Song Exploder | |
---|---|
Presentation | |
Hosted by |
|
Genre | Music podcast |
Language | English |
Production | |
Production |
|
No. of episodes | 279 (as of September 18, 2024) [1] |
Publication | |
Original release | January 1, 2014 |
Provider |
|
Song Exploder is a music podcast created and hosted by Hrishikesh Hirway, which debuted in January 2014. It is part of the Radiotopia podcast network from PRX. The show features musicians talking about the creative process behind an individual song while breaking down the song into its component parts. In 2020, the podcast was adapted into a Netflix original series.
The podcast launched on the Maximum Fun network, became independent in February 2015 and joined Radiotopia in June 2015. [2] [3]
Each episode begins with the host introducing the show's featured musician (or musicians) and giving a brief history of the musical act or television program with which they are associated. The artist then discusses the creative process used in the creation of a particular song. This may include anything from songwriting to recording to post-production. The discussion is interspersed with short clips of separate tracks from the song isolated to illustrate the topics being discussed – for example, the drum track might be played to demonstrate how a particular beat was used in the song. The episode ends by playing a recording of the featured song in its entirety. [4] Hirway edits his side of the conversation out of the recording with the purpose of condensing the contents of the podcast around the song's creation and how the artist brought it to life.
Song Exploder has taken a deep-dive into more than 200 tracks, including: Kiss from a Rose with Seal and Trevor Horn and into Blue Monday with Peter Hook—formerly of New Order. [5] [6]
Furthermore, the podcast has also analysed theme music from Downton Abbey and Game of Thrones , as well as music from La La Land and Moonlight . [7] [8] [9] [10]
The show receives generally positive reception and has been featured at the Sundance Film Festival, SXSW, Noise Pop Festival, and Moogfest. Vulture said, "Song Exploder is probably the best use of the podcast format ever," and named it one of the Top 10 Podcasts of 2015. [11] It was also named Best of iTunes in 2015, [12] and Quartz named it the Best Podcast of 2015, saying, "It is possibly the most perfect podcast, really." [13] Pete Naughton of The Daily Telegraph called Song Exploder an "excellent podcast" and placed it on his list of top music podcasts in August 2014. [14] The A.V. Club praised the podcast's "beautiful production and thoughtful editing" in June 2014. [15] It has also received favorable reviews from Spin , Gizmodo , Slate , and The Atlantic . [16]
Creator Hirway has discussed Song Exploder at conferences like the Google Design Conference and AIGA Design Conference. In 2016, the Sydney Opera House hosted a Song Exploder Residency.
The show won the 2016 and 2017 Academy of Podcasters award for best music podcast.
Award | Year | Category | Result | Ref. |
---|---|---|---|---|
Academy of Podcasters | 2015 | Music & Commentary | Finalist | [17] |
2016 | Won | [18] | ||
2017 | Music | Won | ||
iHeartRadio Podcast Awards | 2019 | Best Music Podcast | Nominated | [19] |
2020 | Nominated | [20] | ||
2021 | Nominated | [21] | ||
2022 | Won | [22] | ||
Adweek Podcast Awards | 2021 | Best Creativity Podcast | Won | [23] |
On September 17, 2020, a television series based on the podcast was announced, which premiered on October 2, 2020 on Netflix, [24] with 4 episodes:
Season | Episodes | Originally released | ||
---|---|---|---|---|
Volume 1 | 4 | October 2, 2020 | ||
Volume 2 | 4 | December 15, 2020 |
No. overall | No. in season | Title | Original air date | |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 1 | "Alicia Keys: 3 Hour Drive" | October 2, 2020 | |
Far from her newborn son, Alicia Keys collaborates with Sampha, who has just lost his mother. Together, they give a longing melody life. | ||||
2 | 2 | "Lin-Manuel Miranda: Wait for It" | October 2, 2020 | |
In his quest to capture Aaron Burr's voice, Lin-Manuel Miranda finds his lines on the subway. Many breathless choruses later, can he relate to Burr? | ||||
