An episodic overview of the history of Rock Music. Think of it as a college level Rock N Roll 101 course...or if you prefer, a multi-part audio documentary. We take in the music, culture and technology of the second half of the 20th Century to prove how significant and how much impact this art movement had to the times, while still resonating today. It’s carefully researched, fully scripted and highly produced...a little bit academic in tone, because we do our homework. But we throw in a lot of fun too: music, storytelling, commentary and quotes, lots of sound design. The series is presented in chronological order, and we take our time making these, really trying to get the history right. Rock N Roll Archaeology is the world's first HD Podcast and a proud part of Pantheon - the podcast network for music lovers.
A little about Country, a little about Soul, and more about how they are really just the same thing. And why it’s not at all surprising that a big Pop-Soul star like Beyoncé is releasing a Country album.
For this RNRA Short, we tapped the expertise of Professor Charles Hughes of Rhodes College in Memphis, author of “Country Soul: Making Music and Making Race in the American South.”
We’ll look at the origins of the Alt Country Revolt, and name-check some great artists working very loudly and deliberately outside the Nashville Pop Country machine.
Y’all keep up the rockin’ now, hear?
Producer and Host: Christian Swain
Head Writer: Richard Evans
Sound Designer: Jerry Danielsen
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To mark the 60th anniversary of The Beatles' inaugural performance on U.S. soil, we decided to do a quick compare-and-contrast. We’ll revisit that watershed moment in music and culture, and talk about something recent that actually comes close to matching that moment: the ongoing Eras Tour from Taylor Swift.
Not “Bigger THAN The Beatles,” but in our not-so-humble opinion, “Biggest SINCE The Beatles.”
Listen in and let us know what you think! www.rocknrollarchaeology.com/listen
Producer and Host: Christian Swain
Head Writer: Richard Evans
Sound Designer: Jerry Danielsen
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The Soul of the 1970s. First, Marvin Gaye kicked the door open with “What’s Going On,” and then Stevie Wonder barged in.
The Wonder Years spanned 1971 to 1976; when the transcendent, diverse talent of Stevie Wonder was in its fullest flower. That five-album span is one of the most successful and impactful creative runs in the history of recorded music.
Our podcast offers immersive storytelling, insightful commentary, and a stellar musical playlist. Join us as we delve deep into the lives and musical genius of these iconic Soul-Music luminaries.
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/7s4Vyw1FLb4XpJnANduFPs?si=14746e9dd53049b1
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Welcome back to Rock N Roll Archaeology! Got another RNRA Short Podcast for you. This one is named after the Kinks song “Celluloid Heroes.”
Rock N Roll goes to the movies (and television) in this one. We’ll take a look at three shows that feature fictional Rock bands: the movies “Almost Famous” and “This Is Spinal Tap,” and the television miniseries “Daisy Jones & The Six.”
Visit our website for more about this and all our other podcast episodes, and for links to our Patreon and Social Media. Keep up the Rockin’!
Dramatis Personae
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RNRA Shorts: Disco Demolition!
Take us back to the Distant Days of Disco, Summer of 1979. Steve Dahl, a brash young DJ at WLUP- FM (“Chicago’s Best Rock!”), has declared war on Disco.
On July 12, 1979, he took the fight to Comiskey Park, in between games of a doubleheader between the home-team Chicago White Sox and the Detroit Tigers. Things…got out of hand.
Since then, the “Disco Demolition” at Comiskey has achieved no small amount of notoriety, and at least according to Steve Dahl, it was a turning point, the beginning of the end for Disco.
Was it really? Well, yes and no. In our view, the Disco trend was already on the decline; it had pretty much run its course. But there was a powerful backlash to Disco, that’s undeniable. What motivated that backlash? And what was the fallout from the actual event?
Let’s discuss! For sources and show notes, visit rocknrollarchaeology.com !
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We want the airwaves, baby! Chapter 23 of Rock N Roll Archaeology tunes into radio and radio culture in America and elsewhere. There was a brief moment in the 70s and early 80s where FM Rock Radio was something pretty special.So what was that like, and where have all the good times gone? Some storytelling in this one, but it’s a little heavier on the commentary…and of course we’re featuring some killer songs, because that’s how we roll.
“Begin the day with a friendly voice, a companion unobtrusive, Plays that song that’s so elusive”
For full show notes and to support Rock and Roll Archaeology visit www.rocknrollarchaeology.com.
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Remembering the late great Jeff Beck, the guitarist’s guitarist. An innovator and an iconoclast with a bold experimental spirit, Jeff left his unique stamp on hundreds of great songs.
Songs
In Memoriam
Podcasts
Books
Online Sources
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Examining–and reconsidering–The Rocky Horror Picture Show. At the time, it was transgressive, outrageous; but now it seems a little bit tame. And…a bit problematic, when taken in a modern context. But it's still the ultimate midnight movie, and it's still…just a jump to the left!
Songs:
Online Resources:
First, we want to give a warm and appreciative shoutout to the blogger Alex Mell-Taylor; we leaned heavily on their post for this chapter:
Written by Richard Evans and Christian Swain
Produced and hosted by Christian Swain
Sound Design by Jerry Danielsen
Partners: Rock's Backpages
Voice Actors: Drew H as Alex Mell-Taylor
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Bands in the van, and a band at the crossroads. In this episode of RNRA Shorts, we’ll get into the early days of Pink Floyd, and the latest from a Pink Floyd member: Nick Mason’s 2022 Saucerful of Secrets tour.
