American Song
American Song is a podcast that traces the origins and development of American - and ultimately world-wide - forms of modern musical entertainment. Over time, we will trace every major genre from its origins through the current day.American Song looks at the development of our music through the lens of social, political, and economic changes that were occurring in each case, and we'll feature the most important musicians in each genre.Every episode is chock-full of the music we love and where possible, we include archival interviews so you can hear about, in the actual words and voices of these great musicians and singers, the motives and passions that drove their creativity.
Episodes
42 episodes
Flower Power in Full Bloom - Progressive Rock - Part 3
It seems like every ten years or so, society experiences a great reset. The end of the ‘60s was like that. The idealism and teen-culture of the ‘60’s was ten years older and moving into adult life. Just like everything els...
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Season 4
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Episode 6
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1:09:39
Flower Power in Full Bloom - Progressive Rock - Part 2
It seems like every ten years or so, society experiences a great reset. The end of the ‘60s was like that. The idealism and teen-culture of the ‘60’s was ten years older and moving into adult life. Just like everything els...
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Season 4
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Episode 5
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1:08:17
Flower Power in Full Bloom: Progressive Rock - Part 1
It seems like every ten years or so, society experiences a great reset. The end of the ‘60s was like that. The idealism and teen-culture of the ‘60’s was ten years older and moving into adult life.&n...
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Season 4
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Episode 4
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1:10:23
Punk - The Shot Heard Round the World
Punk may have been born in America, but it had many homes around the world. In every place it went, punk became part of the struggle for social change.Punk's roots are in the blues, music made for expressing struggles and refusing...
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Season 4
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Episode 3
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1:36:18
Coast to Coast Chaos: New York and LA Spark the American Punk Revolution (Part Two)
America's Punk movement was started on both coasts. Early proto-punks like the MC5 and the New York Dolls were followed by a number of other early iconic acts who played at several New York clubs, including CBGB's (Country Blue Grass and ...
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Season 4
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Episode 2
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56:07
Coast to Coast Chaos: New York and LA Spark the American Punk Revolution! (Part One)
When the dreams and promises you’ve placed your hopes in end up being a mirage, its only human to feel angry. In the mid 1970’s, a lot of teens and young adults found themselves in this camp. The nation’s shift toward a decidedly mo...
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Season 4
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Episode 1
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57:08
Southern Rock: Coming to Terms with a Complicated Past (Part Two)
This is the second half of a two-part episodeIn the late 1960's and early 1970's, Southern rock, a rebellious fusion of blues, rock and roll, and country music, emerged as the defiant cry from the heart of the South. Lyn...
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Season 3
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Episode 7
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1:00:06
Southern Rock: Coming to Terms with a Complicated Past (Part One)
In the late 1960's and early 1970's, Southern rock, a rebellious fusion of blues, rock and roll, and country music, emerged as the defiant cry from the heart of the South. Lynyrd Skynyrd's guitars wailed like banshees, their lyrics echoing the ...
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Season 3
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Episode 6
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1:02:25
Reggae Music: How Jamaica Conquered the World! (Part Two)
This is part two of a two-part focus on Reggae music.The heart of Reggae music has always been politics and spirituality. In this two part episode, you'll learn about some of the musical and political forces in Jamaica's ...
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Season 3
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Episode 5
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35:07
Reggae Music: How Jamaica Conquered the World! (Part One)
This is part one of a two-part focus on Reggae music.The heart of Reggae music has always been politics and spirituality. In this two part episode, you'll learn about some of the musical and political forces in Jama...
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Season 3
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Episode 4
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1:04:12
The Masters of Funk: James Brown, the Meters, Sly Stone, Stevie Wonder, George Clinton
In today's episode, we’re going further up the musical family tree – into the funk. Funk grew in the shade of jazz, soul, R&B, gospel and rock. In time it’s going to give rise to other branches – for instance, disco, and hip-hop...
