The Opus

In the Season 11 premiere, we're dialing back the clock to the late '60s, a time when Santana and his band were on the cusp of a cultural sea change. They had just conquered the iconic Woodstock Music Festival, and all ears were raised for what came next. But, when you finally have the means to make the album you’ve always wanted ... is it smooth sailing? As an outsider making outsider art...

Consequence Podcast Network and Sony’s The Opus is back for Season 11 with a new host and a new classic album to explore. Beginning November 19th, host Jill Hopkins (The Moth Chicago, Making Beyoncé podcast) will conjure the enduring legacy of Santana ’s landmark Abraxas.  Following the release of their self-titled debut and their subsequent performance at Woodstock, a world of possibility was ope...

We are living in Andy Warhol's vision of the future. It’s a time when anyone can TikTok their way to 15 minutes of fame, only to disappear 15 seconds later. But there’s a strange effect to all these stars and this new galaxy: We’re all so siloed as fans that it’s easy to forget there was once a time when stars could outlast the universe. One such star is Whitney Houston . As The Opus winds dow...

There's something mystifying about powerful voices. Sure, everyone can open their mouth and sing, but when we watch a force like Whitney Houston do so, it's abundantly clear there's a vast divide between her and us mere mortals. But we take such voices for granted, often celebrating their talent by simply listening. What we don't appreciate is the work it takes to get there, the wo...

It's hard to underestimate Whitney Houston ’s stardom. For better and for worse, the world knows so much more about the late diva than we do about most artists from her era. Houston's meteoric rise would eventually place her own personal life under a microscope, and it's the tragic details that all too often overshadow her unparalleled legacy and groundbreaking influence. Looking back,...

For decades now, rap and hip-hop has been the most fertile soil for slang and new language across pop culture. But when looking back on Mobb Deep , the duo didn't just have their own slang, they had their own language. In this bonus episode of The Opus , host Andy Bothwell breaks down the history of "The Dun Language" with rappers Slug (of Atmosphere ) and Evidence (of Dilated Peoples...

The world seems to have gone mad since the release of Malcolm Gladwell's The Outliers . Thanks to his 2008 best-selling book, everyone seems to think that all you need is 10,000 hours of practice to achieve greatness. While that may work on a skill or a craft, the rules go out the window when it comes to art. Prodigy and Havoc certainly put a lot of hours into making beats and rapping before t...

The mid-90's produced a crowded field chock full of brilliant rap records. With debuts from Nas, Wu-Tang Clan, and Jay-Z, artists really needed to bring their A-game if they were going to try and stand out. Mobb Deep could have easily been lost in the ether, especially given the mixed reception towards their debut album, Juvenile Hell . Instead, like so many of the artists we've covered in...

Rap in the modern age is drowned in theater. Today, the lines between reality and fiction are often so blurred that it's tough to tell what's fact or fiction. Ironically, the old adage of "keepin' it real" was tossed around too lightly amidst the Golden Age of Hip-Hop. One exception to that rule was Mobb Deep . A quarter century ago, Havoc and Prodigy helped ignite the East Coa...

In many ways, an album's physical packaging is a dying art form in the modern era of streaming services. Instead of picking up a record, we scroll through them, searching for light amidst a seemingly infinite sea of digital album covers. With that in mind, there's never been a greater need for eye-catching album covers in the history of the medium. Bitches Brew is one such record, only the...

A good album leaves a mark on you, but traditionally, that impact lasts as long as the album itself. It starts, you hear a bunch of great songs you love, and then it's over. Maybe it put you in a better mood? Or perhaps it even gave you some time to think about things? Whatever the case, when the record stops, all too often the influence goes along with it. What makes an album like Bitches Bre...

Fifty years later, there's something about Bitches Brew that still feels strange, wild, and unfamiliar. There's a magic in Miles Davis' cauldron that binds the ingredients to create a potion that is somehow greater than the sum of its exceptional parts. There's an almost indefinable something that somehow elevates the album to new heights -- and that mystery ingredient is what make...

Jazz can often be seen as a genre that challenges listeners, but one of the greatest jazz records of all time -- Miles Davis’ Bitches Brew -- was born out a need to challenge the genre, to push back on the establishment, and to break down old conventions and notions about what jazz could be. Davis saw the future of music coming fast, and it was in funk and rock. If he didn’t catch up, he and jazz...