3 | 3 | "R.E.M: Losing My Religion" | October 2, 2020 | |
No obvious chorus plus a lead mandolin and handclaps equals the least likely chart-topper of the '90s. R.E.M. looks back at the life-changing track. | ||||
4 | 4 | "Ty Dolla $ign: LA" | October 2, 2020 | |
Ty Dolla $ign pens a verse in minutes, picks up multiple instruments and brings in Kendrick Lamar and Brandy for this moving love song to his city. |
No. overall | No. in season | Title | Original air date | |
---|---|---|---|---|
5 | 1 | "Dua Lipa: Love Again" | December 15, 2020 | |
When a bad breakup spills into the studio, Dua Lipa finds release in high-drama strings, throwback analog synths and memories of her parents' faves. | ||||
6 | 2 | "The Killers: When You Were Young" | December 15, 2020 | |
Eager to beat the sophomore album slump, the Killers dusted off three chords to capture their desert home of Las Vegas — and mine for pop anthem gold. | ||||
7 | 3 | "Nine Inch Nails: Hurt" | December 15, 2020 | |
Broken-down sounds, damaged vocals and naked emotion make a chilling coda to a blockbuster LP as Trent Reznor talks about transforming pain into art. | ||||
8 | 4 | "Natalia Lafourcade: Hasta la Raíz" | December 15, 2020 | |
After stepping back from stardom, Natalia Lafourcade rediscovers her roots, which are planted deep in Veracruz and the rhythm of huapango folk music. |
Hrishikesh Hirway is an American musician, producer, and podcast and television host. He has made four albums under the name The One AM Radio, and has a side project with Lakeith Stanfield called Moors. He is the creator and host of the podcasts Song Exploder, The West Wing Weekly, Home Cooking, and Partners. He is the host and executive producer of the Netflix television adaptation Song Exploder. As a composer, Hirway scored the Netflix television show Everything Sucks! and the films Our Nixon and Save the Date.
The Public Radio Exchange (PRX) is a non-profit web-based platform for digital distribution, review, and licensing of radio programs. The organization is the largest on-demand catalogue of public radio programs available for broadcast and internet use.
WTF with Marc Maron is a weekly podcast and radio show hosted by stand-up comedian Marc Maron. The show was launched in September 2009. The show is produced by Maron's former Air America co-worker Brendan McDonald.
The Truth was an anthology fiction podcast and founding member of Radiotopia by PRX. Episodes were released about once every two weeks. Several nationally syndicated public radio programs, including This American Life, Studio 360, Snap Judgment, and The Story, featured work by The Truth.
Roman Mars is an American radio producer. He is the host and producer of 99% Invisible, a KALW radio show and podcast, and a founder of the podcast collective Radiotopia, which he describes as efforts "to broaden the radio landscape [and] make shows that aren't bound by conventions" of public radio in the United States.
99% Invisible is a radio show and podcast produced and created by Roman Mars that focuses on design. It began as a collaborative project between San Francisco public radio station KALW and the American Institute of Architects in San Francisco. PRX has distributed the show for broadcasting on a number of radio stations and as a podcast on the Radiotopia network. On April 28, 2021, Roman Mars announced in an introduction of a re-released episode that 99% Invisible had been purchased by Sirius XM and marketed as part of its Stitcher Radio brand.
Reply All is an American podcast from Gimlet Media that ran from 2014 to 2022, featuring stories about how people shape the internet, and how the internet shapes people. It was created by P. J. Vogt and Alex Goldman, who were the show's original hosts; they had previously hosted the technology and culture podcast TLDR for WNYC. Emmanuel Dzotsi became a third cohost in 2020.
Radiotopia is a podcast network founded by 99% Invisible host Roman Mars and run by the Public Radio Exchange. The network is organized as a collective of some two dozen shows whose producers have complete artistic control over their work. Since its launch, podcasts in the network have been downloaded over 19 million times per month.