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Season 3
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Episode 3
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1:24:31
Jazz Rock Part 2: The Music of Steely Dan, Traffic and Supertramp
In this second episode of our third season, we pick up the trail and continue our exploration of jazz rock - a journey we started in episode one. In this episode, we'll take a close look at the amazing work done by three great bands in ...
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Season 3
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Episode 2
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1:32:14
The Other Side of Fusion: Jazz Rock
The first generation of jazz rock musicians had been heavily influenced by some of the pioneering jazz musicians who forged jazz fusion, beginning with Miles Davis. Miles was the first of the great jazz artists to venture into the new, am...
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Season 3
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Episode 1
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1:14:48
Electric Walls of Sound: Jazz Fusion Part 2
In today's podcast episode, we pick up our exploration of jazz fusion by looking at the amazing careers and music produced by a number of genius musicians who came out of Miles Davis' bands. We'll visit with Herbie Hancock, John McLaughli...
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Season 2
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Episode 12
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1:09:51
Electric Walls of Sound: Jazz Fusion Part 1
As jazz musicians started realizing that rock and electric bands were stealing their audiences, Miles Davis, who’s alternately been called most important musician in the history of jazz, the man who transformed jazz, and even the man who change...
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Season 2
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Episode 11
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52:59
Action: Reaction - American Bands and American Society Respond to the English Invasion
First of all, Happy Independence Day everybody! I'm so pleased to publish another episode of American Song on America's birthday!Back in America, ever since the plane crash in the winter of 1959 that ended the lives of Buddy Holly...
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Season 2
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Episode 10
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1:22:51
When the Blues Came to Britain, the British Came to America Part 2
With the big English interest in blues music, suddenly, America’s original bluesmen started hearing about the chance to reignite their careers with English, French and German audiences. Unbelievably, they found themselves welcomed, even c...
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Season 2
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Episode 9
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1:08:01
When the Blues Came to Britain, the British Came to America Part 1
England was caught between two cultures: the old order and whatever came after it. The rigid class distinctions between upper and middle classes were disappearing, and government reforms had a lot to do with it. The Conservative P...
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Season 2
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Episode 8
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29:34
Puerto Ricans Sing Out for Justice.
Before the arrival of Colombus and the Spanish, Puerto Rico was peopled by the Taino tribe. They’d called it home – and paradise – for over 1,000 years, having come either from the Amazon river basin, or maybe from the Colombian Andes bef...
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Season 2
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Episode 7
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36:19
American Song and the Fight for Hispanic Equality.
In a country based on freedom, equal opportunity, and democracy, you’d think that lessons related to social justice would not need to be re-hashed so often. But that does seem to be our fate. And so, in every generation, we’ve witne...
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Season 2
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Episode 6
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1:02:30
Land of A Thousand Dances - Latin American Music
Latin music and 'American' music were once considered to be separate and unique. They had distinctly different properties and music labels managed them differently. But not anymore.Danny Ocean is a singer-songwriter and native of Caracas...
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Season 2
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Episode 5
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1:07:38
The Roots of Latin Music in the New World
In this episode, we shift focus to consider another important cultural vein, brought here by the Spanish, and rising out of the American west and Southwest as well as New York City – and obviously all of Central and South America, Cuba an...
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Season 2
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Episode 4
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27:48
Folk Music Played the Changes in American Society.
In our July, 2021 episode on the first generation of folk music, “Folk Music Stood for America”, we talked about how the music was swept up in the ma...
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20:22
1960’s Folk Music: How the Fire Spread
The 1960’s were a period of massive social change and tension all over the country – all over North America in fact - because we have to include Canada, too. The conditions were just right for a whole group of passionate, inspired, ...
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Season 2
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Episode 2
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55:48
The Second Folk Revival – A Passing of the Torch.
Happy New Year and welcome to season two in the American Song podcast series! It's been a bit since we last got together. I hope you all are doing well. In both the first and second folks waves, many of the musicians w...
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Season 2
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Episode 1
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37:42