How We Heard It

Here are our favorite singers and bands from around the world!

The whole world is full of great music, so this week the "How We Heard It" guys travel the globe to unveil some of the artists who have caught their attention - from Latin America to Asia to Europe to Africa.
Some sing in English, some don't. Some play contemporary popular music you might hear throughout the United States and Great Britain, others don't. And some of these acts you might already know - including performers you may not realize aren't from an English-speaking country.
Find out how and why some of these artists have found their way into the Western conscience and how the show's hosts discovered some of the others.
It's a big world out there.

Music trends we hate!

Music is in a constant state of change, keeping it in line with shifts in popular culture overall as genres rise and fall in popularity and technology trends change how music is made and how we listen to it.
They say change is good, and often that's the case, but veteran music critics Wayne Bledsoe and Chuck Campbell and their musician friend John Baker have been irritated and incensed by some of these changes - some of them were just temporary bumps in the road and some of them have been permanently irritating.
On this week's "How We Heard It," the guys debate music trends that got under their skin and stayed there, including shifts in rock, pop, R&B, rap and country music as well as how music is produced on stage and in the studio.
And a special note to today's performers: Please stop singing with dead people. It's just creepy.

When terrible people make good art

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

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

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)

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!

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

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?

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

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.