Prisoners of Rock and Roll

There were a lot of things about the 1980s that we’d like to forget but one of the most memorable parts of the decade was the music. While artists like Madonna, the Police, Def Leppard, and Michael Jackson were popular for huge parts of the decade, the music scene of the 1980s is filled with artists who had one, and only one, hit song.  In this episode of Prisoners of Rock and Roll, we’re talking...

In today’s episode of Prisoners of Rock and Roll, we’re digging into some of the most scandalous moments in music history. We’ve put together a list of scandals that span nearly 70 years and cover controversies, deaths, scams, crime, and outrageous behavior that drew media attention around the world.  From John Lennon saying the Beatles were bigger than Jesus to Sinead O’Connor tearing up a page o...

In this episode of Prisoners of Rock and Roll, we’re taking a look at celebrities who make music. Now, a lot of famous people have decided to make albums over the years. Some of them dabble in rock and roll on the side like a lot of us and use their celebrity status to get an album recorded.  Others might have had gotten some misguided advice from someone in their inner circle telling them that re...

If you’re one of the thousands of people who listen to Prisoners of Rock and Roll – and shame on you if you aren’t – you know we do a segment in every episode called The Electric Chair where we kill a song for being terrible.  Now, there’s a lot of awesome music out there. But let’s face it: there’s a lot of bad music too.  So much bad music that this episode of Prisoners of Rock and Roll is volum...

Alright, folks, it's time to dust off those platform shoes, grab your shiniest disco ball, and get ready to debate the ultimate question: Does Disco Suck?  That's right, on this electrifying episode of Prisoners of Rock and Roll, we're diving headfirst into the glittery, dance-filled world of disco music. Now, disco, oh disco, you've been the life of countless parties, the soundtrack of Saturday n...

The Beatles were one of the most successful bands of all time, and critics loved them as much as their fans. Lucky for music fans, they also kept tons of recordings in their archives. The Beatles Anthology was a multimedia project that included a television documentary series, a book, and three double albums that includes outtakes, rarities, demos, and even a couple of new tracks that Paul, George...

Let’s face it. Rock and roll has always been dominated by dudes, but music is full of female trailblazers and trendsetters who rocked our world and left their mark on the industry.  We’re talking about the soulful blues of Janis Joplin to Joan Jett’s punk guitar riffs. Debbie Harry embraced her hotness while leading a band that dipped into as many different types of music as the Clash, while Annie...

Jazz was the soundtrack of America for decades – through prohibition, two World Wars, the Harlem renaissance, and more.  From the soulful trumpet of Louis Armstrong to the haunting vocals of Billie Holiday, from the trailblazing talents of Dizzy Gillespie to the cool sounds of Miles Davis, these musicians shaped the landscape of jazz and inspired countless generations of musicians. In this episode...

Are you ready to crank up the volume, tease your hair to new heights, and rock out like it's the 1980s? We're diving into the glitz, the glam, and the power chords of hair metal on the next episode of Prisoners of Rock and Roll. Now, let's address the elephant in the room. Hair metal often gets a bad rap, dismissed as nothing more than cheesy anthems and over-the-top fashion. But hold on as tight...

Doo wop music. It’s the harmonized sound of street corner serenades and teenage romance. The irresistible sound that makes you wanna snap your fingers, sway your hips, and sing along with those timeless harmonies. This music broke down racial barriers years before the civil rights movement, as millions of kids across the country just cared about listening to great music.  Some of the most popular...

Kid Rock. Some love him, some hate him, but everyone has an opinion. He’s been around for nearly 25 years and has sold tens of millions of albums as his sound has evolved from hip hop to nu metal to country. But does he suck? That's the question we're going to argue today on Prisoners of Rock and Roll. On one hand, he sings, he raps, he plays multiple instruments. He likes soul, country, rock and...

If you’ve ever watched a movie, you’ve heard music from John Williams. He’s one of the greatest classical music composers of the last 100 years and one of America’s most accomplished musicians. His music has won 5 Oscars, 25 Grammys, and four Golden Globes. The only person with more Academy Award nominations is Walt Disney himself.  The list of movies he’s written to the music to is practically a...

