Nevermind the Music

What makes a song feel scary? This week, we welcome podcaster (Horror Movie Night) and musician (Ichabod Crane) Scott Roger to our first ever Halloween episode! Scott guides us through the classic tunes of the spooky season, especially from the teen pop craze of the late-1950’s and early-1960’s. We ...

This month’s Rewind finds a lot of commonality between the chord shenanigans in “Hold On” and this week’s throwback from Season 1! Was this song written just for this podcast? Tears for Fears’ 1985 smash “Everybody Wants to Rule the World” is so perfect that even the band name is a psychology refere...

Is nepotism a key part of a good nineties pop anthem? This week we reach for Wilson Phillips’ inspirational 1990 hit “Hold On.” Nichole explains how some songs you love give you different doses of dopamine, at different times and different regions of the brain, as the song unfolds. Mark shows us how...

Oh, no, another episode of Mark’s music? Sadly, yes! In this episode, Nichole listens to the eight new NTM mini-themes, and pitches which corporate sponsors each music bumper would best lead into. Is this a tongue-in-cheek bit or is Mark still trying to pay off these fancy microphones? Believe it or...

What’s the sweet spot between challenge and comfort? This week we tackle Journey’s 1980 anthem “Any Way You Want It.” After knocking Mark down a notch because of his taste in early-oughts literary fiction, Nichole relates this song to the so-called arousal and flow theories of motivation. Mark expla...

How long can the pop stars survive? In this episode, we debut our first ever NTM draft game! Welcoming back two all-star guests, Bree Thomas (“Mariah Carey Girl” from episode 60) and Chris Fafalios (from Punchline, One Hit Thunder, and episode 76), we each battle to build a team of former child musi...

Here in season 3, we’re starting a new feature! Once per month, we’ll be turning back the clock and showcasing an episode from our back catalog! This month, we callback to one of our favorites from Season 1! Wait, was “Undone” really the most popular early Weezer song? In this epic episode we unrave...

Are the voices in your head auto-tuned? We start season 3 off with bang with Brtiney Spears’ 2007 electro-pop hit “Piece of Me.” Mark takes us through how the melodic outlines of this track’s robotic backing vocals help shape the song’s pacing. Nichole comes in hot with some fancy terms, looking at ...

What words do we overuse? What happens if Taylor Swift were to write lyrics to our theme music? The circle of what exactly? In this final Sidetrack of Season 2, we celebrate the end of an era by quizzing each other! Who’s coming out on top? We wrap by asking each other some earnest questions about o...

If I would, could you? This week, our hosts do another over-the-top deep dive to close Season 2, this time focusing on the dreary 1992 grunge epic “Would?” by Alice in Chains. Nichole takes us through the stages of the transtheoretical model of change, looking through the lens of recovery from addic...