Podcasting and Radio News

Artan Ljukovic Song Exploder

Song Exploder is a podcast that I enjoy listening to. It’s currently hosted by musician Thao Nguyen but my favorite episodes, the ones featuring Kimbra and Solange, were hosted by Hrishikesh Hirway. Having only begun listening to podcasts this year I’m still in the process of figuring out what kinds I enjoy. However, it’s been really easy for me to get into this one because I’m a huge fan of celebrity musician interviews and the music itself. That being said, I’ve never seen an interview in which an artist breaks down a song the way Song Exploder expects its guests to. The podcast is similar to a book titled “Anatomy of a Song” by Marc Myers, however, listening to the breakdown of a song is always better than reading about it.

The format of the podcast is pretty simple. It’s not presented as an interview. The podcast is edited to that is seems like the guests are speaking freely about whichever song they decide to break down. In between talking and explaining the music-making process, guests actually play stems from the music and explain how each element of a song made them feel, how it led to another part and how integral it was to the finished product. Since podcast-listening is really new to me and to many others still, it can feel overwhelming to jump into a new medium but Song Exploder’s catalog is so expansive that anyone could find an episode they’d be drawn to that would make the podcast seem familiar enough to get into.

Personally, my two favorite episodes are Kimbra’s breakdown of her song “Top of the World” and Solange’s breakdown of her song “Cranes in the Sky.” Kimbra’s episode is really great for someone looking to get a closer look, or listen, at the technical aspect of music making since she had all the stems and samples included in the episode. Solange, on the other hand, gave more context and history since it took almost 10 years to make the song. She spoke more about the lyrics and the context of the song. While the podcast has a pretty concise format, the show heavily depends on the musicians for its content so there may be some inconsistency as some episodes are less interesting than others, but overall, whether youre getting a brief history or a deconstruction of a song, it’s still something so simple that hasnt really been done before.