For most parents, “Baby Shark” is the nightmare that will not end. Ever since the South Korean educational company Pinkfong released the song earlier this year, it’s almost impossible to avoid.
The infectious children’s tune has more than 2.3 billion views on YouTube and made it onto the Billboard Top 40 list. So what makes this song so catchy and irresistib ... Show More
Sep 15
The power of singing together (ft. Tiny Habits)
Throughout pop history, groups from The Ink Spots to the Beach Boys to Fleetwood Mac all forged their sound in the alchemy of vocal harmonies, harnessing the magic that happens when different voices join as one. Then suddenly, right around the 1980s, vocal harmonies started to wa ... Show More
40m 33s
Aug 25
Phoebe Bridgers opens her Moleskine
Many of us keep a journal, but few of us are able to turn our unvarnished thoughts into cultural moments touching on love, death, and guitars quite like Phoebe Bridgers. Her new album Lost Weekend isn’t just throwing the pages of her personal life into song, it’s much more than t ... Show More
36m 27s
Nov 2019
Baby Shark: From summer camp song to viral earworm
Baby Shark is a mega viral YouTube video, an unstoppable earworm, a top 40 hit, a Eurodance smash, a decades old campfire song, and the center of an international copyright dispute. In this episode from the podcast Decoder Ring, we explore the strange history of the song, what ma ... Show More
36m 1s
Aug 2022
The Worst Songs of all Time
From "Blurred Lines" to "Twinkle Twinkle Little Bitch," we look at some of the worst songs ever - while also questioning whether we can really be sure of "worst songs" in 2022, when the canon and our own tastes are in a constant state of reevaluation. Plus, a look at how pressure ... Show More
56m 34s