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American SongAuthor: Joe Hines
America was meant to be a light on the hill a place others looked to when they needed to find their own way forward.If America has ever truly been that light, it came from its music. From the people who suffered the most and somehow still found something worth singing about.From colonial taverns to protest marches in the Eastern Bloc, from gospel churches to a ghetto in Soweto, American rhythms helped people band together, speak truth, and refuse to quit. Our songs became the world's songs not because we exported them, but because people who needed hope reached out and claimed them as their own.American Song tells the stories of the artists who made the music and the people who were moved by it. One era at a time. One genre, one band, one song at a time. Music that started by campfires, in cotton fields, in churches and juke joints and moved out into the world to become something larger than any one nation could contain.This is American Song. Language: en-us Genres: Arts, Music, Music History, Performing Arts Contact email: Get it Feed URL: Get it iTunes ID: Get it |
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New Wave: The Conquerors - The Second British Invasion, and How Michael Jackson and Prince Broke Down the Walls at MTV
Episode 5
Thursday, 18 June, 2026
Get in touch!Britain just turned the lights fluorescent. The future arrives every Wednesday now, whether you're ready or not.Picture 1979 England: factories closing, Thatcher cutting glass with every syllable, and a music press so brutal it could make or break a band before the tea went cold. Punk already burned down the house. Now a blond former schoolteacher from Newcastle who sounds like a cathedral trying to seduce you, a man dressed as three centuries of fashion history simultaneously, and a band that named itself after a hairstyle and a bomber are about to rebuild it — colder, sharper, and somehow more danceable.This episode: The Police turn jazz chords into a global empire. The Clash and XTC ask exactly how much pop a protest song can survive. Siouxsie and the Banshees, Squeeze, and Tears for Fears each find a different way to make precision sound like feeling. Elvis Costello smuggles class warfare into a piano hook your kids could hum.Then the screen turns on. MTV launches with nothing to play but the eccentrics nobody else wanted — and the eccentrics become the biggest stars on Earth. Until two artists the network never planned for, Michael Jackson and Prince, force the door open and rewrite who gets to be on television at all.The future was never going to be warm. But it was going to be brilliant.Songs In This EpisodeThe Clash - Career OpportunitiesXTC - This Is PopThe Police - Message In a Bottle (No Vocal)The Police - RoxanneThe Police - Walking On the MoonSqueeze - TemptedAdam and the Ants - Kings of the Wild FrontierThe Cure - A ForestSiouxsie and the Banshees - Cities in DustOMD - Enola GayTears For Fears - The HurtingTears For Fears - Mad WorldTears For Fears - ShoutTears For Fears - Everybody Wants to Rule the WorldElvis Costello - Pump it UpElvis Costello - Watching the DetectivesElvis Costello - Oliver's ArmyElvis Costello - AlisonElvis Costello - Radio, RadioThe Monkees - (Theme From) The MonkeesThe Buggles - Video Killed the. Radio StarMichael Jackson - Don't Stop 'Til You Get EnoughPrince - ControversyMichael Jackson - Billie JeanPrince - When You Were MinePrince - 1999Prince - When Doves CryFalco - Der Kommissar (German Version)Interviews WithStingAdam AntElvis CostelloMichael NesmithAndy SummersJoin American Song on Social MediaSubstack: https://substack.com/@americansong
