TopPodcast.com
Menu
  • Home
  • Top Charts
  • Top Networks
  • Top Apps
  • Top Independents
  • Top Podfluencers
  • Top Picks
    • Top Business Podcasts
    • Top True Crime Podcasts
    • Top Finance Podcasts
    • Top Comedy Podcasts
    • Top Music Podcasts
    • Top Womens Podcasts
    • Top Kids Podcasts
    • Top Sports Podcasts
    • Top News Podcasts
    • Top Tech Podcasts
    • Top Crypto Podcasts
    • Top Entrepreneurial Podcasts
    • Top Fantasy Sports Podcasts
    • Top Political Podcasts
    • Top Science Podcasts
    • Top Self Help Podcasts
    • Top Sports Betting Podcasts
    • Top Stocks Podcasts
  • Podcast News
  • About Us
  • Podcast Advertising
  • Contact
Not in our directory?
Add Show Here
Podcast Equipment
Center

toppodcastlogoOur TOPPODCAST Picks

  • Comedy
  • Crypto
  • Sports
  • News
  • Politics
  • True Crime
  • Business
  • Finance

Follow Us

toppodcastlogoStay Connected

    View Top 200 Chart
    Back to Rankings Page
    Music

    How We Heard It

    Veteran entertainment journalists, music columnists and longtime friends Wayne Bledsoe and Chuck Campbell host ”How We Heard It,” a breezy and sometimes offbeat take on how music and movies got to where they are today and where it’s all going.

    They break down who are the most promising Generation Z singers one minute and the next they debate who are the most overrated acts from the past. Sexy songs, soundtracks, controversies and weird movies find their way into the discussion, and they also weigh in with recommendations on who to hear and what to see in music and film from the past and present.

    Wayne and Chuck have more than 65 years of experience in professional journalism between them, but they don’t waste time indulging in scholarly breakdowns of their institutional knowledge. Instead, they share behind-the-scenes stories about their odd, funny, inspirational and embarrassing encounters with celebrities, managers, fans and readers. And they laugh at themselves and each other. A lot. Because being an entertainment journalist does that to you.

    An important third voice in the ”How We Heard It” podcast is engineer John Baker, himself a musician and producer who reins in Wayne and Chuck when they need it. John’s tastes are a little bit Wayne and a little bit Chuck, and he’s a friendly sort.

    Wayne’s primary role in his nearly four decades at the Knoxville News-Sentinel was his work as an entertainment writer and critic. He currently hosts ”The Six O’Clock Swerve” weekly radio show on WUTK, 90.3 FM in Knoxville, he’s a former Grammy nominee, and he’s an organizer of the annual concert series ”Waynestock: For the Love of Drew and Rylan.” He’s also an artist and unconventional garden writer – see more at www.waynebledsoe.com.

    Chuck started his career in journalism at the Daytona Beach News-Journal in Florida before joining the staff in Knoxville. He has reviewed more than 5,500 albums, and his column was distributed by the New York Times, Gannett, Cox News Service and the Scripps Howard News Service. He was an entertainment and travel editor in both Florida and Tennessee and a regional news planner for Gannett’s South Region.

    ”How We Heard It” is a Cozy Planet Productions podcast recorded at The Arbor Studio in Knoxville, Tennessee. Send requests, comments and suggestions to HowWeHeardIt@gmail.com

    Advertise

    Copyright: © Copyright 2024 All rights reserved.

    • Apple Podcasts
    • Google Play
    • Spotify

    Latest Episodes:
    When terrible people make good art Mar 08, 2025
    Show notes

    We're constantly passing judgment on others, even if subconsciously - including when we're deciding what movie to watch or what music to hear. The words and actions of celebrities are met with our approval and our disdain, coloring our interest in their work.

    It's no different for critics, who have to teach themselves to be fair and neutral when evaluating the work of performers. Or do they?

    In this week's episode of "How We Heard It," veteran entertainment critics Wayne Bledsoe and Chuck Campbell talk about the process of separating the artist from the art ... and what they've done when they just couldn't.


    We react to reaction videos: the good, the bad and the WTF Mar 01, 2025
    Show notes

    While searching and scrolling through music videos on YouTube, most of us have found ourselves watching videos of people watching the videos we came to see.

    And they're commenting and reviewing these videos, pausing them and replaying parts, sometimes talking over them and sometimes talking more about each other than about the videos.

    They typically claim to have never seen the music video before, and often to have never heard the song before. And some of them are obviously lying. Sometimes they don't know much of anything about their subject - and worse, sometimes they spread misinformation. These "reaction videos" can be irritating, insulting and infuriating.

    But when done correctly, the reaction video can be a beautiful experience, a chance to see and hear someone fall in love with a song or an artist you already love as younger folks feel the vibe of beloved older songs and as older folks find beauty in new artists ... and as people of different cultures broaden their horizons as they embrace the power of music.

    Not to get too meta, but this episode of "How We Heard It" finds veteran music writers Wayne Bledsoe and Chuck Campbell reacting to the videos of people reacting to music videos. They talk about how these videos get it right, how they get it wrong, and how they go completely off the rails.


    God, it's brutal out here Feb 22, 2025
    Show notes

    All the time they tried their best, is this the kind of thanks they get?

    Veteran journalists Chuck Campbell and Wayne Bledsoe have made careers of keeping up with and analyzing music, and in this episode of "How We Heard It," they unload on the pitfalls - like slogging through terrible albums, dealing with pushback from disgruntled fans and shaking their heads at undeserving bands and singers who became improbably famous.

    Joined by their engineer/musician friend John Baker, the guys talk about the value, or lack of value, of negative reviews, the impact of technology like Auto-Tune on music, the celebrity deaths that hit the hardest and that godawful Kars4Kids jingle.