Written by Richard Evans and Christian Swain, Sound Design by Jerry Danielsen.
Sponsors and Partners
Songs
Books
Films, Documentaries, and TV Shows
Online Sources
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Content warning: Here at RNRA, we don’t hide our views. At all. But when it comes to politics, we try not to be in-your-face about it either. Our little slogan is “Just tell the story, and the point will get made.”This time though, we’re a little more overt, we’re letting it rip just a little bit. This particular burr has been under our saddle for a while now.Now: on with the show.
Summer Time is Shorts Time! RNRA Shorts, that is!
So…here’s a thing. Sometimes we visit Right Wing World online, that’s usually how it starts.On these expeditions we’ll sometimes run into some whinging about “Woke Progressives” cancelling right wing culture and entertainment, or just griping in general about perceived left/liberal bias in popular culture.They’re not totally wrong about that. They’re right, just for the wrong reasons, and we’ll explain why.It’s not just complaining they do. We also see a lot of co-opting and outright stealing. And when they take Rock music and culture and dishonestly try to repurpose it, try to make it serve the conservative agenda, well…unintentional hilarity ensues.So we’ll do some roasting, but we’ll also do some thinking out loud, talk a little about the how and why, and even delve into the deeper history of…the Art of the Steal.
Enjoy!
Sponsors and Partners
Songs
Parliament Funkadelic: “One Nation Under A Groove”
Thomas Dolby: “Pulp Culture”
Ted Nugent: “Stranglehold”
Ted Nugent: “Hey Baby”
They Might Be Giants: “Your Racist Friend”
Neil Young: “Rockin’ in the Free World”
Woody Guthrie: “This Land is Your Land”
Trey Parker and Matt Stone: “America, Fuck Yeah”
Toby Keith: “Courtesy of the Red White and Blue”
Living Colour: “Cult of Personality”
Stevie Wonder: “He’s Misstra Know It All”
Green Day: “American Idiot”
Sources
Apocalypse Now: “Mangoes and Tigers” Scene (Retrieved from YouTube)
Roy Edroso Breaks it Down Substack (Paywalled. Roy writes a lot about this issue, and we think he’s really astute–and hilarious.)
The Five Most Repellent Things Ted Nugent Has Ever Done | Rocks Off
Music News: Why can't musicians get politicians to stop playing their songs?
The President’s Shock at the Rows of Empty Seats in Tulsa - The New York Times
American Cringe: Why can’t the contemporary right make art?
Episode 5: The Ballad of Bob and J.R. — Pantheon Podcasts
Voice Talent
Darryl Alber as blogger Cameron Summers
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We start with a tragedy, then a cautionary tale of the world not ready for a band. We then find more positive inspiration from an artist who delivers a huge seller. We end with a legend.
Janis Joplin dies just before releasing her magnum opus, “Pearl.” A band called Fanny is ready to rock, but a culture poisoned by the patriarchy isn’t yet ready to accept them. Carole King makes Tapestry, a sincere, modest, and deeply personal album that hits huge and becomes a milestone for women. We complete the story with a profile of one of the giants of 20th Century Music, Joni Mitchell. We discuss her artistic and commercial peak in the early 70s with “Blue,” “For the Roses,” and “Court and Spark.” We admire all of these women for kicking down the door, and we celebrate the progress we’ve made since them, but there is still a long way to go.
Now for some general remarks about the research and writing.
To the best of our ability, we tried to center women in this chapter. We’ll leave it to the listener to decide how we did with that.
There’s a diversity of opinion about this, but we think it’s fair to say the second wave of feminism hits the crest during the period we are covering, and it is not at all a coincidence that women really start to make big and important contributions to Rock Music right around this time too.
Roe vs Wade was decided right around here, about fifty years ago. We are painfully aware of the US Supreme Court’s recent decision to overturn Roe, stripping many millions of American women of their fundamental human rights to bodily autonomy and medical privacy.
As we move forward with our chapters, we will document that half century of regressive backlash and how it got us here; it’s part of the story. Like we often say, Rock N Roll reflects back on, interacts with, and affects the larger society. And vice versa. In the late Sixties and early Seventies, it seemed like the progress would be permanent, and that more progress was on the way. Some of us were naive enough to believe that. We would do well now to remember the words of the anti slavery activist Frederick Douglass, way back in 1857:
This struggle may be a moral one, or it may be a physical one, and it may be both moral and physical, but it must be a struggle. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will.
Voice Talent
Online Resources
Coroner's Report, archived at janisjoplin.net
ABC Nightly News Report, from October 4th, 1970
Deeper Digs in Rock: 'Rock N Roll Woman: The Fifty Fiercest Female Rockers' with Meredith Ochs
The Institute for the Musical Arts
1416 N. La Brea Ave, Hollywood
50 years ago, the Sylmar earthquake shook L.A., and nothing’s been the same since
Women of Rock Oral History Project
Carol Hanisch The Personal is Political
New York Times “Albums as Mileposts in a Musical Century”
Deeper Digs in Rock: Reckless Daughter - A Portrait of Joni Mitchell
Joni Mitchell, Woman of Heart and Mind
Books
Documentaries and Films
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