Blogger and pop historian Tom Nawrocki says instrumentals were the ultimate novelty hits. Listen & Subscribe Choose your preferred player: Apple Podcasts Spotify Google Podcasts Stitcher Amazon Music Overcast TuneIn RSS Feed For questions about subscriptions or your Slate Plus feed, check our FAQ. Please enable javascript to get your Slate Plus feeds. All Slate [...] Read more

How instrumental hits topped the charts from the ’50s through the ’70s and why they fell off—well, except for Kenny G. If an instrumental tops the charts, it’s probably an earworm: “Tequila.” “Wipeout.” “Dueling Banjos.” “The Hustle.” “Feels So Good.” “Chariots of Fire.” “Axel F.” You can probably whistle or hum several of those from [...] Read more

How OutKast rose above the ’90s rap feud between East and West by redirecting the music South. View Transcript This episode was released in May 2020 exclusively for Slate Plus listeners. As of August 2023, it’s available for non-subscribers. Talk about ’90s rap, and most music fans will throw around the word “gangsta” and talk [...] Read more

Number Ones columnist Tom Breihan says Bruno Mars’s hits are slick, well-crafted hook-delivery machines.   Listen & Subscribe Choose your preferred player: Apple Podcasts Spotify Google Podcasts Stitcher Amazon Music Overcast TuneIn RSS Feed For questions about subscriptions or your Slate Plus feed, check our FAQ. Please enable javascript to get your Slate Plus feeds. [...] Read more

Stylistic chameleons from different generations, Lenny Kravitz and Bruno Mars emulated their heroes to generate hits. What do Lenny Kravitz, a hitmaker primarily in the ’90s and ’00s, and Bruno Mars, a 2010s–20s hitmaker, have in common? It turns out, a lot: Each man has a wide-ranging ethnic and musical background, with early exposure to [...] Read more

Interviewer and Pointer Sisters expert Christian John Wikane says all the Pointers were vocal titans, which gave them an edge. View Transcript Listen & Subscribe Choose your preferred player: Apple Podcasts Spotify Google Podcasts Stitcher Amazon Music Overcast TuneIn RSS Feed For questions about subscriptions or your Slate Plus feed, check our FAQ. Please enable [...] Read more

The Pointer Sisters sang it all—pop, funk, rock, jazz, country, even kids’ music—with gusto. What got them so excited? Today, the Pointer Sisters are mostly remembered for their flurry of ’80s hits, especially the “Excited” one about losing control and liking it. But their musical history is far more varied: jazz standards? Civil rights–era funk? [...] Read more

Our producer tells us about his Britpop cover, and Allmusic critic Stephen Thomas Erlewine traces the music’s roots.   Listen & Subscribe Choose your preferred player: Apple Podcasts Spotify Google Podcasts Stitcher Amazon Music Overcast TuneIn RSS Feed For questions about subscriptions or your Slate Plus feed, check our FAQ. Please enable javascript to get [...] Read more

What was Britpop—a scene, a sound, a movement? What were Oasis and Blur scrapping over? And why was America (mostly) immune? In the ’90s, U.K. rock was by Britons, for Britons. The music of the U.K. indie, Madchester and shoegaze scenes fused together into a new wave of guitar bands with punk energy, laddish lyrics [...] Read more

DJ and editor Lori Majewski says she was “Poltergeisted” when MTV brought British New Wave to U.S. Gen-X teens Listen & Subscribe Choose your preferred player: Apple Podcasts Spotify Google Podcasts Stitcher Amazon Music Overcast TuneIn RSS Feed For questions about subscriptions or your Slate Plus feed, check our FAQ. Please enable javascript to get [...] Read more