MODERN MUSICOLOGY

Everyone loves a good cover! But not all covers are good! This week Rob and Alan talk about what turns them off about some covers. Is it the band doing the covering? Does it stray too far from the original? Or is the song transformed into a new genre that simply doesn't work? Or does it have more to do with our emotional attachment to the original? Along the way, we reference songs by Duran Duran,...

Left to their own devices, Rob and Alan take a trip to the Nevada desert for BURNING MAN! Well, we watched the new documentary about it, anyway! The Man Will Burn is a new docuseries from HBO Films that came out in July. The film series explores the origins and development of the festival as well as the art, the music, the philosophy, and the challenges that it faced from COVID, extreme weather, a...

One Album Wonders There are some really obvious examples of bands or artists that only made one studio album -- The Sex Pistols, Jeff Buckley, and Lauryn Hill immediately come to mind. But how many others are there? Surprisingly, quite a few! We talk about those as well as other single-album artists like The La's, The New Radicals, The New Rising Sons, GTR, Derek & the Dominos, Blind Faith, Ar...

The heart of the world was broken on August 25, 2026 when the news came out that legendary singer, musician, songwriter, actor, businesswoman and philanthropist Dolly Parton passed away. Dolly was as close to a universally-loved artist as you'll ever find. We are joined in the studio this week by Emmy Award-winning Good Day Atlanta feature reporter Paul Milliken, who met and interviewed Dolly nume...

Consequence, an online pop culture magazine, released their list of the 100 Greatest Tours of All Time, which included big names like Prince, Springsteen, Bowie, the Jacksons, Taylor Swift, Madonna, Beyonce, Metallica, and many others, plus a few surprising inclusions as well. This week, the Modern Musicology team reviews Consequence's list and talk about some of the tours that we have seen over t...

The animated film Heavy Metal, based on the adult sci-fi fantasy comic magazine of the same name, was released 45 years ago on August 7, 1981, and while it wasn't a big box office smash, it became a cult classic and (at the time) something of a rite of passage. The iconic soundtrack featured great songs by Black Sabbath, Blue Öyster Cult, Cheap Trick, Journey, Don Felder, Devo, Stevie Nicks, Grand...

In this episode we are joined by former editor of Guitar World Magazine Brad Tolinski, co-author of the new book Blow By Blow: The Jeff Beck Story, to talk about the life and career of one of the most important and influential guitarists in the modern rock era. Brad tells us all about the significance of the Yardbirds, how Jeff's playing evolved over the decades, some of the colorful characters he...

MTV 45th Anniversary MTV launched 45 years ago on August 1, 1981 with "Video Killed the Radio Star." To celebrate this big anniversary, we spend time reminiscing about the glory days of Music Television by talking about our favorite music videos -- and a few of our least favorites. We mention some of the obvious big hits, like "Take on Me", "Sledgehammer", "Thriller", and "Rio", but we also hit a...

July 17, 2026 was a very special day for the Modern Musicology family -- because that was the release date of a brand-new EP called Grand Isle from our amazing co-host Stephanie Seymour! This new batch of songs has been a couple years in the making and it's finally out in the world. We devote this episode to giving you a preview of Stephanie's new record! We talk about the writing and recording pr...

To celebrate Christine McVie's birthday on July 12th, we have a special show that features some of Christine's great deep cuts. She was arguably the greatest hitmaker in Fleetwood Mac, with biggies like "Say You Love Me," "You Make Lovin' Fun," "Little Lies," and "Everywhere," but there were many more sides to her than just that. In this show we feature some great tracks from her time in Fleetwood...

This week we shine a spotlight on the timekeepers of the band, the heartbeat of the music, the THUNDER from the back of the stage .... it's all about those DRUMS!! Stephanie, Alan, Rob and Anthony each select five songs that begin with unaccompanied drum intros that we love. And the selections couldn't be more varied -- rock, pop, punk, classic jazz, electronic, Britpop to an all-out metal assault...

The legendary Paul McCartney has a very busy time lately, with a new album (The Boys of Dungeon Lane), appearances on Saturday Night Live and the final Stephen Colbert show, a new exhibition at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and a recent book and documentary. Rob and Alan talk all about McCartney's goings on and review the new album, and get a little melancholy about aging and memory.  First, tho...

