How We Heard It

Seems like every day another performer has said the wrong thing or done the wrong thing. And if we like them, that's just more spice in the sauce. And if we don't, we just hate them even more. But the controversy wheel just keeps on spinning, regardless of how you feel. It could be a manufactured scandal, like a diss track, or something out of control, like an act of violence. Sometimes it's hard...

The United States may have an official day of gratitude every November with Thanksgiving, but for many of us, most every day could be a day of appreciation. A sincere "thank you" is rewarding for everyone: It feels good to say it and it feels good to hear it. However, appreciation can be complicated and "thank you" may come with a twist. Sometimes we're grateful (in hindsight, at least) for the le...

When we're listening to music, most of us tend to focus on the singer. And why not? Singers spell it out for us. They give us a human voice, and the words, to understand the meaning of songs. But we don't always need someone holding our hand and walking us through a song. Sometimes the lyrics are trite and the vocals are lame. With instrumentals, you get to choose your own adventure. You can feel...

Face it, everyone loves a good fight. And musicians and singers are always adding an extra layer to their entertainment value - intentionally or accidentally - by engaging in battles with their peers. Some of these feuds are exaggerated and some are underplayed. Some have an obvious bad guy while in others it seems like both parties should share the blame. Some seem to be about nothing, and others...

Summer's done, and now we're hurtling toward the darkest, coldest days of the year. So forgive us if we aren't feeling ourselves. It's as if an evil force has taken over our souls. ... Could this be what it feels like to be possessed? In the spirit of the season, this episode of "How We Heard It" explores the phenomenon of possession as portrayed in the movies. Your hosts - veteran entertainment j...

Cover songs often aren't what they should be. Many are pale and pointless facsimiles of the original songs, and others even take off into some new direction for no reason whatsoever. Rude. So this week the "How We Heard It" guys let their imaginations run wild, freewheeling through music history (from 60-odd years ago to today), mixing and matching some of the most popular songs of all time to an...

When "How We Heard It" was just a few weeks old in the summer of 2024, we posted an episode about guilty pleasures, featuring your veteran entertainment critics/hosts Wayne Bledsoe and Chuck Campbell confessing their love for art that other critics frown on - including Wayne's love of sunshine pop and westerns and Chuck's love of exotica and techno music. Some 15 months and 65 shows later, the gui...

In modern times, our society is partially shaped by widely praised albums, brilliantly executed works of art that reflect, or even reshape, the direction of our culture. But the effect of music on individuals is more nuanced, and broad generalizations don't always apply. A life-changing album could come from anywhere if the timing is right, such as the beginning or end of a relationship or maybe t...

They were supposed to do a straightforward episode about autumn songs, but this week the hosts of "How We Heard It" found themselves in lively debate from the get-go. When is fall? When the kids go back to school in August? Is it the autumnal equinox in September? Maybe when the leaves turn in October? Your host Chuck Campbell doesn't like much of anything about fall - colder, darker days make him...

Last week the "How We Heard It" hosts came up with a list of the greatest women singers in modern music, debating Janis Joplin vs. Whitney Houston and Karen Carpenter vs. Barbra Streisand while also finding endless praise for everyone from Aretha Franklin to Linda Ronstadt to Annie Lennox to Billie Eilish. This week, "How We Heard It" pivots to men singers, going back in time to crooners like Fran...

Singers often make or break a song. The exceptional ones can lift a bland arrangement into the stratosphere and the mundane ones can sink a great arrangement like a torpedo. This week the "How We Heard It" guys take a look at women vocalists (men singers will come next week), from the clear-voiced vocalists with perfect enunciation to soul singers who use a ragged edge to add personality. Some are...

Friends are our chosen family, the people we can sometimes count on when everyone else has turned their backs on us. But friendships vary. They can be a lifelong commitment or they can end tomorrow without warning. Or they can mysteriously fade away from benign neglect. Friends have inspired numerous songwriters over the years - the ride-or-die friends who will help you hide the body as well as th...

