5 podcasts for a musical deep dive

‘Nothing is real’

There’s an unsurprisingly huge selection of Beatles podcasts but this one stands out for its attention to detail. In each episode, the two hosts, Jason Carty and Steven Cockcroft, go deep on a small segment of Beatles canon — often a specific year, song or incident — and contextualise it within the band’s broader history. Jason and Steven possess impressive Beatles expertise. Alongside the expected analysis of musical eras and interpersonal dramas, they’ve also dedicated episodes to the much-contested title of ‘fifth Beatle’ and the band’s complex relationship with their spiritual guru, Mahesh Yogi.

‘Every single album: Taylor Swift’

Taylor Swift’s stardom has been turbocharged by her blockbuster Eras Tour and the continuation of her artful rerecording project. The show’s hosts, Nora Princiotti and Nathan Hubbard, are die-hard ‘Swifties’ but of different stripes: Princiotti, a sports writer, grew up alongside Taylor, while Hubbard is a music executive with insight into the pop star’s savvy business strategies. Their warm rapport and ability to balance veneration with critique should impress even the most devoted fan. This series delves into each of Taylor’s albums.

‘Louder than a riot’

Hosted by Rodney Carmichael and Sidney Madden, it focuses on the complex history of hip hop. The first season, in 2020, offered a nuanced examination of the links between hip hop and mass incarceration in America. In March, ‘Louder than a riot’ returned for a second season, its first episode pegged to the trial of rapper Tory Lanez who shot Black hip-hop star Megan Thee Stallion multiple times. This season explores how hip hop has perpetuated the oppression of marginalised groups, despite the genre’s genesis as a voice for the unheard.

‘No dogs in space’

Each season of this music history show deals with a different genre — punk, alternative and experimental music — through the lens of the bands that define it. Hosted by the husband-and-wife duo of Marcus Parks and Carolina Hidalgo, ‘No dogs in space’ dedicates several episodes to the back catalogue of each artist — spotlighting not just heavy hitters such as Joy Division, but also more obscure acts. Some subjects get five or six episodes, while others receive just one, but all of the instalments are packed with insight and anecdotes, showing how music is shaped by its societal context.

‘Dissect’

Contemporary music analysis doesn’t get much more granular than in this aptly titled podcast, where each season is dedicated to a single album, one song per episode. The series has featured modern classics including Kendrick Lamar’s ‘To pimp a butterfly’, Beyoncé’s ‘Lemonade’ and Kanye West’s ‘My beautiful dark twisted fantasy’. Cole Cuchna, who has a degree in music composition, has said he began the show in 2016 to see if he could take the technical academic analysis usually reserved for classical music and apply it to hip-hop. — NYT