Song Exploder and Dissect Review

The transcription discusses two music podcasts: Dissect and Song Exploder. Dissect analyzes hip-hop albums in great detail, while Song Exploder interviews artists from various genres to understand their creative process. Dissect focuses on analyzing the context and meaning of songs, while Song Exploder allows artists to explain their artistic style firsthand. Dissect is hosted solely by Cole Kuchna, while Song Exploder cuts out the host's parts to focus more on the artist. Both podcasts offer valuable insights into music and are recommended for music enthusiasts. Ya, by Kendrick Lamar, is one of the many songs discussed on the show Deck Deck, which is a Spotify-exclusive podcast focused mainly on hip-hop music. The episode discussing this song was one of the first episodes of the show that I listened to, and its attention to detail and in-depth analysis of the song made it so that I couldn't stop the listening there. In this podcast, I want to talk about two of my favorite shows, Dissect and Song Explorer. While the shows do have obvious similarities in that they both discuss various songs, they also have different aspects that make them unique and bring different perspectives to the table. Dissect, hosted by Cole Kuchna, is a music podcast which takes albums by various artists and breaks them down song by song throughout a season. The albums looked at are usually hip-hop albums that were released fairly recently. They tend to be albums by well-known artists that most people have heard, assuming that they listen to the hip-hop genre. Kuchna has analyzed albums by artists such as Kanye West, Kendrick Lamar, Childish Gambino, and is currently in the middle of a season about Tyler, the Creator's album, Igor. The way that Kuchna goes about analyzing an artist's music is one of the main reasons that I think Dissect has become such a popular show. Throughout each episode in a season, he describes the stance or direction that an album is taking line by line and explains even the smallest details. I really enjoy how he makes sure that the listeners have the opportunity to understand each little part of a song. If a song uses a sample or has multiple meanings as stated by the artist, Kuchna makes sure that the context is included in the episode. Dissect has also never featured another artist or anyone other than Kuchna himself on an episode, which I think is a testament to how hard he works on putting out an in-depth analysis of sometimes extremely complex albums. Kuchna makes a good point about musical analysis in an interview where he says, Here are my thoughts on criticism. Sometimes art doesn't need it, and frankly, I don't have time to criticize. We already give too little of our time to art as it is. I'd rather not waste that time on critiquing. If it's something created with honesty, let's meet it with respect and openness. Let's let it say what it has to say without judgment. I think that in recent times, we haven't lended enough time to music listening and getting out of it what the artists want us to. We are in an era of snippets and clips, which is why I find Dissect to be an important resource for getting the whole story of a song. Kuchna stated that he was a musical composition major in college, where he'd researched the composer, their life, the social and political climate at the time of writing the piece. These skills he honed during his education translated over to hip-hop and are used to explain the context of the albums covered on Dissect. Unlike Dissect, Song Exploder, which is hosted by Rishikesh Hurway, deals with artists that fall under all sorts of genres. Hurway has interviewed the likes of Fleetwood Mac, Rick Astley, John Lennon, and Arlo Parks, who is a personal favorite of mine. Unlike Dissect, each episode of Song Exploder is dedicated to a specific artist who was actually brought on to the show and interviewed about their music and its style. I think that the show is very based around the question of, how did this music come to be? I find each episode to be quite intriguing as it's the artists themselves kind of explaining their artistic process and how their style came about. It's one thing to have an expert analyze what an artist is saying in their work, like in Dissect, but it's another to hear about it firsthand from the artist. Song Exploder gives listeners a door into the mind of the artist and a front row seat into their creative process, which is a rare thing to get. The other thing that makes Song Exploder unique is that Hurway often cuts out parts where he is speaking or asking questions, making it more focused on the artist and what they have to say. It speaks to the selflessness of Hurway and how he simply wants to make a quality podcast that takes a deep dive into an artist's music. He doesn't care about the recognition he would get from keeping his parts in, but he cares more about making sure that the episodes are as clear and concise as they can be. Although he does get much more recognition in the Netflix adapted Song Exploder show, which goes to show the popularity that the show has garnered in recent years. The TV series serves sort of the same purpose that the podcast does, but I don't think that it can match the images created in my head when I listen to the podcast. Dissect and Song Exploder are my go-to music podcasts because of the different things that they bring to the table which help me expand my music knowledge and understanding of an artist's work. When I want a super detailed analysis of a specific piece of work, I go to Dissect, which wraps up an entire album and its songs in a present and puts a bow on the top at the end by relating and providing context to the album and its ending. Dissect is a resource that everyone should use if they want to be able to really hear the music instead of having it go in one ear and out the other. But when I want to understand more about the artist and their process, I tend to lean toward Song Exploder, which allows me to feel in touch with the artist's style and vision for their music. Song Exploder breaks down the artist themselves along with some of their music rather than focusing on a specific album and its themes. If I want to know more about something like the background music or how the artist went about producing their music, Song Exploder gives me a look into this and other aspects of the artist's discography. But in general, both of these podcasts provide interesting and insightful information as to what goes on in an artist's music, and they are both excellent options if you're looking for a quality podcast about music. Thank you for listening to my music podcast review, and I hope that if you're looking to expand your music taste, you give one of these shows a try. Thanks for listening!