ANTI-MUSIC: Listening to How You Listen

Written by Lauren Cook

Nowadays, music isn’t the only thing dominating our earbuds. Podcasts and audiobooks have become increasingly popular, allowing us to properly multitask during our everyday activities. Is music still your main squeeze? Here are some of the best music-related podcasts, audiobooks, and radio stations out there that get you your fix.

1. Dissect - Podcast

Host Cole Cuchna focuses each season on a single album from an artist, dissecting it song by song. Each episode of the Spotify podcast gives a snapshot into the life of the artist while they were focusing on the track. Listen to Season Three’s discussion of Frank Ocean’s Blonde here.

2. Zane Lowe on Beat Radio 1

Zane Lowe’s radio show features new and emerging hits as well as interviews with a variety of artists. From BROCKHAMPTON to Nicki “To Freedom” Minaj, Lowe’s interviews explore every bit of information you’d want to know about your favorite artists’ new music. The show is free to listen to without an Apple Music subscription if you have an Apple device, but On Demand episodes require a subscription.

3. Deja Vu - Podcast

Deja Vu is a collaboration project between music media company Genius and Spotify. The show seeks out to highlight the parallels between modern day artists and their old school influences, like SZA and Erykah Badu or Bruno Mars and Lenny Kravitz. Listen here.

4. Behind the Melodrama - Podcast

Lorde fans unite for this one. In this one-shot podcast series on Podbean with music editor Henry Oliver, singer/songwriter Lorde discusses the color, inspiration, and backgrounds of each song on her sophomore album Melodrama which details her journey coming to terms with her fleeting adolescence. Listen here.

5. How Music Works by David Byrne - Audiobook

How Music Works is a intro to music theory course if music theory was seen through the eyes of David Byrne only. Half of a memoir, Byrne recounts his knowledge of music through life experience, like being a youth in a band to creating albums later on with the Talking Heads. Listen on Audible, Scribd, or Youtube.

6. NPR World Cafe - Podcast

World Cafe features interviews and live performances from artists all over the globe. Listening to any World Cafe episode will immediately make you fall in love with the artist it features. The environment is completely chilled out, allowing you to bop while also keeping your cool. Listen on NPR, Apple, or Podbean.

7. NPR All Songs Considered - Podcast

Different from World Cafe, All Songs Considered is more of a secondhand discussion of various artists. Their topics can range anywhere from 21st century female artists to songs that got you through school. Perfect for any music nerd, or anyone looking to expand their music palette. Listen on NPR, Spotify, Apple, or Podbean.

8. Female Mixing Engineers - Podcast

This podcast is dedicated to women in the music industry. Each episode features four songs from four different female sound engineers, as well an in-depth discussion about issues surrounding the sound engineering industry. This podcast is perfect for the listener looking to get into the sound mixing industry or someone just looking to support women artists. Listen on Apple, Spotify, or Podbean.

9. Gold Dust Woman - Audiobook

Explore the world of Stevie Nicks with this audiobook. Rather than being told by Nicks herself, this book is an outward look into Nick’s life and her history with Fleetwood Mac. Get all the juicy details on the creation, drama surrounding the band, as well as Fleetwood Mac’s last days. Listen on Audible or Scribd.

10. Time Crisis - Apple Music

On Apple Music. Time Crisis is a Beats Radio 1 created and hosted by Vampire Weekend frontman Ezra Koenig. Koenig covers music, as well as variety of other random topics. Every episode is a complete and total surprise. If you know who Ezra Koenig is, you’ll love this, and if you don’t know Ezra Koenig, well, you’ll still love this.