For our second annual Mystery Sound competition, we’ve rounded up the 20 best sounds from the past year, and invited the hosts of Underunderstood to test their ears in a competitive guessing game. So bust out those Q-tips, turn up your headphones, and prepare to guess along as we find out who will be the ultimate Mystery Sound Champion.
If you’re a human being, chances are, you know someone who is a big time snorer. You're falling asleep to the gentle sounds of crickets, and then BAM, you hear a snore that sounds like an angry troll. So who was the first snorer? And why is snoring still so popular after all these years? This story, which is definitely about snoring, comes from the podcast Endless Thread.
There are a few specific chord progressions that show up again and again in popular music. Across hundreds of hit songs, the same basic musical formulas have been used by artists ranging from Lynyrd Skynyrd to Lady Gaga, and from Bob Marley to Blink-182. So where did these musical tropes even come from, and what makes them so enduring? Featuring music journalist Jennifer Gersten and comedic musician Benny Davis.
Since their founding almost a century ago, Shure has created some of the most iconic microphones ever made. In this episode, we worked with Shure to tell the story of the SM7 dynamic microphone: from its humble beginnings in voiceover studios in the early 70s, to its use on classic albums, to its rediscovery by podcasters and streamers.
The melodic fanfare that introduces every 20th Century Fox movie was first composed almost a hundred years ago. Since then, it's become one of the most enduring and recognizable pieces of music in modern history. It's survived company acquisitions, competition from television, and changing trends in Hollywood. But nothing lasts forever. Featuring interviews with Academy Award-nominated composer David Newman and film historian Aubrey Solomon.
After composer Eric Whitacre finished Virtual Choir number 5 in 2018, he thought the project might be done for good. But 2020 was just around the corner, and the Virtual Choir was far from over. For our last episode of the year, we've re-edited and remixed our episode about the Virtual Choir, and added a brand new section to bring the story up to the present.
Alan Lomax believed that the culture of poor Americans was important and worthy of saving. So he spent decades traveling the American South to record obscure musicians on their front porches, in churches, even in prisons. Today, he's considered an American icon, but the road to becoming a legend wasn't an easy one. Featuring Southern Historical Collection archivist Chaitra Powell, American Folklife Center curator Todd Harvey, and filmmaker Rogier Kappers.