The Opus has yet to leave the Bridge. Although Bridge Over Troubled Water was the swan song of Simon & Garfunkel, it was really only the beginning of their enduring legacy. Since then, countless musicians and artists alike have followed in their footsteps to myriad results. In this surprise, bonus episode of Season 7, host Andy Bothwell speaks to a trio of eclectic musicians who have all cross...

The Opus has reached the end of the Bridge. A lot is made of the fact that Bridge Over Troubled Water was Simon & Garfunkel’s final album. Even 50 years later, fans and historians see the album as the end of the era, when it's so much more than that. Bridge Over Troubled Water wasn’t the end of a road, but a mile marker on a very long highway, full of surprising and exciting twists and tur...

The Opus is halfway across the Bridge. What does Alex Jones, Beyoncé's Lemonade, and Simon and Garfunkel have in common? More than you think! In 1969, the two bards were asked to make a TV special to debut 1970's Bridge over Troubled Water. Rather than opting for the traditional approach -- think: Elvis Presley's 1968 comeback special -- they created a visual album. Ring a bell? Songs...

The Opus is crossing a bridge into its seventh season. All good things come to an end, and that is certainly the case for Simon and Garfunkel. With 1970's Bridge Over Troubled Water, Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel sewed a button to their timeless collaboration. At the time, though, the album wasn't exactly the ideal swan song for critics, who were mixed on the release, contending that the co...

The Opus has one more lesson about The Clash. The same curiosity that drove the English rockers to discover new genres of music also drove them to understand and empathize with the struggles going on far from their homes. That call for political action, of course, is all over London Calling -- right down to its title. Yet the reason why generation after generation continues to answer their call st...

The Opus can't fail with The Clash. The diversity of influences on London Calling go way beyond reggae and dub. In fact, they go deeper than the music itself. This is an album that gets its hands dirty by digging right into the culture that wound up influencing the four English rockers. Is this cultural appropriation? If not, how did they manage to pull it off? And what can musicians today lea...

The Opus is getting lost in the supermarket for its sixth season. The Clash were at a crossroads in 1979. The first wave of punk rock ended a year prior when the Sex Pistols called it quits, leaving the movement to explore new avenues, from New Wave to hardcore, and the band to wonder, What are we gonna do now? The answer was London Calling. As Margaret Thatcher continued to remake Britain by look...

Consequence of Sound and Sony are proud to present the sixth season of The Opus. Past seasons have explored the legacy of iconic albums by Bob Dylan (Blood on the Tracks), The Jimi Hendrix Experience (Electric Ladyland), Jeff Buckley (Grace), Willie Nelson (Red Headed Stranger), and Ozzy Osbourne (Blizzard of Ozz). This time, we're answering the cry of the only band that matters, The Clash, an...

The Opus is out of the Blizzard and on Capitol Hill. Long before he was a teddy bear on reality TV, Ozzy Osbourne was seen as a demon through the eyes of many Americans. In fact, throughout the '80s, the Prince of Darkness was the subject of two separate court cases involving his music. Both "Suicide Solution" and "Mr. Crowley" drew ire from parents and politicians, who were no...

The Opus is in the thick of the Blizzard now. Tracing the influence of Ozzy Osbourne leads to some strange and wonderful places -- far beyond the confines of hard rock. From sports arenas to new hip-hop anthems, the Prince of Darkness has a reach that knows no limits. Host Andy Bothwell continues his journey through 1980's Blizzard of Ozz, but he's not alone. Today, he's joined by a mo...

Warning: The Opus is about to get loud. Ozzy Osbourne wasn't always The Prince of Darkness. It was a long and twisted journey in the lead-up to his 1980 solo debut, Blizzard of Ozz, one that found the legendary singer banished, wrecked, and lost without any sense of purpose. He was a broken man. Yet he was hardly abandoned. After being pulled back to life by his future life partner Sharon Arde...

The Opus is back for a fifth season from Consequence of Sound and Sony. After exploring the legacies of classic records from Bob Dylan (Blood on the Tracks), The Jimi Hendrix Experience (Electric Ladyland), Jeff Buckley (Grace), and Willie Nelson (Red Headed Stranger), we’re bundling up to enter the storm that is Ozzy Osbourne’s debut solo record, Blizzard of Ozz. Host Andy Bothwell, a.k.a. Astron...