MODERN MUSICOLOGY
Modern Musicology covers topics on rock and pop ranging mostly from 70s, 80s and 90s (with occasional excursions into 60s and 00s). Anything is fair game -- classic rock, R&B, folk, punk, prog, rap, metal, and more. Hosted by DJ and author Rob Levy, solo artist and former Aquanettas drummer Stephanie Seymour, drummer and author R. Alan Siler, and guy from London Anthony Williams.
Episodes
It's our final episode of 2025! It's also our Holiday episode, AND it's our 3rd Anniversary!
This week we celebrate the musical traditions of the season! What makes a great Christmas song? What are some of our favorites? What are some of the best music-related Christmas gifts we've received in the past? We also impart some advice on gift-giving for the music lovers in our lives!
And finally, we take a look back at our past year and...
Everybody loves 80s movies, right? This week we are joined by author and film historiian John Malahy, whose new book Rewinding the 80s: Cinema Under the Influence of Music Videos, Action Stars, and a Cold War was released October 2025, to talk about the great soundtracks of the decade, from Top Gun, Flashdance, Lost Boys and Gorgio Moroder's weird new version of Metropolis, to the rise of pop stars Prince, Madonna, Cyndi Lauper and...
We've got a fun one for you this week! Stephanie leads the Modern Musicology gang in a discussion of our favorite TV Theme Songs! We each select five of our favorite themes, give a little story behind it, and say why we love it. Our discussion covers everything from sci-fi, police and medical dramas to game shows and kids shows, encompassing funk, rock, jazz, soul, orchestral, kitsch, and the absolutely absurd.
The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame held their 2025 induction ceremony was held on November 8, and Rob and Alan are here to review it all! The 2025 class of inductees are:
Performer Category:
- Bad Company
- Chubby Checker
- Joe Cocker
- Cyndi Lauper
- Outkast
- Soundgarden
- The White Stripes
Musical Influence Award:
- ...
Remember the days when you would sit around with your friends and play records for each other? Well, that's what we do on this week's Modern Musicology! To celebrate Anthony's 38th birthday, he shares with us 20 songs that he loves and gets our reaction to them. Anthony's tastes range from pop to metal, from prog to rap, with some kitsch and silliness along the way. We'll hear songs by bands that you'd expect from Anthony, like Mar...
ACE FREHLEY
On October 16, 2025 one of the most influential guitarists in the history of rock - ACE FREHLEY of KISS - passed away at the age of 74. Court Lewis and Matt Alschbach of the Rock and Metal Profs Podcast join us to share memories of Ace and talk about his impact on the musical landscape. We share our favorite songs, favorite solos, favorite concert memories, and a few funny stories along the way.
Rob, Alan, and Stephanie -- joined by our buddy JM Tuffley -- go on a bit of a passionate, cathartic rant about a topic that really gets under our skin: TICKET PRICES! Trust me, we have a lot to say on this topic! We rage against the machine on subjects like exorbitant prices, ridiculous handling fees, long wait times, server crashes, and we try to suss out the root cause of all of this. We feel so much better having gotten this of...
This week we're joined by two friends of the show, Daniel Pierce and Tillman Smoot, to talk all things Taylor Swift! We review Taylor's new album, The Life of a Showgirl, plus all the things around it -- the talk show appearances, the "Fate of Ophelia" music video, the cinema listening party, and more. How does this album rate amongst her previous ones? How does the "Ophelia" video rank against other albums' lead singles? Plus, we'...
After a 52-year absence, Buckingham Nicks,the debut album by Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks, has finally been reissued in a newly remastered form. We're joined by author Steven Cooper to talk about the album and Lindsey and Stevie's journey from obscurity to international superstardom in Fleetwood Mac, and Steven tells us his story of meeting Stevie. Plus we talk a little about the solo careers of some of the other Fleetwood M...