Saturday Night Live has concluded its most recent seasons on both sides of the pond! Both SNL US and UK broadcast their finales on May 16, which means it's time to find out what the best musical performances were on both shows. I'll count down my Top 10 selections from SNL Season 51 and the Top 5 from SNL UK Season 1, and play clips from some of the highlights from each season.  Before that, thoug...

We continue our examination of the year 1986 by talking about the albums that were released in the second half of the year. Metal and rap were reigning supreme with releases from Iron Maiden, Megadeth, Slayer, and The Beastie Boys, but pop and rock offered up some really strong records as well with major releases from Bon Jovi, Cyndi Lauper, Berlin, The Pretenders, REM, Huey Lewis and the News, an...

We’re diving headfirst into the first six months of 1986! Join us as we rewind to January through June and relive the music that made 1986 one of the most memorable years of the decade. It was a time when rock and rap were colliding, metal was still reigning supreme, the Minneapolis funk sound was coming into its own, and pop soundtracks were turning lesser-known bands into superstars!  We cover j...

This week we have the privilege of being visited by Giles Moon, the head of music curation at Julien's Auctions, who gives us the inside scoop of the upcoming Music Icons auction, which takes place May 29-30 at the Hard Rock Cafe Times Square in New York City. The sale features nearly 700 items from icons such as Johnny Cash (the guitar he played at his Grand Ole Opry debut in 1956), Ace Frehley (...

On April 18, 1981, I saw my very first all-day stadium show, billed the Rock Super Bowl, featuring Heart, Blue Öyster Cult, Cheap Trick, Firefall, and UFO. In this episode I give you a rundown of that show, share some memories from that amazing day, and play some of the songs that the band played that day.  Hope you enjoyed this episode. Did you happen to see this show? Drop us a line at modernmus...

We sure do love a list! And Loudwire has put out their list of 80s bands that should have been bigger! And we have a lot to say about this list -- the ones we agree with, the ones we don't really like, and the ones who may not have deserved to have been any bigger than they were. Plus we each list the 80s bands we love that we think should have been bigger.  But first we have some music news to co...

FIVE Killer Ace Frehley Songs! This month on Alan's Record Bin we celebrate the 75th birthday of KISS lead guitarist Ace Frehley. We dig back through the record collection and focus on Ace's early career as a member of KISS and his subsequent emergence as a solo artist with FIVE (okay, SIX) killer tracks! Ace was just as much a force in KISS as Gene or Paul, and this show highlights some of his un...

AI is arguably the biggest technological revolution of our lifetime, but it's certainly not without controversy. For every positive application in medicine, science, engineering, etc. there are questions about how far AI should go. Most particularly, the use of AI in the arts is a hot-button issue. Can AI be used legitimately in music, literature, and visual art? Does it threaten to replace human...

Classical Music  Anthony and Stephanie are "on assignment," so Rob and Alan take the opportunity to discuss one of their shared passions: Classical Music. We talk about our mutual love of classical, how we first came to classical, some of our favorite pieces, and how a new listener can get acclimated to the music.  You'll hear about the music of Beethoven, Mozart, Tchaikovsky, Shostakovic and othe...

5 Forgotten AOR Songs This week Alan from Modern Musicology launches a new side-project! In this series of shows, I'll tell stories behind some of the albums in my collection. This week, we're talking about 5 Forgotten AOR Songs! These are tracks that got airplay on Album Oriented Rock radio stations back in the day but have mostly been left behind, frozen like a moment in time.  You'll hear about...

It's that time of year again! The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame has released its list of nominations for 2026. Sadly, we aren't amongst the 1200+ official voters who will be casting their ballots for this year's inducted class, but that won't stop us from discussing who we think should and shouldn't get in! And who should be nominated next! This year's nominees includes Billy Idol, the Black Crows, I...

The Music of 1976 This week we set the controls to the heart of 1976 to revisit some of the great music that came out that year! Of course, we cover the biggie, Frampton Comes Alive. We also report on three of the biggest movements of '76 -- Prog, Glam, and Disco. Along the way, we cover important debuts by bands like Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Blondie, Bryan Ferry, Jon Anderson, and The Ram...

Super Bowl 60 was held on February 8, featuring a halftime show by Latin superstar Bad Bunny (with special guests Lady Gaga and Ricky Martin), and a pre-game performance by neo-punks Green Day. But in reaction against this, there was a second, independant "All American" halftime show featuring Kid Rock, Gabby Barrett, Lee Brice, and Brantley Gilbert. Both shows had their controversies and both are...