Released seven years after Aerosmith and Run DMC brought rap and rock together on Walk This Way, the soundtrack to the 1993 film Judgment Night was a groundbreaking moment in the crossover between the two music genres. Every song on the album was a collaboration between an artist from each genre and it featured some of the biggest names in music at the time.  Helmet, Faith No More, Sonic Youth, Pe...

It’s pretty easy to complain about the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame nominees every year – heck, we’ve done it ourselves more than once. But the nominees for the class of 2023 are out and it’s a pretty solid list. There’s a mix of artists from different eras and different genres. Some first timers and some artists that made us go “yeah, why AREN’T they in the hall of fame yet?” Still no Motorhead, Fu...

Chris Cornell was one of the best rock and roll singers of the last 40 years. He had an incredible four octave vocal range that showed could be incredibly powerful and delicate, sometimes in the same song. And the music he created was as diverse as his range.  He came up in the music scene in the 1990s as the front man for Soundgarden and Temple of the Dog before taking over lead vocals for Audios...

We are heading back to 1993 to to look at songs and albums that turn 30 this year. It was a solid year for rock and roll, with Versus from Pearl Jam, In Utero from Nirvana, and Siamese Dream from Smashing Pumpkins. Debut albums from the Counting Crows, the Cranberries, Bjork, Tool, Collective Soul, Candlebox, Lenny Kravitz, Snoop Dogg, and the Wu-Tang Clan.  We’ve got a lot of great music to talk...

Live Aid was one of the biggest rock and roll concerts ever thrown. On July 13, 1985 dozens of some of the biggest acts in music performed at Wembley Stadium in London and JFK Stadium in Philadelphia to raise money to fight the devastating famine in Ethiopia. Organized in just 10 weeks, the show was attended by 72,000 people in London and 100,000 in Philly, while another 1.9 billion people in 150...

Les Claypool is a musical mad scientist and one of the weirdest musicians to have commercial success in rock and roll.  He’s best known for his amazing bass playing and quirky sense of humor in leading the band Primus (and for doing the theme for South Park), but he’s also put together a handful of other really cool projects that made other types of music.  Including Oysterhead, the funk jazz supe...

The Prisoners of Rock and Roll 3rd annual Christmas special. This year, we’ve decided to fill up the punch bowl, bake some cookies, and have a very special musical Christmas party. We’re opening up the studio and inviting artists who have recorded some of our favorite Christmas songs to stop by for some festive cheer.   We’ll be spending time with Frank Sinatra and Nat King Cole. Darlene Love and...

Heavy metal music is usually about speed or power, or speed and power. It’s an incredibly diverse genre of music: two metal fans can have a conversation at a bar about music and quickly realize that there aren’t any bands that they both like. The lines between metal and hard rock and roll are blurry – Encyclopedia Britannica says Aerosmith is a heavy metal band. Do they belong in the same category...

We recently realized that we’ve been doing this show for almost two years and have rarely talked about modern rock and roll. That got us thinking – is rock and roll dead? The airwaves and Billboard charts are dominated by hip hop and country artists. The biggest draws on the concert circuit are older acts. So in this episode of Prisoners of Rock and Roll, we’re going to talk about the current stat...

Music is a huge part of any sporting event. Teams and stadiums use it to get crowds fired up and into the game, so much so that there are certain songs that you automatically associate with sports.  In honor of the World Series, the Prisoners of Rock and Roll are holding our own music pep rally and talking about the best music to hear at a sporting event. Nothing gets a crowd fired up like Thunder...

Music is awesome. Have you ever had one of those moments where you start a song over at the beginning because you were doing something else and didn’t get to hear the whole thing? Or have you heard a song and are immediately transported back to some moment in time you associate with it? We have. And that’s why we love doing this show for the last two years. .  In episode 50 of the Prisoners of Roc...

The Beastie Boys are so important to music because they never stopped evolving. They started as a hardcore band before putting down their instruments and becoming part of the golden age of hip hop.  After being one of the first and most successful acts on Def Jam, they split with the label and took creative control of their music and their image. They picked up their instruments again and built a...

There’s no debate that Led Zeppelin is one of the most powerful heavy, blues, rock and roll bands of all time. But what IS up for debate is their originality. Several of their biggest hits borrow (or steal) from songs that came before them, mostly from African American blues singers who already sang the blues because they were getting shafted by society. They’ve been sued almost a half a dozen tim...