forever with just one song and never come close again? We continue the countdown of the "50 Biggest Alt‑Rock One‑Hit Wonders of All Time", using five decades of radio charts, Spotify streams, YouTube views, and a specially designed one‑hit‑wonder power ranking. In part 4, we come across... A one‑hit wonder that’s also a cover of another one‑hit wonder Gregorian chants that unexpectedly dominated global charts A "Major Tom" sequel A song built on a 1932 trumpet sample and an Atari computer An anarchist collective that somehow conquered the world Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The 50 Biggest Alt-Rock One-Hit Wonders of All Time: Part 3 (30-21) 15.04.2026 30min

This is Part 3 of the 50 Biggest Alt‑Rock One‑Hit Wonders of all time...numbers 30 to 21 featuring Dishwalla, EMF, Spacehog, Harvey Danger, and more. And of course, the stories behind these one-hit wonders. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The 50 Biggest Alt-Rock One-Hit Wonders of All Time: Part 2 (40-31) 08.04.2026 29min

Our countdown of the biggest alt‑rock one‑hit wonders of all time continues as we break down numbers 40 to 31. From K’s Choice and Liam Lynch to Animotion, Fun Lovin’ Criminals, The Vapours, and more, these are the songs that ruled alternative radio, slipped into pop culture, and forever defined the artists behind them. Using chart history, streaming numbers, and a custom One‑Hit Wonder Power Ranking from our friend Walter the mathematician, we investigate how these songs became massive...and why one moment was all they needed. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The 50 Biggest All-Time Alt-Rock One-Hit Wonders: Part 1 (50-41) 01.04.2026 30min

Something occurred to me the other day: did the person who came up with the term “one-hit wonder” ever come up with anything else that good? I looked it up… the Oxford English Dictionary traces its origin to about 1914, when baseball was starting to become America’s pastime… it was given to pitchers who held the opposing team to just one hit. We do know that when Ramon Monzant was pitching for the San Francisco Giants in 1956, he was given that nickname…to be called a “one-hit wonder” was very high praise. But around the same time, “one-hit wonder” migrated over to the music world and acquired a pejorative ring…in musical terms, a one-hit wonder was an artist who could manage one and only one big song…everything else they might have done was a flop, a stiff, a failure, and was ignored. Billboard magazine began to incorporate the phenomenon of the one-hit wonder when it came to its charts…their definition was an artist who released just one song to reach the top 40, the realm of “hits” on the singles charts. But that’s pretty narrow and really only considers songs and artists for that one chart…what about all the other non-top 40 artists who achieved fame for one and just one song? The more I went down this rabbit hole, the more intrigued I became…was there a way to look at the history of alternative music to determine the biggest one-hit wonders of all time? There just might be…and after going through a lot of numbers and statistics, I may have cracked it…But I’m going to let you be the judge…This is part one of the 50 biggest all-time alt-rock one-hit wonders of the last 50 years. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

9 Great Alt-Rock Cover Songs (From the Vault) 25.03.2026 28min

There’s just something fun about learning to play one of your favourite songs for yourself…you know, learning the lyrics, figuring out the chords and the rhythm and deconstructing all the constituent parts… Then you get deeper…you begin to appreciate how everything fits together, the artistic decisions made by songwriter made, what kind of musical skill is required, the sort of production that was employed all that…and by the time you’ve learned the song, you’ve learned a whole lot of other things, too…and you’re probably a better musician as a result…this is why learning to play other people’s music is so important… Now let’s look at it from the other side…if a song can be interpreted multiple times by many different people and it still sounds good, then that is a great song… The best compositions not only sound great when played by a full band, but also sound great when performed by one person around a campfire… And finally, there’s the fan aspect of all this…people love to hear songs done in different ways by different artists…sometimes the cover is even better than the original—or, at the very least, is revealed to be something more in the hands of someone else… With all this in mind, I’ve assembled a list of cover songs…and we’re going to go through with them to determine what makes them (and the original) great… Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Definition (from the vault) 18.03.2026 21min

This week, we're going deep into the Ongoing History of New Music vault to talk about "Definitions". Often in the music world, we hear terms discussed...but where did they come from, and what do they mean? What do "New Rock" and "Alternative" mean? What's a "Major Label" or "Indie"? "Boutique" and "Vanity"? Got that covered too. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Catching Up with Blink 182 11.03.2026 28min

Blink‑182’s story has always been chaotic, inspirational, and a little unbelievable...and the last decade has been no exception. We thought this would be a good time to revisit the band’s evolving saga since our original 2017 trilogy on their rise, fall, and rise again. A lot has happened: lineup changes, personal crises, UFO hunting, bestselling side projects, a Grammy nomination, a global pandemic, and even a life‑threatening illness that ultimately brought them back together. We pick up the trail with the Matt Skiba era and the unexpected resurgence brought on by the "California" album. From there, we follow the band through creative experiments, personal struggles...including Mark Hoppus’s battle with stage‑4 lymphoma...and the emotional reunion that brought Tom DeLonge back into the fold. The result? A renewed Blink‑182, a triumphant Coachella comeback, and their 2023 album "One More Time". It’s a story of fractures, forgiveness, survival, and one of the most resilient bands in modern punk history. Blink‑182 is well into their fourth decade...so how much longer can they run? If history is any clue, never count them out. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices