For most of the 90s, Aphex Twin ran counter to what was happening in mainstream dance music. He was messing with low-key ambience during the forceful Eurodance of “Rhythm is a Dancer.” Moved to harsh industrial noise as Europe was smitten by the dreamy trance of Robert Miles’ “Children.” And […]
In November 1989, two bands from Manchester appeared together on Top of the Pops and it changed indie music forever. The Madchester sound was the unity of jangly guitars and thumping dance music: big, psychedelic, even funky and a perfect companion to taking Ecstasy. Artists like The Stone Roses, Happy […]
Though it had been bubbling under for 18 months, the end of 1976 was when UK punk got its first seven inches. The Sex Pistols’ “Anarchy in the UK” may have generated the most outrage, but The Damned’s “New Rose” got there first. While they may have fired the first […]
PBS Member Stations rely on viewers like you. To support your local station, go to: http://to.pbs.org/DonateSoundField ↓ More info below ↓ Dreamcrusher is a rising star in the world of noise and experimental music. Here our host Linda Diaz meets up with them to talk about their sound and the […]
For many, the commercial breakthrough of emo-pop of the mid-00s was all about the bombast of My Chemical Romance, the wordplay of Fall Out Boy and the theatre of Panic! At the Disco. But fifteen years later, Paramore are the band whose impact is the most visible. Singer Hayley Williams’ […]
Emo is tough to define. As Andy Greenwald wrote in Nothing Feels Good: “Emo means different things to different people. Actually that’s a massive understatement. Emo seems solely to mean different things to different people.” For the most part it’s more of an insult than a genre, and because of […]
The 1970s was a significant decade for Christmas songs. There’s the glam rock monoliths, the novelty songs, songs by singer-songwriters and prog rock artists, disco songs, and even two songs from former Beatles of drastically varying quality. But one 70s associated genre that didn’t make many Christmas songs is punk. […]
Founded in 2003, MySpace forever changed how music was promoted. For the first time, artists had a way of sharing their music online with a direct link to their fans. It led to an explosion of creativity and major label deals, with artists going from nobodies to pop stars seemingly […]
Few modern rock bands have had the near immediate success of Wet Leg. Earning ungainly comparisons to Pavement, Liz Phair and The B-52s thanks to their deadpan talk-singing, Wet Leg’s musical formula was simple: loud guitars, fun times and not taking yourself too seriously. A welcome change of pace from […]
Pixies started out as a joke. More specifically, a want-ad referencing the post-hardcore Hüsker Dü and light-weight 60s folk three-piece, Peter, Paul and Mary, with the additional condition that applicants have “no chops”. No musical experience required. Bassist Kim Deal took the bait, and unknowingly became essential to one of […]
