A (Mostly) 80s Music Podcast: What Difference Does It Make?

From the moment we first saw "Do You Really Want To Hurt Me?" on MTV, we can honestly say there was no one who looked, dressed or sounded like Boy George. There was also the music that touched on Pop, Soul and Reggae and even through all the mania that surrounded the band, we never quite understood who they were and where they came from until now. Director Alison Ellwood, previously tackled the of...

As an 80s music podcast, and as America recognizes another year of independence, we believe the time is right to recognize our favorite American music artists from the 80s.  The rules are simple: 1) You and /or your band must contain at least one American original band member. 2) They must have released their first album in the 80s. Simple, right? There is a lot of discussion, as well as a number...

Peter Relic has authored Bust a Move: Matt Dike, Delicious Vinyl, and the Hip-Hop Hits That First Conquered Pop. It tells the fascinating story of how a surfer dude from Southern California and a guy who grew up on the east coast in a Jehovah's Witness family formed a partnership to create one of the most successful record labels in the 80s. Peter breaks it down and tells us how these two men were...

We love our Dads. We wouldn't be who we are without their constant presence in our lives. Naturally, that also means we've incorporated their music into our lives. We have quite a few songs that remind us of our Dads, and we share our memories with you in our special Father's Day music episode. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We are so happy to welcome Mike Gomoll to the podcast. Mike is the founder of ⁠Joey's Song⁠. Mike's son, Joey, lived with Dravet Syndrome - a rare, debilitating form of epilepsy that affects children in the most profound ways. After Joey’s death in 2010, to raise funds and awareness for epilepsy research, Mike started this foundation and now produces an associated music festival called Freezing Ma...

As an ’80s music podcast, it’s no secret that we’ve always had a little extra love for Olivia Newton-John. Now, author Matthew Hild takes that appreciation even deeper with his new book, A Little More Love: The Love and Legacy of Olivia Newton-John, a thoughtful and comprehensive look at one of pop culture’s most beloved stars. Matthew joins us to talk about Olivia’s remarkable career, from chart-...

In the late 1960s, pioneering electronic musician Robert Margouleff and his musical partner Malcolm Cecil built something unlike anything the world had heard: TONTO — The Original New Timbral Orchestra — a sprawling, one-of-a-kind synthesizer system that would go on to reshape the sound of popular music for decades to come. A Grammy winner for his work on Stevie Wonder's Innervisions, Robert joins...

Friend of the show, Craig Rosen, keeps us on our toes as we ping-pong back and forth from proms to fashion to movies. We try to stay on target as we discuss our favorite summer songs from the 70s and 80s. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

New York Times Bestselling Author, Annie Zaleski has a shirt that reads, "Sorry, I can't talk. I'm thinking about the 1997 performance of Silver Springs where Stevie Nicks stares a hole through Lindsay Buckingham". It partially helps explain why music fans around the world have been obsessed with Stevie.  Annie’s latest book, Stevie Nicks in 50 Songs, explores Stevie’s remarkable journey through t...

Growing up in the San Fernando Valley meant something very different depending on who you ask. For Holly and Dave, it's a place of warm memories and deep roots. For Gina Gershon? It was somewhere she couldn't wait to leave, and leaving turned out to be the best thing she ever did. Gina joins us to talk about her memoir, AlphaPussy: How I Survived the Valley and Learned to Love My Boobs, a candid a...

Old school is in session as JayQuan, author of the coffee table book, RUN-DMC and Raising Hell: 40 Years, joins the podcast.  As we learn JayQuan's story, we receive an education on the origins of hip-hop. Artists from the Cold Crush Brothers to William Waring to The Mizell Brothers were essential to the sound of Run-DMC, as were the beats of Take Me To The Mardi Gras by Bob James and Walk This Wa...

Steve Berlin, producer, arranger, session player, saxophonist, and Grammy-winning member of Los Lobos and The Blasters is now promoting a band he was in over forty years ago. Top Jimmy And The Rhythm Pigs released one album, in 1987. The album, entitled, Pigus, Drunkus Maximus returns with a re-release on Blind Owl Records including enhanced sound quality and deluxe packaging. Steve steps into our...