We pay a visit to the year 1995 to talk about some of the music that was released that year. Anthony gives us the lowdown on the metal and prog scene at the time; Stephanie shares stories from her time at Virgin Records; Rob catches us up on the electronic scene, Alan fills us in on what a few legacy acts are getting up to at this point in their career; and the whole gang talks about the battle for radio supremacy between the two b...
All About That BASS!
Anthony leads the Modern Musicology crew in a discussion about the masters of the bottom end, the foundation of the band, the bringers of the thunder -- BASS PLAYERS! We highlight some of the best players in rock, metal, soul, and funk by sharing our favorite songs that open with unaccompanied bass parts! We've got examples from Metallica, Prince, Motorhead, Porcupine Tree, Van Halen, and more. And of course, ...
With Oasis in the midst of a major reunion tour, a fantastic new album from Pulp (their first in 25 years) and Suede (released on September 5), recent albums by Blur, James, and Kaiser Chiefs, the popularity of BritPop is at an all-time high. In this week's episode, Rob, Stephanie and Alan talk a little about where BritPop came from, being involved in the music biz when BritPop bands were making their first splashes in America, fav...
This week the Modern Musicologists are joined once again by our good buddy Matt Alschbach from the Rock and Metal Profs podcast, this time to talk about the brand new Billy Joel documentary, And So It Goes. Our conversation covers Billy's musical origins, his influence on the musical landscape, the new things we learned from this film, and we each talk about our favorite songs / albums / eras from Billy's career. If you haven't see...
This week the Modern Musicologists, joined by our very good friend Matt Alschbach, look back at the life, career, and legacy of OZZY OSBOURNE, who passed away on 22 July 2025. We each talk about how we first discovered Ozzy, some of our favorite eras / albums / songs, our reactions to his final concert just two weeks before he passed, and Matt tells us about seeing Ozzy live in the 80s.
Our wayback machine is broken, so we're still stuck in the year 1985! But it's okay, because there was some really great music in the second half of that year! We'll be talking about iconic albums by Kate Bush, REM, John Cougar Mellencamp, KISS, Dio, Big Audio Dynamite, The Firm, The Replacements, Iron Maiden, Simple Minds, Stevie Nicks, and many others!
As always, you can follow along with our discussion by checking out our accom...
This week we turn our musical chronometer back 40 years to talk about the albums that were released in 1985! Because it was such a huge year, we're doing two shows, and in Part 1 we're tackling January - June. We share funny stories and fond memories relating to albums by Talking Heads, Dire Straits, Tears for Fears, Heart, the Hooters, Run-D.M.C., Megadeth, Marillion, the Smiths, and even Hoodoo Guru and Pseudo Echo (remember them...
July 13 is the 40th Anniversary of LIVE AID, one of the greatest rock festivals of all time! We each share our memories of watching it live on the day, the excitement that surrounded the event, and some of the stories behind bands that didn't appear for various reasons. Each of us has picked our five favorite performances / bands / moments to talk about at length, and we mention some of the lowlights as well (and yes, there were a ...
In nearly every case when you see a classic band in concert now, it's not the original line-up. Does that dampen your experience? Many legacy bands currently on the road are down to only one original member--and a few have none. Is it still the band if no one who started that band or wrote the iconic music is involved? Is there a key member whose absence has too great an impact? Rob and Alan discuss those questions and more in this...
We all can think of those artists or bands that we feel went just one album too far (and sometimes more!) and what might have been a great ending, capping off an iconic career, is undermined by a less-than-stellar follow-up. This week Anthony and Alan talk about some of the examples they came up with -- including Metallica, Weezer, Fleetwood Mac, Heart, Marillion, October Project, Asia, Judas Priest, Queen, Black Sabbath, and a who...
This week Rob and Alan chat with author Iain Key about his new book All the Young Punks: A People's History of the Clash, an oral history of one of the most seminal bands in modern music. Iain is well-known to Louder Than War regulars as the presenter of his own Indie Brunch show on Louder Than War Radio, and in his first foray as a published author, he indulges his fascination with his favourite Punk icons to great effect. In our ...
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