Why do we love our favorite songs? We may think it's simply because we love the singer's voice or the guitars or the fact that it's got a good beat and you can dance to it. But often we love songs for reasons we may not understand and can't articulate. They just make us feel a certain way. Musicians know how the brain processes sound and triggers emotions, and they employ tricks that win you over...

Have you ever dismissed a band or singer as mediocre (or worse) only to later realize they were amazing and you misjudged them? It can be a blow to the ego to miss the genius that others hear - especially if you're a professional music critic or musician. But this week, your "How We Heard It" hosts put their pride aside and confess to overlooking some of the most-respected names in popular music....

The teen years can be some of the most tumultuous in our lives - at least internally. Subtle moments can feel glorious, or tragic, while we might not even notice the major events unfolding all around us. The magic of being a teenager, when your life can feel out of control if your crush doesn't even look your way, is captured again and again in movies, from comedies to horror and all the drama in...

It's not unusual for beloved singers and musicians to continue performing well beyond the age most of us plan to retire, and you can find them still packing arenas when they're in their 70s, 80s and even 90s. On the flipside, even the brightest stars can suddenly blink out. They fall out of favor at the drop of a hat, they burn out and quit the business, and, tragically, they sometimes die young....

Great duets have surfaced throughout the history of popular music, evoking a magic that one voice simply can't convey by itself. Duets between Bruno Mars and Rose ("APT.") as well as Kendrick Lamar and SZA ("Luther") have commanded the top of the charts in the past year, and you'll turn up other smash duets no matter how far you go back in time - Lil Nas X and Billy Ray Cyrus (2019), Lady Gaga and...

It can be hard to understand how one song casts a spell on your soul when so many others pass you by. It could be the melody or overall construction of the song, or maybe it's the message of the lyrics that grabs you. But sometimes the magic is just a matter of location, location, location. If you've ever been captivated by a song when you were away from home, be it an overnighter in another city...

Ever wonder why you hardly ever see one actor who always lights up the screen while you can't get away from another one who always leaves you cold? So do we. This week, the hosts of "How We Heard It" look at a galaxy of stars - from the old guard like Tom Cruise, Nicole Kidman, Bradley Cooper and Sandra Bullock to new breakouts like Timothee Chalamet, Mikey Madison, Austin Butler and Jacob Elordi....

Our first impression of a new musical group often comes from their name, which can be creative or shocking or forgettable. We've all learned that a band's name typically doesn't reflect the kind of music they play - sometimes it's even the opposite of how you would expect them to sound. And over time, you'll come to love a great band with an unfortunate name or reject a blah group with a clever na...

Funny thing about lyrics: They aren't always what you think they are. Whether you hear them the wrong way or someone else heard them the wrong way and passed that misinterpretation on to you, you're often singing along to a different set of lyrics than your favorite singer. What's more, AI and other lyrics you find on Google get them wrong, too. But "How We Heard It" is here to help, whether you'r...

We've made a full trip around the sun since "How We Heard It" debuted in June of 2024, so for episode No. 52 of the weekly show, your hosts are looking at what worked and what didn't - for the audiences and for themselves - in the first year. They recap what episodes drew the biggest audiences (some shows are more surprising than others) and where the audiences are coming from (some places are mor...

Music fans have been making personal soundtracks for some 50 years, starting with the mixtape in the 1970s, then changing with technology to mixed discs in the 1990s (replacing cassette tapes with compact discs), then creating playlists in the 2000s for devices like iPods as well as streaming services like Spotify. Typically, these homemade collections are just a way to put favorite and/or related...

The music industry has always had its megastars akin to today's super-performers like Taylor Swift, Drake and Morgan Wallen. However, there was a glorious decade from the early 1980s into the 1990s when the planets aligned and money gushed out to a select few artists who commandeered the industry. Major record labels, commercial radio, and MTV conspired to create a consumer hunger for physical pro...

You don't get a second chance to make a first impression, so over the years music artists have relied on the visual cues of their album covers to help sell their product. Sexy photos, dramatic images, optical illusions, striking colors and eye-catching fonts have all been used to grab attention, titillate and intrigue. Album covers were vital in the vinyl heyday, but as consumers turned more and m...