Steve Spears has just released a book based on his popular podcast, entitled Stuck In The 80s: 20 Years of Conversations with Pop Culture Icons Who Defined a Decade.   We are thrilled Steve guests on our podcast to share a few amazing stories he's accumulated over the years, including a few awkward moments. Steve has also been a big part of The 80s Cruise, and he dispenses some fun tidbits from hi...

Danny Goldberg has a career that reminds us of why we wanted to be a part of the music business. His career started at Billboard, where he convinced the higher-ups he needed to go to the Woodstock Music Festival. He did PR for Led Zeppelin, managed the careers of Bonnie Raitt, Stevie Nicks, Sonic Youth, the Allman Brothers Band, and Nirvana. In the 90s, he headed three different record labels: Atl...

Happy April Fools' Day! What songs make you smile? For Dave it's a knowing wink from an artist that knows this music can be ridiculous and yet, still love it. For Holly, it's music that makes her do a goofy dance or reminds her of her children. We go from pop and rock to dance and folk. We also learn during our Pop Quiz that, even though Holly is a stickler for "word crimes", she's not as strong w...

Harold Bronson may be best known as one of the co-founders of Rhino Records, but when he was a student at UCLA, he was in a band called Mogan David And His Winos. The band consisted of future New York Times best-selling author Jonathan Kellerman, future Columbia Records Head Of Promotions (and friend of the podcast) Paul Rappaport, music journalist Mark Leviton, as well as fellow Rhino co-conspira...

Let's play St. Patrick's Day music to recognize a number of our 80s music favorite artists from The Emerald Isle. While we have a hard time pronouncing names like Cathal McGarvey, Seamus Ennis and Liam Ó Maonlaí we certainly do love the music they created. So raise a pint to the Irish. Sláinte! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Author Steven Blush has just completed his rock trilogy, When Rock Met Disco, When Rock Met Reggae, and the just-released When Rock Met Hip-Hop.  Steven recalls times spent with Rick Rubin, The Beastie Boys, Run DMC, and Russell Simmons, and the huge influence they had on the 80s music scene and pop culture. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Paul Rees was a young lad living in Scotland during the heyday of Album Oriented Rock (AOR). From a distance, Paul became a fan of American radio and the artists played on those stations, which led him to write the book Raised On Radio: Power Ballads, Cocaine & Payola – the AOR Glory Years 1976-1986.  It's an oral history of the golden era of critically derided, yet monumentally popular radio rock...

Roddy Bottum is one of the founders and keyboardist of the iconic band Faith No More. In his memoir, The Royal We, Roddy shares his coming-of-age and out-of-the-closet stories in a pre-tech-boom San Francisco. He joins our podcast to chat about the bands, his upbringing, his addictions, and how he managed to survive it all with a sense of humor. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm...

We at What Difference Does It Make love love and what better way to say it, than with a song from the 80s? We discuss a number of our favorites that make us feel all warm inside. Happy Valentine's (and Gal-entine's) Day! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Arielle Nissenblatt, Founder and Head Curator of Earbuds Podcast Collective AND a 2026 Podcast Hall Of Fame Inductee, joins our podcast to share her origin story, and insights into the industry. She then steps out of her comfort zone and into our favorite topic, 80s music! Arielle offers up her Millennial opinion on music from 1989 based on Los Angeles radio station KROQ's year-end playlist. Learn...

Andy Greene, Senior Writer for Rolling Stone, has been with the storied magazine since 2004. Andy shares with us his origin story of how a shy, young boy from the suburbs of Cleveland finds his way to New York City to write about his idols and rub shoulders with artists like Phil Collins and Bruce Springsteen. We also asked his opinion on the music played on Los Angeles radio station KROQ in 1989,...

And so it begins again, as we start our look at the top 106.7 songs played on radio station KROQ in Los Angeles in 1989. Upcoming episodes will feature ten songs each and a special guest, but for this episode, we’ll look at the bottom seven songs, 106.7 to 101, based on the station's year-end playlist. It's quite a start to the last year of 80s music, and a fine intro into the type of music featur...

The year 1989 was more than just the number...another summer...the sound of the funky drummer. It was the year we first fell in love with The Simpsons, the Game Boy, and The Arsenio Hall Show. It was also the year of amazing movies, and of course, music. While we can't do a "We Didn't Start The Fire" type of song with the year, we can revisit as much as possible in under sixty minutes. Tune in and...