Hosted by Hrishikesh Hirway Language English Production Hrishikesh Hirway | Genre Music Updates Biweekly Debut January 1, 2014 | |
Song Exploder is a music podcast hosted and produced by Hrishikesh Hirway. The biweekly show features musicians talking about the creative process behind an individual song while "deconstructing" the song into its component parts. The songs highlighted on the program have belonged to genres ranging from pop to hardcore punk to television theme songs, film scores and video game music. The podcast launched on the Maximum Fun network, went independent in February 2015 and joined Radiotopia in June 2015.
Contents
Format
Each episode begins with Hirway introducing the show's featured musician (or musicians) and giving a brief history of the musical act or television program with which they are associated. Then the artist discusses the creative process used in the creation of a particular song. This may include anything from songwriting to recording to post-production. The discussion is interspersed with short clips of separate tracks from the song isolated to illustrate the topics being discussed. For example, the drum track might be played to demonstrate how a particular beat was used in the song. The episode then ends by playing a recording of the featured song in its entirety.
Notable episodes
Song Exploder has explored the music of several notable artists, including Björk, Iggy Pop, MGMT, Weezer, The Postal Service, Ghostface Killah, Wilco, Spoon, and U2. It has also deconstructed the theme songs to the television programs Bob's Burgers, House of Cards, Last Week Tonight, Downton Abbey, Game of Thrones, and Transparent.
Song Exploder has also explored music from the scores of the films The Imitation Game, Avengers: Age of Ultron, and The Martian. It has also deconstructed music from the video game Watch Dogs.
Reception
Pete Naughton of The Daily Telegraph called Song Exploder an "excellent podcast" and placed it on his list of top music podcasts in August 2014. The A.V. Club praised the podcast's "beautiful production and thoughtful editing" in June 2014. It has also received favorable reviews from Spin, Gizmodo, Slate, and The Atlantic.