#14 - Good Life / Inner City

The 1970s were a period of intensifying fears about the rapid spread of technological complexity in the wake of environmental catastrophes such as the Three Mile Island accident and the popularity of dystopian sci-fi and 'tech-critical' books which warned that technology was already harming human wellbeing and would soon be out of control. In this context, then, what are we to make of the development of a musical style in the early 1980s known from the very start as Techno? And what of the fa...

Om Podcasten

Award-winning music analysis podcast, The Secret Life of Songs, returns with a new series exploring classic songs from the 1970s and 80s. Hear how the fallout from the disappointed hopes of the 1960s was explored in the work of Sly Stone and Joni Mitchell, how the unearthly new sounds unlocked by radical new music technology was used to express both utopian and dystopian impulses by Giorgio Moroder and the originators of Detroit Techno, and how the era’s most divisive cultural concept - postmodernism - was uncannily reflected in the output of the era’s most divisive pop band - ABBA. All of this - and more - is presented by host Anthony in his inimitable style: deftly weaving fine-grained musical analysis, historical context and philosophical reflection with his own impassioned recreations of the music to produce embodied, thoroughly grounded and deeply personal insights into these wonderful songs. 

Winner of the bronze award in 'Best Arts & Culture Podcast' at the British Podcast Awards 2021.