    But at the end of the day, they still love music, and they explain how nothing hits like hearing a great song for the first time.


    These are the best comedians working today (plus some dead ones) Feb 15, 2025
    Show notes

    Veteran entertainment writers (and friends) Chuck Campbell and Wayne Bledsoe and their engineer/musician friend John Baker love a good laugh. So on this episode of "How We Heard It," they check off a list of the best comedians in the business these days.

    From the cleanest of the clean to the ones who constantly teeter on the line of getting cancelled, these comedians have all found their niches.

    In addition to sharing some of their favorite jokes by these celebrities, Chuck and Wayne talk about behind the scenes dirt, share the struggles they've had interviewing comedians and zero in on a couple of comics they just don't like.

    And of course Wayne dusts off the memories of comedians who are no longer with us. Wayne is gonna Wayne, after all.


    Here are our favorite love songs! Feb 08, 2025
    Show notes

    Most bands and singers do at least an occasional love song now and then, and love is the most common subject in popular music.

    But good love songs can be hard to find - some of the best singers aren't quite convincing as they try to manipulate us with formulaic schlock, and hardly anything is worse than a bad love song.

    So in this episode of "How We Heard It," veteran music critics Chuck Campbell and Wayne Bledsoe put their heads together to come up with a list of songs that actually capture the magic of love, from classic rock to modern pop plus a healthy group of diversions and surprises.

    Love is out there. You just have to look for it.


    Great short songs and why we love them Feb 01, 2025
    Show notes

    No offense to long songs, but sometimes you don't need to hear long intros, repetitive choruses, bridges, someone noodling around on a guitar and protracted outros.

    This week on "How We Heard It," veteran music journalists (and friends) Wayne Bledsoe and Chuck Campbell celebrate the beauty of short songs - they hit fast, they hit hard, and then they let you get on with your day.


    Grammy preview: Taylor Swift vs. Beyonce, or will someone else shine? Jan 25, 2025
    Show notes

    Veteran music critics Chuck Campbell and Wayne Bledsoe have spent decades arguing with each other, publicly and privately, about who should (and who would) win the Grammy Awards.

    On paper, the 2025 Grammys look like a showdown between the two biggest powerhouses of the day: Will pop music maverick Taylor Swift steamroll over the competition again to take home an unprecedented fifth Best New Album, or will Beyonce finally succeed by winning her first Best Album award (after four previous nominations) with her polarizing country album?

    Or are the Grammy voters sufficiently exhausted by the Taylor Swift vs. Beyonce hype to pivot to another winner? Billie Eilish is waiting in the wings, and both Chappell Roan and Sabrina Carpenter had amazing breakthough years. And somehow there's even a "new" Beatles song in the mix!

    Chuck and Wayne break it all down on this week's episode of "How We Heard It," analyzing how and why each contender could win or lose ... and of course, they argue.


    Humor and music: the union we all need Jan 18, 2025
    Show notes

    With rare exceptions, humans love to laugh and they love music. We differ on what we find funny and what kind of music we like, but when comedy and music come together, it can be magical.

    On this episode of "How We Heard It," the guys explore how humor has found its way into music, and vice versa, and how the two art forms are probably more united now than ever.

    Also this episode, "How We Heard It" welcomes guest Sneaky Pete Rizzo, a scientist and professor emeritus from Texas A&M as well as an accomplished musician who has more than dabbled in humor in music over the years. Pete, who has had many songs featured on the "Dr. Demento" radio show, talks about the glory days of novelty songs and how humor and music intertwine.


    These great ballads are good for the soul Jan 11, 2025
    Show notes

    On this episode of "How We Heard It," the guys talk about some of the greatest ballads in classic and modern pop music.

    Well, first they argue about what a ballad even is, but once they settle on a definition, they talk about how a performer's authenticity makes all the difference between a song that inspires you and a song that's just generic garbage.

    If you've ever been moved by a song and you can't explain why, maybe this can help you figure it out!


    How Hollywood can fix the movie industry Jan 04, 2025
    Show notes

    The movie industry has buckled under intense challenges in recent years - including a devastating pandemic that shut down theaters for months, labor strikes that disrupted the production process and release schedules, a glut of streaming services that fragmented distribution ... and not least of all, a lack of innovative thinking at the top, where the same basic movies are constantly being greenlighted to lukewarm (or even cold) reception.

    In this episode of "How We Heard It," veteran entertainment journalists and longtime movie fans Wayne Bledsoe and Chuck Campbell dissect where the film industry keeps getting it wrong and what it's doing right to keep hope alive.

    Spoiler alert: The world doesn't need all these comic-book-based movies. Also, some of best ideas these days are coming from, improbably enough, horror films ...


    Previous 1 7 8 9 10 11 12 Next

    Related Podcasts

    Twenty Thousand Hertz

    1

    Twenty Thousand Hertz Arts
    NPR Music

    2

    NPR Music Music
    Here’s The Thing with Alec Baldwin

    3

    Here’s The Thing with Alec Baldwin Arts
    Drink Champs

    4

    Drink Champs Music
    Soundtracking with Edith Bowman

    5

    Soundtracking with Edith Bowman Music
    Red FM Bauaa

    6

    Red FM Bauaa Music
    footer-logo

    Contact Us

    Toll Free: 844-670-7747

    Links

    • Home
    • Top Charts
    • Networks
    • Apps
    • Independents Podcasts
    • Podcast Advertising
    • Podcast News
    • Contact Us
    • About Us
    • Analytics & Insights

    Stay Connected

      Privacy, Terms of Use & Our Code of Ethics Protecting Content Creators Copyrights