Invisibilia was a radio program and podcast from National Public Radio, which debuted in early 2015 and "explores the intangible forces that shape human behavior—things like ideas, beliefs, assumptions and emotions." The program's title comes from Latin, meaning "the invisible things." The Guardian ranked Invisibilia among "the 10 best new podcasts of 2015." In its seventh season, the program was hosted by Kia Miakka Natisse and Yowei Shaw; previous season hosts included Lulu Miller, Alix Spiegel and Hanna Rosin.
Lore is a documentary podcast on topics such as folklore, legends, and historical events, often with a focus on the macabre. Each episode examines historical events or ancient/urban legends that show the dark side of human nature, and is presented in a style that has been compared to a campfire experience. The series was created in 2015 by Aaron Mahnke as a marketing experiment and received the iTunes "Best of 2015" Award. The podcast was also given the award for the "Best History Podcast" by the Academy of Podcasters in July 2016. At the end of 2016, the podcast was included in the top lists by The Atlantic and Entertainment Weekly. As of October 2017, the series has 5 million monthly listeners.
Manoush Zomorodi is a journalist, podcast host and author. She was the host of the WNYC podcast Note to Self, which explores humans' relationship with technology through conversations with listeners and experts. In 2018, Zomorodi quit WNYC to start a media company, Stable Genius Productions, with her colleague Jen Poyant. The process of starting their company is documented in the podcast ZigZag, which is also their first production. As of March 2020, she is the host of NPR's TED Radio Hour.
Lea Thau is a Peabody Award-winning producer and director. She is the host and producer of the podcast Strangers and the former Executive and Creative Director of The Moth.
Strangers is a podcast hosted by Danish-born producer Lea Thau. Initially part of KCRW's Independent Producer project, Strangers became a founding member of PRX's Radiotopia podcasting collective in 2014. Thau announced in November 2017 that Strangers would be leaving the Radiotopia collective.
Ear Hustle is a non-fiction podcast about prison life and life after incarceration created by Earlonne Woods and Antwan Williams, both formerly incarcerated, and Nigel Poor, an artist who volunteers at San Quentin State Prison. In 2016, it was selected by the Radiotopia network as the winner of its Podquest competition, and the following year released its first season. It was the first podcast to be entirely created and produced inside a prison.
Breakmaster Cylinder, also known as The Mysterious Breakmaster Cylinder, by the initials BmC, or simply as ”The Master”, is a musical composer and producer who has provided title themes and background music for a number of radio shows and podcasts. Cylinder came to notoriety with the launch of Gimlet Media's Reply All in 2016 and was a fixture on that show until it ended in 2022. Known for their pseudonymity, Breakmaster Cylinder does not make public appearances and has employed stand-ins for interviews, photographs, and other media engagements.
Twenty Thousand Hertz is a podcast about "the world’s most recognizable and interesting sounds". Episodes are published every other Wednesday.
A music podcast is a genre of podcasts covering topics related to music and musicians, which often includes reviews, interpretations, new releases, musician interviews, music history, music creation, and music theory.
Martina Castro is an Uruguayan-American audio journalist, editor, producer, and educator. She is the CEO and founder of Adonde Media, a podcast production company and host of the Duolingo Spanish and The Vivo Songbook Podcasts. She co-founded and produced Radio Ambulante, the first Spanish-language podcast distributed by NPR.
Lauren Shippen is a fiction writer, director, and actor. She created the podcast The Bright Sessions and its spin-off series, The AM Archives and The College Tapes. Shippen won an Audio Verse award for her portrayal of Sam in The Bright Sessions. She has also written three novels set in The Bright Sessions universe. Shippen was named in the 2018 Forbes 30 Under 30.
The Jump with Shirley Manson is a music podcast hosted by Garbage's singer Shirley Manson and co-produced by Mailchimp Presents and Little Everywhere, with executive producers Dann Gallucci, Jane Marie and Hrishikesh Hirway. Each episode of The Jump features a guest musician talking about a defining song that represented a breakthrough in the artist's own career and “the moments in an artist’s career where they decide to take a leap into something new.”