How We Heard It

It seems like forever ago that awards shows were a time to honor excellence. Now they've become an excuse to hate watch, an opportunity to tear apart artists for what they wear, what they say and even how they look at each other. Coming off a particularly contentious 2025 around the world, the upcoming Grammy Awards will certainly tick off a lot of viewers. For starters, these days we just get mad...

Here we are again, the least popular time of year for the most of us. The year-end holidays have passed, and spring is still months away. Oh, and it's the darkest and coldest time of the year, too - because why wouldn't it be? Some of us go dormant like plants this time of year, insulating ourselves and enduring the season with introspection and maybe a touch of seasonal depression. Others go on a...

As Artificial Intelligence continues its relentless spread into so many parts of all of our lives, it seems like all we can do is sit back with a mix of hope and dread and wonder where this is all going. We know we can't trust anything on social media anymore - be it photos, audio or video - though we see that many of our friends are susceptible to just about anything. Meanwhile, we may be uncomfo...

2025 won't be remembered as the year for love, peace and harmony. War and military attacks were happening everywhere - from the Ukraine to the Middle East to Venezuela to Nigeria. Natural disasters like wildfires and floods swept the U.S. And not only did we lose beloved celebrities like Diane Keaton, Robert Redford and Ozzy Osbourne, other popular figures - from Rob and Michele Reiner to Charlie...

Everyone with a physical music collection - you know, stuff you can hold in your hands like albums and compact discs - has had to decide how to store it all. Organized fans often arrange their collections alphabetically and/or chronologically and/or by popularity. Less organized fans find it harder to keep up with what they have and find what they want when they want it. For veteran music journali...

You never see them coming, and yet they never stop coming. From the beginning of popular music to today, offbeat songs just keep pushing into our consciousness. As much as we’re conditioned to respond to formula-based songs that fit into established genres, the outliers just keep catching our attention and burrowing into our brains. Over the decades, there’s been a singing nun and chanting monks,...

Snappy holidays, y’all! The snarky Santas of “How We Heard It” have been making a list of what the biggest names in modern music should get for their behavior this year. We’re not talking about golf clubs and spa days. Instead, these are intangible gifts the artists need, even if they don’t realize it. Your hosts bounce from sarcasm to sincerity as they distribute their tidings on naughty and nice...

Feeling out of sorts? Join the crowd. We're full-tilt into holiday season and most of us might be feeling the blues ... or feeling chaotic ... or feeling like we're about to go off on someone. Or all of the above. We all have our go-to therapy songs that help us get through a rough patch. But sometimes our sonic medicine can't get the job done. Never fear! In this episode of "How We Heard It," you...

Your hosts of the "How We Heard It" podcast usually have a general goal in mind when they pick a topic ... but when they came up with this idea, they had no clue what they were in for: "Hey, let's dig through our music collections and just see what we find." Keep in mind that these guys have each amassed thousands of albums and compact discs (and even some 8-track tapes for Wayne), accumulated ove...

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....